Reinforcement AI is abysmal

Hey

I'm assuming this has been thoroughly discussed already, so I won't bore you with a long story. A short one will do just fine.

I started playing RTW again a day ago, as Brutii on hard - hard, and was doing fairly well. I had taken three cities on the Rebel / Greek / Macedonian side of the Adriatic, and was at war with the Macedonians. They besieged my northernmost city, and I sent an army to relieve the defenders. The battle begins: I am in control of roughly 400 men (two cavalry units, several mercenary skirmisher troops, spearmen [hastati?] and town watch); the AI controls maybe 500 reinforcements (good troops) who are coming from the city (the city cannot be seen from the battlefield); together we are against over 1000 Macedonians (mostly pikemen, a handful of skirmishers and cavalry). My little army begins on top of a hill; the ennemy are at the bottom and I hold them off with my mercenary skirmishers as my allies arrive. I'm fairly certain that if I had been able to control the reinforcements, I would have won the battle. Instead, here is what the AI does:

1 - They *walk* up the hill instead of rushing to save me, and none of them go around the ennemy.

2 - Their general unit, on horseback, charges PAST my men, and engages an ennemy cavalry unit standing next to several infantry units armed with SPEARS. The GENERAL. ALONE. SPEARS. He is killed in seconds, and his entire unit is slaughtered.

My troops are overrun; the AI gets destroyed...

Before this battle, I was very happy with RTW. The graphics are awesome, the ennemy AI is somewhat challenging, dipomacy is fun (had the gauls pay me tribute in return for a truce)...

This battle ruined it. The equivalent to reinforcement AI in RTW (by which I mean allied armies) was much better. This is stupid.

Please, save the game for me! Is there a patch available that fixes reinforcement AI? A patch that allows players to control both their own army AND the reinforcing army, as in RTW / STW? Anything? Honestly, watching the general kill himself like that was so stupid that I don't want to play anymore. I'm disgusted with RTW.

Many thanks.

When the battle begins next time a screen pops up showing the comparison of the two clashing forces. If the reinforcing army is in your faction you can click a small box next to the general's picture and body count. It will let you control the reinforcements instead of the AI.

I always use it; you should never trust the AI with anything you don't want to die.

YES! Awesome, thanks for telling me, I honestly wouldn't have noticed it myself

If you haven't done so already, try the latest patch v1.5 for RTW, which you can download from here.

There is a working solution to this AI reinforcement bug in this thread.