Interesting Campaign Map AI 'thinking'

[A Nerd]

I have only a few examples based on my current campaign but here they are. I had an army in Dewa and the neighboring river province and was sending reinforcements to both provinces. One unit of YS were in the province immediatly south of Dewa and two units were in Dewa to be combined with that army on the next turn. I noticed before I ended the turn that an emmisary was standing in the province with the one YS. When I clicked on him it said he was bribing and army, I assumed it was the YS. I quickly moved the two units in Dewa south to counter this, for if he had bribed that army, it would have taken that province for there was no garrison. It would have hurt my expansionist plans due to all the structures that would have been damaged and/op destroyed as a result. When those two units were moved in he abandoned his plans (apparently) and went west to the Takeda holdings near Mori lands. I was quite impressed. Another example, but perhaps less interesting was that Imagawa had two emmesaries spying on my armies that bordered Shinano. I sent ninja to assasinate them, killed one then the other ran away to (I think) avoid assasination. These are the only two instances I notice thus far in my campaign. I was thinking that these examples are some of the AI thinking that many TW purists praise and find lacking in later TW editions. Though I could be wrong. Just wanted to relate that.

[gollum]

Partly it is because the AI can see the whole map (fow does not apply to him). These are good examples nevertheless. For me its the map that makes the strategic game better and gives an edge to the AI. You can make feign attacks/invasions (taking advantage of the need to cover a wide front with limited units), strategic encirclements, and multifront attacks that trap/eliminate enemy stacks if they are not cautious. You can't do that in the new tw maps though - the stack that loses randomly retreats somewhere in the map.

[Jef Costello]

the stack that loses randomly retreats somewhere in the map.

I can't believe they would have such a terrible idea.

I've seen enemy emissaries who are 'bribing' but i've never seen them bribe anyone. The AI will often spy on you, I'm just not sure how effective they are.

[ReluctantSamurai]

When I clicked on him it said he was bribing and army, I assumed it was the YS.

That only tells you that the mission for that emissary is bribing. It could be one of yours but more than likely it's a rebel army. I've followed such missions before and they almost invariably end up in rebel territory.

The AI will often spy on you, I'm just not sure how effective they are.

I tolerate an ally's emissary......for awhile. I tolerate a neutral's or an enemy emissary not at all....they quickly become dead. If another bordering clan has a watchtower, then the emissary isn't telling him anything he doesn't already "know".....I say "know" because the AI has to KNOW where every thing is

[A Nerd]

There were no rebel armies nearby, though he could have been going to bribe someone out west after I clicked end turn. I didn't follow him there so I don't know. I just thought it might have been neat however, because once Useugi is gone, Imagawa (who was the bribing emassary), is the next target!