(Suicidal) AI behaviour

[I of the Storm]

Good morning,

yesterday I got around to start a french campaign on the XL mod. Haven't been playing for a long time so I went normal. I quickly subdued the rebel provinces and kicked the English off the continent. I built deterrent armies in all of my border provinces and aimed for quick crusades that I was able to kick off soon after. I went to Tripoli, Palestine, Antioch - all went well.
In the meantime, Spain got overrun by the Almohads in a way that Leon-Castille were trapped in Navarre and Aragon never got out of Aragon in the first place. Both had depleted Almohad armies to the south and full stack frenchies to the north. Both attacked me .
In the levant, Armenia was at war with the Seljuks and - well, not losing but definitely not winning either. Yet they found it wise to attack my just arrived crusading army in Antioch, equivalent of maybe 2-3 fullstacks

As a sidenote, I have to say the french are insanely rich in the xl-mod. even with only basic farming I could build and recruit in every province and still make profit.

All in all, a very odd experience. I'm still pondering if it classifies as fun.

Btw, I noticed everyone is building ships like mad and attacking ships as well like mad. Is there any file where this AI behaviour is encoded?

Edit: to make the point of this thread clear: I never noticed a suicidal AI behaviour to such an extent with vanilla MTW-VI. Is it just my game or can anyone confirm this observation.

[caravel]

In the meantime, Spain got overrun by the Almohads in a way that Leon-Castille were trapped in Navarre and Aragon never got out of Aragon in the first place. Both had depleted Almohad armies to the south and full stack frenchies to the north. Both attacked me .

It's called "dodgy AI". In MTW this is quite common. In reality the cornered factions change to a different AI type once they're down to one province and out of money. They probably attacked you because your provinces would have been raking in more income than the Almohad provinces. I've found often that Spain and Aragon prefer to strike north at the French.

In the levant, Armenia was at war with the Seljuks and - well, not losing but definitely not winning either. Yet they found it wise to attack my just arrived crusading army in Antioch, equivalent of maybe 2-3 fullstacks

More dodgy AI. If you mean that they chose not to let your crusade through? This is more common with Orthodox factions than you would think.

As a sidenote, I have to say the french are insanely rich in the xl-mod. even with only basic farming I could build and recruit in every province and still make profit.

That's because, despite some of the ludicrous claims that are made about the mod, it's incomes are still very skewed in the player's favour as is the case with vanilla MTW.

All in all, a very odd experience. I'm still pondering if it classifies as fun.

Btw, I noticed everyone is building ships like mad and attacking ships as well like mad. Is there any file where this AI behaviour is encoded?

It's in the startpos file. The shipbuilding is a problem because the mod reduces ship construction and maintenance costs IIRC. This alone without restrictions to sea regions does not improve the shipping situation (in fact the only real solution to MTW's shipping is to get rid of ships altogether - but that's another story...).

Edit: to make the point of this thread clear: I never noticed a suicidal AI behaviour to such an extent with vanilla MTW-VI. Is it just my game or can anyone confirm this observation.

I cannot confirm it as I played that mod for all of about 2 hours before uninstalling it and returning to (custom modded) vanilla. It's simply a very overrated mod. Most players like it simply because of the extra factions and units. While these add "flavour" they don't add to the game technically.

I think you've simply "transcended" the level of gameplay/difficulty available to you in vanilla or that mod. Clean install MTW and try the Samurai Warlords or medmod. You will find these more fitting to what you want.

[gaijinalways]

Sometimes what the AI does makes perfect sense, as in some battles the AI conducts them with perfect precision. Other times, jedhi RK generals make suicidal runs at spearmen or better, and yet almost rout them (the spear units, that is).

In my last bridge battle in Saxony, the AI balistas and archers rained death on my selected cannon fodder, who did usually make it across the bridge and back and managed to get some vikings and UMs to chase them. Couldn't entice any better AI units to come across and get mauled, as the AI patiently waited for my final push to try and get across the bridge. Finally, actually had my archers fighting hand to hand in that one. If the cav units I had in reserve hadn't saved the day, would have lost that one.

I have also had the AI ruin trading shortly after it was started many times, and I was too weak to counterattack or even sink their naval units in the seas being contested. I'm wondering, what level are you contesting your campaigns on? I have been insanely rich a few times, but it has been a combination of luck and my skill if I can run the bank account up. Usually, if your kingdom is too big, corruption often sets in, and the number of people who trade with you may also greatly decrease.

Oh well, you can't have everything, how about a game of chess?

[Puzz3D]

I think you've simply "transcended" the level of gameplay/difficulty available to you in vanilla or that mod. Clean install MTW and try the Samurai Warlords or medmod. You will find these more fitting to what you want.

I would suggest removing ships, kensai and xbows from the Samurai Warlords mod. You'll get stronger AI opposition.