Question about RTW and BI - Improved AI

Hey guys, I think I saw some stuff here about tweaks and such that can let you run the original campaign in BI, but I'm not really interested in going through a bunch of work and playing with potential campaign probs.

My main question is, if I have BI installed along with patch 1.6, does the original RTW exe still provide me with improved AI? I'm not all that concerned about stuff like night battles, etc. I'm mostly interested in just having a more agressive strategic AI, without having to ratchet up difficulty and suffering artificial handicaps.

If AI doesn't actually improve in RTW, I guess I may be forced to hack/mod files and such to use the BI, and live with potential campaign discrepancies.

I think the campaign map AI in RTW did improve with the patches. In early versions, I was very struck by the tendency of the AI to have lots of small stacks on the campaign map and its failure to use generals properly as army leaders (they were often left on their own in towns, while captains led full stacks). In 1.5, the AI seems to do a lot better in consolidating its stacks and giving them appropriate leaders. Its ability and willingness to use naval landings is also better. I have not noticed much change in the battlefield AI.

I suspect the campaign map AI in the BI exe is further improved - you can run mods like RTR Platinum Edition with the BI exe or the RTW one. I found the AI did rather better with the BI one in a 10 turn trial of one game. Maybe I should do more testing.

However, if you want to play a proper Roman Imperial campaign - with Senate missions etc - you have to use RTW.exe not BI. I find it good enough with the right mod and the right difficulty setting, it is challenging enough for me.

If you have the 1.5 patch installed, BI won't improve the vanilla R:TW A.I. However, I understand the difference between the two is not that big.

Thanks for the tips guys.

I understood that the BI exe. did improve AI an that is why the RTRPE guys were converting it to the BI exe. now.