Strangest AI behavior yet

[Satyr]

I am playing a game as Almo, expert, early. The Byz own the turkish pennisula and most of russia. The Egyptians are pretty much where they started. On one turn, the Byz completely abandon all provinces in the turkish pennisula up to constantinople. Egypt of course rolls right in and soon is threatening all of the byz holdings and has become # 2 in the game behind me. The byz were having some problems with revolts and so maybe decided to consolidate some, but to just give away that much territory (half) is crazy. You guys ever seen this sort of behavior before? Cause I sure haven't.

[Naagi]

Could it have been a civil war maybe? Dont know the AI is sometimes quirky.

Naagi http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Musashi]

The Byz AI will sacrifice absolutely anything to retain Constantinople. If that was threatened it would explain it.

-Musashi

[Satyr]

Actually they about abandoned constantinople also. They were fighting with the russians and the rebels up there. They were having lots of rebellions in those territories and I think they just pulled all their troops up there in an attempt to quell them, but in the process let egypt roll all those territories unchallenged.

[Kraellin]

if the byz and egyptians had an alliance, then the byz might consider the turkish peninsula 'back lines' and safe to leave open, thinking the egyptians are their friends. dunno, that's the best i can explain it. the ai is smart enough to move protected map border units out to the front lines, so maybe they also do it when an alliance says it's safe to do so.

K.

[Grifman]

The Byzantine AI is stupid. It will expand at any cost north to Russia, but totally ignore the gathering Turkish or Egyptian horde on its borders - until it is too late.

However, before we go on too much about stupid AI's we need to oftentimes look at the stupidity of real life. In real life the Empire, even after losing at Manzikert could have done much better. Instead, with a major threat on its borders (the Turks) it engaged in a senseless civil war, in which those same Turks were often used mercenaries by both sides. Oftentimes, the Turks garrisoned were used to garrison various cities/forts, which they could have never seized on their own by siege, and then promptly defected or revolted on their own behalf, stiffing both sides. This is one of the reasons they spread so rapidly over Asia Minor after Manzikert.

So oftentimes, even humans can be as dumb as a computer AI . . .

Grifman

[Lehesu]

My theory is that a swarm of Pokemon were suddenly unleashed in the peninsula. The Byzantines, fighting them at the Battle of Pikachu, lost royally, the defeat becoming a rout to constantinople. Upon reaching Constantinople, the Byzantines found that their capital had been infiltrated by Pokemon Secret Service (PSS). The Byzantines than immediately rush to Russia, which, for centuries, has had a "Kill all Pokemon on sight" rule. The PSS and Pokemon forces destroy the Byzantines and then vanish into the haze.......WHEN WILL THEY STRIKE NEXT??

[hoom]

In my current campaign as Germany, I had stalled my eastward expansion for some consolidation and seen the Byzantines sweep north along my eastern borders.
Then the Egyptians started attacking them from the south and how do the Byzantines react?

They flipping invade me and fight a bunch of nasty attrition battles at great cost to both of us while completely failing to defend their southern borders from the invading Muslim hordes??

OK, so I actually used pretty much the same technique earlier in the same campaign when I was defeated badly to the south east (can't remember who by, it's been a slow campaign interrupted by exams/assignments, Turkey? and or the Italians).
I sent most of my force and reinforcements not to the south, but to the west to invade Frances' few but well defended provinces.
Why?
Because a substantial portion of my force was taken up defending my western flank due to a war with France and by defeating France, I was able to garrison the English channel then divert my full force to the south, where the invasion had nearly reached the core of my empire.
With the newly redeployed forces, I was able to push back the invasion all the way to where it had started and a bit more http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[TheViking]

its always like that when i play sp.

in my last campain i was egypt the HRE had all from east france to black sea from north sea to mediterenian sea.

It was more then i had so i thout finally i will have big battles. but next turn HRE got a massrebellion left with only 5 territorys spread all over the place. Its not fun at all. If the massrebellion happen to me too i wouldnt matter but it doesnt and i play on hard

B4 patch i could always rely on the Almos to put up a big fight with me. But now Egypts and spain crush them and then they get crushed by rebells.

I heard many complain that the Almos are like the Hojo in shogun. But this game really need a faction like that so there are any challenge in SP.

And they should try to get the AI smarter in next patch or atleast in next addon or game

[econ21]

I'll second Grifman's observation about the Biz AI. In my games, it often wanders off into Eastern Europe and needlessly vacates Asia Minor. It is annoying, as Byzantine would be a good trading partner for my English or HRE (who typically are supposed to crusade against the Moslems).

I also agree with the Viking about Almohads. Post-patch, I miss them. The Spaniards almost always seem to steamroller them now, causing problems for my Catholic nations whose crusading glorious objectives become unobtainable as the Spanish storm through to the Holy Lands. I much prefer the Almohads threatening Western Christiandom and a Moslem Middle East to crusade against. (Of course, these are in-game comments as an England/HRE player, not real-life political/religious ones&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif