Tamur
10-13-2006, 22:36
After playing Agincourt three times I was ready for a change, and wanted to see how pathfinding worked in more difficult areas. So, my army went wandering.
1 My first don't-just-stand-there battle was to pull back to the hill behind the English initial starting position and defend it. I ended up with VERY few casualties except for two units of archers which I had to sacrifice to keep the French off my back while setting up.
Conclusion: the combination of steep hill and archer fire made most of the French units rout within two minutes of initial contact. Fighting downhill did seem to offer very significant hit & kill rate benefits, while fighting uphill (which I did just to try it) was very hard and without flanking I would have lost a unit. Good news so far.
2 The second was to pull back and go a bit to the left of the hill, to the small farm. There I set up amongst the walls, with my archers in the middle and infantry plugging the wall holes.
Conclusion: pathfinding in the fairly complex walls environment was excellent. The AI actually tried attacking from two angles, quite the surprise because of the heavy scripting. That may simply have been luck though with the way I arranged my troops. Finally, once I got the French stopped just outside the walls of the farm and they bunched up into a horde, the archers cut them down more effectively than when the French were on the run.
3 Third, I pushed my troops to run all the way up to the cliffs by the windmills, then lined my archers up along the cliff face and put infantry at both ends to protect them. The AI tried again attacking from both sides of the cliff at once with all three waves of infantry.
Conclusion: longbows, though they have good range from flat ground, have truly phenomenal range from a height like that. I'll have to estimate distance difference at some point but it was quite impressive. Also, pathfinding around the cliff sides was again very good, no weird lines against which it looked like troops were squished. Fighting downhill again seemed to give a distinct advantage. And, finally, French units fall very nicely off of clifftops ~:)
4 Fourth, I pulled my troops up to the clifftop and then ran them all the way over to Agincourt town where they set up inside the town itself. I lost a unit of knights and one of bowmen during the run because they were flanked by the charging French. When I got set up in the town, my men were "Tired", but the French were as well so we still won.
Conclusion: pathfinding in the town was flawless, which was a huge relief. Fatigue does not seem to accumulate quite as quickly as in MTW. It is difficult to tell what effect it has because both armies were equally fatiged at engagement.
All in all, it's been great fun to go "off script" with Agincourt. These maps may be only slightly larger than RTW's, but they feel huge with the variety of objects and terrain in them. I have yet to explore behind the French starting position, the church on the hill north of Agincourt town, and quite a bit of territory inbetween.
I imagine one could do the same thing at Pavia, but the enemy are so much closer it would probably be quite difficult to pull of well.
1 My first don't-just-stand-there battle was to pull back to the hill behind the English initial starting position and defend it. I ended up with VERY few casualties except for two units of archers which I had to sacrifice to keep the French off my back while setting up.
Conclusion: the combination of steep hill and archer fire made most of the French units rout within two minutes of initial contact. Fighting downhill did seem to offer very significant hit & kill rate benefits, while fighting uphill (which I did just to try it) was very hard and without flanking I would have lost a unit. Good news so far.
2 The second was to pull back and go a bit to the left of the hill, to the small farm. There I set up amongst the walls, with my archers in the middle and infantry plugging the wall holes.
Conclusion: pathfinding in the fairly complex walls environment was excellent. The AI actually tried attacking from two angles, quite the surprise because of the heavy scripting. That may simply have been luck though with the way I arranged my troops. Finally, once I got the French stopped just outside the walls of the farm and they bunched up into a horde, the archers cut them down more effectively than when the French were on the run.
3 Third, I pushed my troops to run all the way up to the cliffs by the windmills, then lined my archers up along the cliff face and put infantry at both ends to protect them. The AI tried again attacking from both sides of the cliff at once with all three waves of infantry.
Conclusion: longbows, though they have good range from flat ground, have truly phenomenal range from a height like that. I'll have to estimate distance difference at some point but it was quite impressive. Also, pathfinding around the cliff sides was again very good, no weird lines against which it looked like troops were squished. Fighting downhill again seemed to give a distinct advantage. And, finally, French units fall very nicely off of clifftops ~:)
4 Fourth, I pulled my troops up to the clifftop and then ran them all the way over to Agincourt town where they set up inside the town itself. I lost a unit of knights and one of bowmen during the run because they were flanked by the charging French. When I got set up in the town, my men were "Tired", but the French were as well so we still won.
Conclusion: pathfinding in the town was flawless, which was a huge relief. Fatigue does not seem to accumulate quite as quickly as in MTW. It is difficult to tell what effect it has because both armies were equally fatiged at engagement.
All in all, it's been great fun to go "off script" with Agincourt. These maps may be only slightly larger than RTW's, but they feel huge with the variety of objects and terrain in them. I have yet to explore behind the French starting position, the church on the hill north of Agincourt town, and quite a bit of territory inbetween.
I imagine one could do the same thing at Pavia, but the enemy are so much closer it would probably be quite difficult to pull of well.