anybody else anooyed by......part 2

[solypsist]

in the other thread i complained about the lack of imagination on the part of the AI when it comes to building armies. we've all faced uesugi and his all-archer army, but the trend seems to be every daimyo is getting in on the act in one way or another.
during one of my campaigns, i ran into (1) all-archer armies by Takeda, Ueusigi, Imagawa. (2) All cav armies by Shimazu.
Here is a screenshot of what i mean, i had to take it in a weird, multiple view panoramic style, so there's a bit of strangeness, but i helpfully circled the offending units, which all happen to be naginata cav except for a few foot units and the daimyo himself. this sucks, guys, and i hope EA can do something to get the AI to build more balanced armies in the future.
http://solypsist.homestead.com/files/nagcavpanorama.jpg

[jomni]

Yup I am currently playing Mongols and I am usually intercepted with archer/crossbow armies. Of course I creamed them with my MHC. AI's not smart in building armies. But in custom battles, if you choose the "random" mode, the AI is able to build sort of a balanced army. I guess the AI in the campaign is so desperate in recuiting troops that he picks the cheapest and the fastest ones to build.

[Moriboy]

Hey Soly,

I don't have the expansion set yet, but I've noticed the same thing with the old version, especially with Shimazu! I found it commonplace after a while that either Hyuga or Osumi was the Shimazu equestrian center. I get there only to find a citadel full of yari cav & cav archers. Talk about a pain! I've also run up against the Uesugi archer hoard as well. Curiously, those were the only two clans I found that exhibit that particular bug.

[Hosakawa Tito]

I've never seen the all Nag Cav army yet,but you are right about the AI clans building unbalanced armies.It does become tiresome,and makes the AI easier to beat.Of all the unbalanced armies,I think that Nag Cav one would be tough to beat,especially if you didn't know what you were facing before hand.I hope they will fix this in a patch.
Soly,can you remember if this was a single stack army,or is it a combination of multiple smaller armies?I think when the AI uses the latter,it takes the forces commanded by the top general,and then fills in the rest from other armies in the region by highest honor.I don't think need of more missile units or melee units to achieve operational balance is taken into account.This may be one reason we see such things as you have illustrated.However,it still wouldn't explain the unbalance in provinces that have only one army group.

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Diplomacy is the art of telling someone to go to hell so that they look forward to making the trip.

[TosaInu]

Nice army, 1 or 2 more yarisam might be nice though.

[solypsist]

The province I attacked in the screenshot contained two banners, nearly both full. Incidentally, I ended up retreating and buying one of them off. The result left me with a naginata cav heavy banner which subsequently attacked the other naginata cav heavy banner, but resulted in a victory. So both banners were originally off balance.

Moriboy, it's common in the original STW for the AI to build lots of units that it specializes in, which is why you get archer armies for Uesugi and Ashi armies for Hojo. But in STW:WE this sort of goes out the window and the AI just mass produces whatever it feels like, otherwise Shimazu would be No-Dachi heavy, or Takeda would be horse-heavy rather than archers.