What strange things have the AI done to you?

Over the weekend, I was attempting to play out the final stages of my ongoing campaign and the AI did some strange things.

Every year over the course of at least 7 years, rebels have arisen in two formerly Muslim provinces. That in itself is rather annoying, but what was strange is that for five straight years in a row the AI gave the rebels 16 units of seige equipment like ballista or mangonels. All it takes is to start marching toward them and the rebels abandon the equipment and flee. You speed up the game and then win. I tried to automate the battle, but the AI would kill between 15 and 30 of my men. If I command the attack personally, I don't lose anyone. It's just annoying that I have to respond to each of these rebellions personally.

It's even worse now because I took two more Muslim provinces and now they are rebelling every year. The AI has added archers in addition to the seige engines, but they still basically run away because my occupying forces outnumber them so much.

After supressing rebellion after rebellion, the AI then sprang a whole new surprise on me.

I eliminated the Egyptians several years ago, but they decided to re-emerge as a faction. When they did, almost all of the rebels in my conquered provinces suddenly became Egyptians. When they re-emerged, they attacked 13 different provinces simultaneously (including two that they never had had previously and which do not have a significant Muslim population).

I had to do some dramatic shuffling of my troops to take on each of these attacks, and I did have to abandon one province under the assumption I will take it back in the very near future.

It just seems strange to have 9,000 to 10,000 troops just suddenly appear within your borders to attack you. You'd think someone in those provinces might have noticed.

I ran out of time and couldn't resolve all of these attacks, so I am now waiting for a moment when I can sit down and resolve 13 different battles in a row. I can't auto-calc the battles because most of them are just too evenly matched in numbers, and I don't want to take those losses.

If I had been playing a person rather than the machine, I don't think he/she would have been able to do what the machine is doing.

Anyone else have some wierd experiences with the AI?

Just curious.

The only weird thing I can recall was the AI setup for a bridge battle in STW (I think). The AI formed its army in two long lines of units and every unit was in one-rank formation I may have a screenshot of that lying around somewhere.

I had a similar problem with these mass rebellions.
Keep your king central.
He won't be able to push the attack on the frontiers, but it may minimise the number of rebellions.

Weird AI - How about 4000+ Egyptians running in front of 1000 similar ability troops? Odd...

the strangest thing that the AI has done was when the French declared a crusade against me as the Almohads. and by the time it got to my territory it stalled, i waited and waited but it just sat there one province away. i eventually decided to attack and when i did there were two armies (the crusaders and the local armies of the Spanish). But instede of attacking me the crusaders charged the spainish it was so funny to watch the two beat the crap outta each other. i might have a screenshot of that hanging around. ill take a look later. as anyone ever had this happen?

I've had factions attack me one turn, ask for a ceasefire the next turn, I say okay, they attack me again in the next turn, then ask for another ceasefire. They did it to me twice in the same game about 100 years apart.

There's countless other little oddities I've seen that I just can't think of off hand right now being at it's 3 a.m. here.

Yesterday the Turks reapeared after a 10 year hiatus. What was odd about it is that they came with 420 Jannisary heavy infantry, 240 jannisary archers, and about 300 Feudal Sergents, along with the usual Turkish fare. The 300 feudal sergents is just wierd, but the jannisaries shouldn't have been able to appear because it is only the HIGH period Am I mistaken? What's the deal with that?

Also in the same game, the english went to war with me by sinking a lonely ship, and then later on, they all of a sudden aren't at war with me. They did not die out and reapear or anything of the like. Odd.

Also, the spanish get excommunicated. Pope calls for a crusade against spain. I assasinate the pope, all excomunications declared null and void, but at the exact same time, the english declare a crusade against spain Now there is an active crusade aimed at a catholic faction. Bizzare It just passed though one of my provinces on the way there.

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]Also in the same game, the english went to war with me by sinking a lonely ship, and then later on, they all of a sudden aren't at war with me. They did not die out and reapear or anything of the like. Odd.

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This was probably due to the fact that you did not share borders. With ships it is strange, but your example is actually a common thing to happen to all the players.

1) A few decades apart, I had 3 simultaneous crusades sitting in Hungary waiting to march on one of my Byzantine provinces. Each crusade had over 1,000 men, but I had a good 1,500 in the province just south of Hungary. None of them ever attacked me. They just sat there for a decade and died out. They never combined forces or allied together to get a force of well over 3,000 men to attack... just sat there and died. That happened twice in a campaign, so I nicknamed Hungary the place where crusades go to die.

2) Again, as the Byzantines in the same campaign, no matter how hard I tried - sending 3, 4 and 5 star emissaries out there all the time, I could not make peace with anybody. They'd either be neutral or at war with me the whole time. Meanwhile, every other single faction had two lines of allies. Heck, I think the Pope was allied with the Turks
The only non Byzantine war in game was the English vs the French... except for the Novgorads vs some rebels.

3) In my first ever campaign as the English, I had just had a tough battle and my remaining men were outnumbered. My two reinforcements were called and were 120 longbowmen. I had some urban militia, spearmen and feudal sargents left otherwise. My general had been killed, and the AI's troops were uphill from me. So, I figured I'll hit them with my longbowmen to hopefully whittle down their numbers enough and maybe I can survive when they charge downhill at me. But, instead of marching downhill, the AI's troops just stood there and took arrow volley after arrow volley. Not only that, they all gathered together to make it even easier. A group of 60 handgunners went down to 11. I finally decimated the AI's troops and led my band uphill to attack the renmants and won easily... the longbowmen combined killed 199 of the bad guys.

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Windwood @ Mar. 03 2003,12:12)]It's just annoying that I have to respond to each of these rebellions personally.

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They love you and want your attention and won't be happy unless they get to see you. Stop neglecting your subjects.

well, the strangest thing that ever ocurred to me stands like that:

I usually have my king in a province (preferably a central one, or a maritime one) after the first 100 years, in order keep the loyalty high ...

Now, in this game I had a huge empire, all works good; I move my king and some elite forces in order to take Bulgaria (easy battle, just to strech his legs); the next turn after I conquered Bulgaria, in every, absolutely every province (even in the provinces with 200% loyalty), I had at least one stack of rebel troops, not to mention 2 reapearances ... I mean, if you keep your king inactive for a long time, your subjects get used to see him only in his capital city?
I tried the thing three times, same result every time ... The fourth time I let my king in my original province, and all is well ... so this was the cause ... Anyway, it's strange ... the loyalty should drop, but not by 153% ...

The oddity happened to me several times after that, in diferent games, when I was experimenting ...

The mass rebel uprises is an eyeopener, even on my easy level of campaign. Last night I experienced rebels in 12 different provinces in the same year even though they were all catholic provinces and had loyalty of 200%

The strangest thing that happened in my lateset campaign is that I attacked Switzerland (held by HRE), and after I moved my army in, the usual grey box came up announcing my ally (the almoheads) were joining me to help out. I/we won the battle but a box came up saying that as the almoheads had the larger army, 'it was decided' to give THEM Switzerland

NewJeffCT ive had the same happen to me. but in my case it was becuz my leader had low influence. after taking down a few provinces of a rival it went up about 2 points and i tried again. it worked and peace was made. thats just my experiance tho

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]
NewJeffCT
Not only that, they all gathered together to make it even easier. A group of 60 handgunners went down to 11.

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I seen that loads. From what I can tell it's the AI trying to protect its last remaining missile troops. It doesn't do a very good job of it.

The one thing that really ticks me off is when another Christian kingdom repeatedly attacks me....and when I respond the Pope wants to excommunicate ME for aggression.
Dimeolas

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa These rebellions are driving me insane For 300 years the people of Danish Empire have lived happily and contentedly as their great and noble kings have built up the riches and the infrastructure of their lands. We are the largest, we are the strongest, we are the richest. I have farmland improved up to 80% in many parts of the empire. Now all of a sudden I've got rebellions emerging everywhere (even Finland, which was the second province I conquered 300 years ago).

I actually abandoned some of the Muslim provinces I had invaded, preferring instead to reposition my troops in other nearby captured provinces in order to keep the chances of rebellion low. My intent was to stablize conquered territories and once the populace had settled down, take it a little slower and start retaking the lands I had abandoned. The strategy worked. I let the rebels (now a returned Egyptian faction) retake four provinces. Now my lands have settled and I can begin to retake what I had lost. Or so I thought. Now I have rebellions everywhere. They're driving me crazy. Every time I hit End Year I am confronted with a minimum of 6 rebellions up to as many as 15. This is EVERY YEAR mind you and I have stopped attacking my neighbors awaiting a more stable empire before I press my borders again.

I'll say it again: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I has a odd experience as HRE against the French.

I was close to being on the ropes and facing doom, all they had to do was push. My port province was about to fall before I could bring my main armies in from the east, and I had no way of stopping them other than those armies before they hit the heartlands...

Instead of using their main army, they sent in peasantsand one siege weapon. 300 odd against around 30 troops (remains of a ransomed army). Played it myself out of boredom.

The wall was broken... and...no attacks. the peasants walked in a broken line around the castle a few times then ran away cos of their casualties. I lost 2 or 3 men.

I couldn't believe it... I saved the battle replay and watched it again. Round and round and round and then bugger off

next turn I got the main army in there from overseas... lucky me the pathfinding went loop da loop or something...

Still lost it when the Almos and Turks and Mongols attacked but should have ended twenty years earlier.

I suppose the silliest thing I see the AI do is something that everyone sees frequently. Often the AI places most or even all of its unit in the same spot, so hundreds of units share the same spot, i.e. the center of the units the same spot, but the units often face in very different directions. This usually happens when I'm showering them with arrows and obviously helps greatly since there's almost no way not to hit something.

The thing I find wierd (read unrealistic) is that the AI matches the number of forces you have. EG I had 28 odd troops hauled up in a castle and decided to leave the AI withdrew its 120 men leaving just 27 to take me on

This seems quite odd to me.

The wierdest thing thats happend to me was when i tried to kill an hier, i enter the battle they have 20 royal knights against my 40 Kats.
I turn the rear of my Kats towards the enemy thinking that they might kill some guys in a charge, guess what the computer do. He begins to travel around my flank for 30 minutes and never attacks http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...cons/dizzy.gif ... gaah its really frustrating sometimes.

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (rob s @ Mar. 06 2003,18:38)]The mass rebel uprises is an eyeopener, even on my easy level of campaign. Last night I experienced rebels in 12 different provinces in the same year even though they were all catholic provinces and had loyalty of 200%

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That may have happened because enemy factions probably had spies in those provinces. As a result they incite riots: Ive had the same done to me and its ****ing annoying http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...cons/angry.gif

Well after finally winning my SP campaign as the Danes, I decided to try another one, this time as the Almohads. I finally provoked the Egyptians into a fight and I won. They tried to break my seige with an overwhelming force so I abandoned their province and withdrew back to my own borders. I didn't realize it at the time, but this gave my general a vice that was something along the lines of doubtful courage which gave my forces a -6 to morale.

When the Egyptians attacked my lands, they attacked with around 1200 soliders versus my 1400. So I commanded the defense personally (unaware of the vice my leader now had - I have since learned to check this a little more frequently). My troops were well-deployed (or at least I thought so). But as the Egyptians came on, unit by unit my troops began to rout. It was a nightmare watching them turn tail and run when they had the advantage Eventually my general turned yellow and took off as well.

I was able to bring in 12 units of reinforcements and rallied them at a point removed from most of the chaos of the rout. Of the 12 only 8 ended up not routing themselves.
I watched as the Egyptians brought on even more of their own fresh reinforcements.

Now here is the strange part. Since I wasn't interested in losing one of my starting provinces, I decided to hold my ground. I positioned my 8 units along a sanddune and waited. As the defender I could just hang. The AI kept the Egyptians where they were. They just sat there. There was still half of the clock left, yet they never attacked. I won the battle simply by sitting there, even though the AI could have slaughtered me. It was very strange.

Because of the rout, however, my general then was labeled with the vice of coward, which instilled a whopping -9 to the morale of the army. Again, I didn't check this and had to defend the province once more. This time, the army routed even faster. This prompted me to look into his background a little. So I back-pedaled a little and went back to the previous saved game and disbanded the general's unit (there were only 2 soldiers left anyway). I then refought the Egyptians' second attack under the leadership of a different general. Unfortunately, the scenarios played it out similarly to the first defense.

My army routed. I managed to scrape together a tiny handful of reinforcements (only 3 fresh units of AUMs and 2 camels left from a Berber Camel unit) and waited. Again, the AI outnumbered my forces dramatically. It never followed up the attack and my defense was successful. Again, the AI just sat there for over half the battle without attacking.

The Egyptians have brought up even more troops from other provinces and they are poised for another assault. I'm not sure what to do. Now that general has the vice of doubtful courage (or something like that) and I am sure his troops will rout again. My other armies are in the Iberian Penninsula rather far away and they need to defend against a German crusade poised upon my borders. I guess that'll teach me to fight a two-front war without enough resources in the east.

Maybe the AI will just sit there again and not attack. Yeah, right....

Strange happenings... ok here's one.

I had made war on the Pope and took out his faction, then I burned all the major buildings in Rome and Papal states so he only has a couple of forts to his name when he comes back.

After a few years his faction emerges again. And then I get a Loyalist rebellion in Rome (handy even if I didn't count on it happening) the rebels lose (Pope has lots of Chivalric Knights) and I then get excommunicated for my aggression against fellow Christians (and I did nothing, it was all the rebels fault)

Strikes me that the AI gets real desperate later on


I also had a mass rebellion later on of about 15 provinces for the Egyptians (and all they had at the time was Cyprus, the only province yet to be captured by me) Mass rebellions are cool... especially when you put them down within a few years

In a Byzantine campaign I am playing atm I began a war with the egyptians after we carved up the turkish lands between us. I lost Rum to he Egyptians and the year after they attecked the castle to end the siege. They had 2 balistea which I promtly destroyed with some cavelry archers only taking a couple of casualties to a unit of nubian spear. Then the wierdness began. in order the AI marched single units up the steepest facing of the castle at the opposite side to the gates to try and assault the gates (they had no way to bust down the walls anymore). So in succession they were cut to pieces by my very few missile men and the castle's defenses. What was so strange is that half their army never moved and their last attacks consisted almost completely of peasant reinforcments. If they had just attacked all out they would have won easily.

Another wierd thing early in the same game was the Itlians taking Serbia and massing about 4000 troops there over a few years. Then when I got Serbia as one of the provinces for my homeland GA I sent a less that full stack to try and take it. The Italians retreated without a fight http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...ons/tongue.gif which was a bit of a surprise. Granted they probably would have been slaughtered but since then i have had my fun with them killing thousands in single battles.

I also had a civil war which was ended in 2 years with bribes http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...cons/joker.gif

I don't know if this qualifies but once when attacking in the desert enemy decided to defend hill which was behind my lines. I believe I have mentined this someplace already.

They just started long march through my lines like there was no worry in the world. I was so stunned that I didn't understand to take advantage right away.

I was playing the Byzantines, and the Mongols invaded Georgia (I think it was Georgia). They had overwhemling forces so I retreated to the castle. Later they decided to lift the siege and assaulted the castle. When the battle begun, they were mostly calvary and decided that running around my castle walls for the entire battle was useful. I sped up the battle and thats all they did the entire time..

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (shadowstrife911 @ April 23 2003,12:18)]I was playing the Byzantines, and the Mongols invaded Georgia (I think it was Georgia). They had overwhemling forces so I retreated to the castle. Later they decided to lift the siege and assaulted the castle. When the battle begun, they were mostly calvary and decided that running around my castle walls for the entire battle was useful. I sped up the battle and thats all they did the entire time..

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LOL Thats great Timer expires and you automatically win (I don't like the timer myself... tends to be annoying, especially when you have routed most of the enemy army and you end up chasing cavalray archers all over the map&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...icons/wink.gif

The battle is not over til the fat lady sings

I was playing Turks, and had the Golden Horde appeared in two provinces; In the first battle, I had apprx 2000 crack troops and set them up on a hilltop to face the oncoming mongol army of approx 10000....

and waited....



and waited....

I has to speed up the timer (lucky I was playing with timer, or I'd still be there), and sit in front of the computer for an hour (otherwise, timer said it would be a 305 minute battle&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...icons/wink.gif. They could see me (i think - I could see them), but they wouldn't come up that hill. I felt kind of cheated, as the other invasion battle took me well over an hour and see-sawed back and forth quite a few times - fantastic fight (not too cheated though, in that battle they only outnumbered me by about 2:1).

I suppose I could of attacked them, but I figured the only chance I had was to stay still, face downhill, and let the Horde impale themselves on my spears - no way could I take the Horde on with a force comprised of 90% Sarcean inf and Turcoman Foot...

(yes, I really like parentheses)

hmmm strangest things i've seen is when a rebelion in scotland appears. Mostly clansmen. Instead of charging at my hugely outnumbered and frightened English force, (Couple units of UM, 1 unit of hobliars, Couple units of longbowmen). They just stay on the hill and stare at me. I run out of patience and walk up to them. They do nothing as i kill most of their force with wave upon wave of arrows. Before routing as i send in my hobilars, an easy victory, only 1 casuality.
But this pales compared to the strangeness of some of the things you people are describing http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...cons/smile.gif

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...cons/smile.gif i was germany and i managed to push to mercia where there was 3 units of archers and 1 unit of pesents protecting the province i had heavy cavalary (royal knights and mercenaries etc) i commanded the attack personnely and straight away the 3 groups of archers who where defending and pesents charged down their hill top position and then attacked my calavry although i was quick enough to counter charge. They fled instantly as their general fell i lost 0 of my men and i captured all of theirs and of course they all died by the sword due to their treachary

I was the Byzantines on late and with hard fought campaigns i defeated the Turks and the Egyptians with the help of my allies,the Spanish. We divided parts of the Holy land and North Africa between us. I was in the middle of two spanish provinces(i was in egypt)and a Crusade was on its way by the Aragonese to my provence. Now usually when a crusade arrives it will either say the Aragonese have invaded or it says something about handing the provence over peacefully because they were doing Gods work,or something to that effect. My army was under a fine 6 or 7 star general and i had little to worry. I clicked the end turn and instead of seeing options for a battle,there were ransom demands by the Aragonese amounting something in the region of 90,000 florins. What the hell happened? Has anyone else seen this before? I know this differs from others encounters with the AI but i had to post it because it left me in tears over the loss of my wonderous general.