Best faction in Vanilla?

It seems to me that morale is also a huge factor in autocalc - for example Samnite mercs tend to do badly even though their stats are as good as the Romans.

Indeed Quirinus, i forgot to mention morale. It is also taken into account.

I still don't buy into the 'auto-calc' fear factor, if my current camp is any indication. I am by far the strongest faction on the board, and other than city garrisons, my fighting armies are seasoned, well-led, and have all the best upgrades available. So I suppose the decision by the AI-led Gauls, and the Thracians to attack me rather than much weaker targets (like Britannia for the Gauls, and the Brutii for Thrace) is more likely the infancy of the 'black knight' syndrome found in ETW. Not complaining, mind you, just noting that I find it highly unlikely that the AI logic box has anything in it related to the strength of its' proposed target or what the results of an auto-calc battle will be......because at this stage of the game, auto-calcs with my armies is much worse for the AI than one with the Romans.

between the AI and the player its different than between AI factions, especially if you play on high difficulties. The player is always targeted as a priority by the AI.

The player is always targeted as a priority by the AI.

As it should be. And I'm sure I'm looking at the situation as a human player would, and expecting long-range sophisticated thinking from the AI is asking way too much from both the game engine and the programming realm of possibility.

Still, the AI programming has become a very interesting topic for me (tread upon many moons ago by many others, I'm sure) and I still hold to one of my original observations that the AI, in addition to not being able to handle the campaign map, is simply too passive.......

.......and we have strayed a looong ways off-topic

Originally Posted by ReluctantSamurai

.......and we have strayed a looong ways off-topic

At least its discussion of some sort... this place is way too dead:(

Actually this place has quite a few viewings - its just that discussion is a tad off. Its understandable though - most RTW players discuss a mod or something, few play vanilla.

Originally Posted by Lord Reid of Britannica

At least its discussion of some sort... this place is way too dead:(

Agreed!
This forum is way too dead for the best game of the best series of a generation!