I know... But the cheat also sucks... The losses are highly unrealistic, and i still consider the auto_win cheat a cheat... And i don't cheat![]()
Europa Barbarorum Secretary
Definately.
There is one thing your autocalc is good for though; getting experience on your units.
Seriously, even in a heroic Victory where you face overwhelming odds and your forces gives their utmost and each kills many times their numbers of enemies, you still gain only 0-5 chevrons on a fullstack.
If you autocalc it (using the autowin) you would get 15+ chevrons to go with your huge losses.
I admit to sometimes do it a few times, then merge the remainder of my depleted units and armies to have highly experienced armies.
'For months Augustus let hair and beard grow and occasionally banged his head against the walls whilst shouting; "Quinctillius Varus, give me my legions back"' -Sueton, Augustus.
"Deliver us oh God, from the fury of the Norsemen", French prayer, 9th century.
Ask gi'r klask! ask-vikingekampgruppe.dk
Balloon count: 13
well, for me it's resume as. Long battles, of corse, aren't always exiting to fight out, especially when it's the second time, or when you play as sweboz and romans send you countless and countless full stack of pedite extraordinarii. But i still consider it's a part of the game. i don't know why, but auto-calc makes me feel like I cheat... and I don't cheat neither!!! Hey, never used, not even once, the add_money, even when in the red (wich happens from time to time, as I'm playing sweboz). and never used auto-calc, even when the odds are 1:10... i love to see my general bravely die in battle while fighting an impossible fight. He'll enter the sweboz legend!
Opinions are like bacteries : we all have, but it's better to keep them for ourself... (By me!)
generously given by Nachtmeister
generously given by Macilrille for Sweboz combat tactics
Generously given by Brennus
I can think of some reasons to use auto-calc.
1. Performance: If you're using a computer with weak graphics capability, battles are all but fun or even beautiful. Take my AAR, for example. I auto-calculated all of those battles except for about three up to the point where it is updated now, but somewhere in there are some battle screenshots which may show you what I mean. Add to that an unnerving lag and you'll be stuck with fighting only those battles for yourself which are absolutely needed.
2. Time: Even not-so important battles can easily take twenty, thirty minutes. If you want to get somewhere with your campaign, but you can only spend a few hours a week on playing, there's no way around using auto-calc one time or another.
3. Roleplaying: You might want to fight only the battles a certain FM - e.g. the faction leader - takes part in, representing that he has no direct influence on any of the other battles. And in combination with 2.: Is it really essential to fight the thirteenth battle of that captain at the end of the empire against some - at best - annoying rebels while the real action is going on someplace else?
I don't see anything wrong about using auto-calc. You save some time, but you'll pay some of your men in return, because auto-calc will almost always give worse results than fighting for yourself (with exception of siege assaults in some relations of strength and perhaps battles against horsearcher heavy armies).
Oh, and if you are using very hard campaign difficulty you can expect to be owned in auto-calc battles, so you'd better only use it on medium or perhaps hard. Auto-calc difficulty depends on campaign-, not battle-difficulty.
Last edited by Lysimachos; 11-01-2009 at 11:30.
Read about glory and decline of the Seleucid Empire... (EB 1.1 AAR)
from Satalexton
from I of the Storm
from Vasiliyi
Speaking of which (auto-calc and sieges), I have only very rarely seen the Auto-Calc beat my performance in sieges/assaults. Is it because I micro-manage like crazy?
'For months Augustus let hair and beard grow and occasionally banged his head against the walls whilst shouting; "Quinctillius Varus, give me my legions back"' -Sueton, Augustus.
"Deliver us oh God, from the fury of the Norsemen", French prayer, 9th century.
Ask gi'r klask! ask-vikingekampgruppe.dk
Balloon count: 13
This! By far the greatest advantage of auto_calc is if a CTD means I would have to replay a tough battle that took an hour or more the first time around.
As others have pointed out auto_calc is rarely an advantage however as your losses tend to be disproportionately heavy. I do use it when bashing spawned rebels when all units can be retrained at the nearest settlement however. Also when assaulting cities with a > 4:1 advantage. Its a time thing! If you could increase the speed to x8 or more on the battle map I might well use auto_calc less.
I'd say time is the huge issue. For those that say they "never" use auto-calc, I'd wonder if they ever finished a full campaign without blitzing.
I play on VH so I can't use it too much anyways, without taking a huge risk. But for non important battles, I consider it a handy tool. Besides, it's far from a cheat when you actually take more losses.
I wish there was a setting for auto-calc difficulty. I wish it was in sink with battle difficulty.
But just the other day, I was feeling lazy and I auto-calc an important battle that I had good odds on. I lost the battle and killed 200, while the AI destroyed 1200. I HAD to reload the game, which I hate doing and only do in extreme cases that are usually no fault of my own.
In the future, since I don't really reload, I just have to be a stickler about ONLY using auto-calc on unimportant battles. Normally I might not have even reloaded, but I felt I was cheated. The AI can have so many stacks while me so few. I couldn't let my only army in that area be destroyed, unless it was destroyed with me in command.
Imo, the following "mod" is almost perfect:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Auto calc must be paired with auto_win too, have you heard ridiculous army of 3 rorarii beats a fullstack of hoplite army? That's the worst that I've had...
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Opinions are like bacteries : we all have, but it's better to keep them for ourself... (By me!)
generously given by Nachtmeister
generously given by Macilrille for Sweboz combat tactics
Generously given by Brennus
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