"The AI Strikes Back!"

Well, as you may be thinking, is this related to Star Wars? Yea in a sense, but its Rome Total War.

So here's the lowdown towards the battle...

Gaul declares was upon the Julii family, attempting four times to take one of their four cities.

Lucius Julius was the faction heir, & a good student of the brother of the faction leader. He was at every battle with his teacher, his Uncle, under his command, learning.

After a few battles, he gets command of his own army; protecting his people while his father ran the wavering Empire to strengthen it.

His father dies, & he becomes the faction leader. He targets Gaulish family members in ever battle that they are present. He personally rides their flank, or charges head on into the enemy forces with his loyal Roman light calvery to kill the Gaulish nobility.

He kills two cousins of the Gaulish King in two seperate battles, and in another heading North past Arretium, he strikes down with his bodyguard the Gaulish faction heir.

After returning to Arretium & re-training his men back to supreme battle condiditions, he rides again, & makes war against the Gauls who started it, slaughtering over 4,000 in Gaulish armies.

Spies locate a prize possession to be had, the new Gaulish faction heir just 50 miles North East of Arretium.

Filled with hatred & excitement all the same, Lucius forms together the greatest army of the Julii, filled with the best updated units & weapons of the pre-marian age, and heads out with his son, Marcus Julius, to teach him the ways of battle as he was taught by his Uncle in the previous years, along with the newly wed in the family to one of the Royal daughters, Augustus Flaminius, and 17 units of the best soliders in the current Empire.

Crossing the Northern bridge of Arrmenium, they head to strike the Gaulish heir stack, to claim yet another crushing blow to the Gaulish nobility.

The Gaulish heir is filled with hatred, knowing that the enclosing Julii emperor had slain his brother just one year earlier, and two of his beloved cousins in the field, not counting the thousands of gaulish soliders who fought for their king, but knows what awaits the Julii leader, so gives it no more thought, & turns East to do other things.

Just five or less miles away from the flank of the Gaulish Heir army, the Julii Prime Army led by the faction leader, faction heir, & the new family member, are marching steadily to take on the Gaul's....when suddenly...

They are ambushed! Out numbered, & flanked from the left & right, while being attacked from the front, while marching in a straight line, Lucius is dumbfounded as to what to do, and orders his surrounding men forward.

While they hold off the enemy, he is trapped in a circle of dying soliders. At last his men break a hole, & yell of their beloved Emperor to escape through it.

Marcus (heir) & Augustus order the only portion of the army that wasent hit to march forward to help the dying Romans, but 3/4 of the army was already in ruins & dying fast, refusing to run away.

In the distance, a horn is heard, and a small military of 600 men approaches, Lucius knows that this will be the end of his prime army & the destruction of his campaign to kill the Gaulish heir, but then notices, that they are green indeed, but not Gauls, but the Brutii!

After five minutes of hard combat, the Brutii are destroyed, their Captain killed, and flee being massacred; but the reinforced enclosed Julii now have the edge, as their archers are pounding the Gaul's with everything they have, and the Prinicipes are killing all that they can in a frantic rage.

Lucius, Marcus, & Augustus make it to safety without a man lost from their guards, but see that the battle is turning, and if they were to charge then, they would have a fighting chance! The advisors of Lucius tell him to flee, to save himself so he may rule the Empire & return to avenge this day, but he holds his head up & as a Roman should, & states "I'll die here before I flee!", him, his son, & Augustus charge into battle.

This is Augustus' first battle, after the Guals are in complete utter retreat, there is over 400 of them to still be slaughtered. Lucius & Marcus kill many, but are dumbfounded at watching Augustus' mad rage, screaming terrifying yells, striking viciously with his gladius up on his horse. They watch as he runs down over 300 men with his unit alone.

They miraciously won the day, but suffered over 700 losses. I dont have any screen shots, but when I saw this, I was like "holy crap!" (didnt think crap tho heh), but they still won.

After the battle, I marched on & attacked the Heir stack, I sent Lucius on their flank, & flanked the general unit which was compacted with a ton of enemy soliders in the main battle, & actually killed him, another Victory for Lucius.

At present.. Lucius, Marcus, & Augustus are seiging the Gaulish King's city, and he will not be spared. I'm not sure, but I hope that this is the last of the Gaulish nobility, because if it is, their faction will be destroyed, and the AI just labeled them as the most powerful faction! :help:

Here's what went down at the ambush fight. I was utterly amazed at the AI, some complain & say its not smart, well here, it whipped my butt!

http://www.geocities.com/mac100mc/theaistrikesback.JPG

Hardly. They took you into an ambush, and you still won.

They whipped my butt, & had it not been for my allies miracously showing up, I'd completely lost. I was about two seconds from making my three Generals run off so they would be saved. :dizzy2:

*Slightly* dramatised intro to the battle but anyway lol. The gauls are experts at ambush so its kind of what they are meant to do really.

The problem with the AI is never their original plan, be it full out charge, flanking movement, ambush etc, its what they dont do when plan A fails, which is forget to make a plan B and the AI gets owned because of that flaw.

If you walk into an ambush then whatever the enemy does is to be expected and nothing special really.

Cool story, Siris! ~:cheers:

Yes, so ambushes are fun, and the AI is good during ambushes!!

When i lose to the AI, i'm always outnumbered. But those battles are fun, as my troops take a lot of enemy soldiers with them before they rout.

The AI needs a little encouragement.. :)

i never loose to the AI exept outnumbered 1:5
but you put up a hell of a fight if you won that battle siris

Well this story only proves that the AI is not the brightest piece of code, but it was a nicely written story ~:cheers:

BTW your Gauls are doing much better than mine currently ~D Their latest battle was a joke, it was 2300 Romans vs 3500 Gauls, after the battle The Romans lost 37 men and only 2 Gauls had survived, the same turn only earlier they lost another 2500 men with the same results. So basically their army of almost 6000 men vanished in 6 months without inflicting any casualties :knight:

where you fighting captains in a peasant/warband army just wait until they get chosen and forester and you'll get some good fighting

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we grew apart i thougt when greetings faded
and each one went its own way

The problem is that I've usually whiped them out when they get their chosen swoardmen and forester.

I've been ambushed few times but it always starts as a normal battle. Never seen an ambush when my army is marching and gets attacked from all sides. Wasn't that supposed to be in the game? :help:

Yah if you read the "you've been ambushed" bit it'll probably say the ambush failed or something. Then you get to start the battle normally.

Damn, my luck bad as usual.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Emperor Umeu 1

where you fighting captains in a peasant/warband army just wait until they get chosen and forester and you'll get some good fighting

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Actually the army was lead by a Gallic family member and over half of it were swordsmen....and there were no peasants btw.

Yea, I fought hard, I was literally about two seconds from making my three Generals route to save their butts (but I found later, that they come up as dead anyways...? ~:confused: )

Fought hard, almost did lose lol, why I was impressed.

Later on while I had a family member, Arious Julius or something (in the Julii family) leading his first army to take a Senate requested province, I sent Lucius the Mighty (what they called him lol!), the faction leader, to take command of the army to do it, "personally".

I sent him with a body guard of now marian reformed advanced soliders, three units of Legionary Cohorts, & two units of Archer Auxilia, the first made of the new Marian age. I switched the Generals, and the Arious guy was sent back to our Capital with them... he didnt get far.

Around 10 miles heading back South, he was assaulted by one & a half stacks of Gualish soliders.. starting to seem shockingly familiar to what I was doing to their numerous family members!

My 300+ men stood against 2,700+ (playing large now, for better smoothness in game play, not Huge).

They fought long & hard, protecting their General, I had him on the edge of the map ready to route him to save him.

The archers fought hard & well, same as the soliders, but I lost all 300 men, killed 600+ enemies. Routed my General to save him so he could lead another army another day.

I get back to the Campaign map, & hes dead! "Heroic Death", gayness!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ar7

BTW your Gauls are doing much better than mine currently ~D Their latest battle was a joke, it was 2300 Romans vs 3500 Gauls, after the battle The Romans lost 37 men and only 2 Gauls had survived, the same turn only earlier they lost another 2500 men with the same results. So basically their army of almost 6000 men vanished in 6 months without inflicting any casualties :knight:

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Yeah well, I feel sorry for the Gauls when the Romans are attacking basically with their Pila all the time! ~;)

Pila is deadly, in offence or defence. I am now using fire at will for my legionaries, it is absolutly brilliant. Though the thing to remember is to turn it off after the initial clash or the men who have finished butchering might think it is wise to "help" their comrades with a friendly pilum.