How's this for an example of the battle AI.
My army:
5 greek levies ( ~ town watch with phalanx capability)
3 missile cav
2 peltasts
1 Illyrian mercenary peltast
1 6 star general
Enemy:
5 Greek hoplites
5 peltasts
1 ballista
1 scorpion
The enemy are ensconced at the top of a very steep mountain in the corner of the battlefield. There's no way to approach but straight up. I have visions of my army being shredded to bits by the peltasts and artillery from miles away, before my exhausted levies are routed on an immutable line of 20-defence pt hoplites with maximum height advantage. It's the sort of thing you would probably expect to face if you were, for example, playing Shogun.
So I begin the ascent, slowly walking my troops up the mountain in hopes they won't be totally exhausted when they reach the top. But what's this? No rain of missiles from the defenders.
I check to see what they're up to and, inexplicably, they have abandoned the crest of the hill and marched a little down the east side. What the hell, I might just charge my cav up to the crest before they change their minds. I do so, and now I'm the one peppering them with my cav missile from the height advantage. Pretty soon one of their hoplite units is very much the worse for wear.
The enemy army continues to mill about in the most indecisive manner, neither attacking nor forming a line nor doing anything that might be conceived as a threat. However, one of the AI peltasts has marched quite a ways down the east side of the hill. There's nothing my cav like better than an isolated missile unit, so down the hill we charge and annihilate it. Turning, we see that another peltast unit has followed us some of the way down, so we charge him as well. Obligingly, he fails to skirmish on our approach, leading to another wipeout.
By this time my cav are most of the way up the hill again, and my exhausted peltasts, which I previously ordered to run, have made the top of the hill, again without being challenged, and are peppering the enemy from above who again fail to respond.
I note that a gap has opened between the hoplite nearest my peltasts and the remaining 2 1/2 hoplites further east, wherein the remaining AI peltasts mill about uncertainly. Emboldened by the enemy's lack of aggression, I decide to charge between the hoplites and smash the remaining peltasts, hoping not to get too many cav caught by the pointy sticks on the flanks. At the same time, I decide to bum rush the lone hoplite on the right flank with my peltasts to keep it occupied.
The operation proceeds even better than I hoped, with none of my cav hitting pointy sticks and the pointy sticks showing no sign of attacking. The AI peltasts are therefore easy prey for my cav which quickly do them in.
Now I check on the battle with my peltasts and that lone hoplite. My two exhausted vanilla peltasts have not responded to the attack command, but the Illyrian mercenaries have, and incredibly, won the battle against the hoplite unit which conveniently failed to assume phalanx formation when attacked. I check on the remaining hoplites, which still have made no threatening gesture, and notice they are shaken, so without waiting for my greek levies to arrive, try charging them with my cav to see if I can break them. Again, no phalanx greets the charge, but rather the cry of "Retreat!" breaks the air and now those foolish hoplites are mine for the taking!
Result of battle: 400 enemy in a near-impregnable position wiped out by 4 cav units and 3 peltasts (use of the levies proved unnecessary) for the loss of 58 men (most of them from the Illyrian mercs who charged the hoplite).
A few points to note about the battle:
1/ The enemy made no attempt whatever to make use of their extreme height advantage;
2/ I didn't see a single volley from any of the 5 enemy peltast units;
3/ AI peltasts didn't appear to skirmish away from charging cav at any time;
4/ Not once did any of the 5 enemy hoplites bother to form up into a phalanx;
5/ Artillery were nowhere to be seen;
6/ A total lack of aggression or co-ordination on the part of the AI.
I know I had a 6-star general, but really one would expect just a little more resistance than this!
