What is the best way to balance out the combat against the AI in battles (campaign)?

[VikingPower]

What I have experienced in the campaign battles that it is of little consequence how much help the AI gets from money and hard difficulty because their tactics will always be
predictable and can always be beaten by the the same method, so I am just wondering how you can balance it out through the combination of your own army and what kinds of units you choose.

Like do you think that you should just have a lot of low/medium tech units as a 20 unit army, OR if you have a high tech units then do you think that maybe a 12-14 units should be sufficient? For I really want to be forced into applying a new tactics and learn anything at all from it.

For when I did play a campaign for about a 1-2 years ago then I felt like all the recent effort in building up the economy and such before the actual battles was similar to one parable of Aesop, which is the following:

The Mountains in Labour


One day the Countrymen noticed that the Mountains were in
labour; smoke came out of their summits, the earth was quaking at
their feet, trees were crashing, and huge rocks were tumbling.
They felt sure that something horrible was going to happen. They
all gathered together in one place to see what terrible thing this
could be. They waited and they waited, but nothing came. At last
there was a still more violent earthquake, and a huge gap appeared
in the side of the Mountains. They all fell down upon their knees
and waited. At last, and at last, a teeny, tiny mouse poked its
little head and bristles out of the gap and came running down
towards them, and ever after they used to say:

"Much outcry, little outcome."

[QuintusSertorius]

Use the cheats. When the AI throws a half-arsed stack of 5 units and none of them any good, and you have a full stack ready for anything, spawn additional units in theirs.

Furthermore, never field a full stack of 20 units yourself. I tend to limit mine to 15 units maximum. I tend to have one army per 3-4 settlements, without using them as garrisons or retraining. Maximum of three pure missile units (archers, slingers, etc) in a stack. Limit your elites to one or two units (I often have none). And so on.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

If you are really daring, you can designate the majority of your army under AI control and simply command your generals bodyguard and maybe a cavalry wing. That tends to even the playing field.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Use the cheats. When the AI throws a half-arsed stack of 5 units and none of them any good, and you have a full stack ready for anything, spawn additional units in theirs.

But if you have a full stack, and the AI has 5 units, the AI army should just retreat when you attack it. Let them retreat, just drive it away, preferably into a town so that it won't come out again until the AI have recruited more units.

[QuintusSertorius]

But if you have a full stack, and the AI has 5 units, the AI army should just retreat when you attack it. Let them retreat, just drive it away, preferably into a town so that it won't come out again until the AI have recruited more units.

Doesn't happen, generally. The AI is too stupid to do that. Easier to add units to it and get a good battle.

[rotten]

Use more historical compositions and mediocre units (hippeis, pantodapoi, equites etc; the units you'll find as "surprising bad" in that very entertaining topic). I'm a quality nut (which is why I hate my low-grade Hai armies of the current campaign) but if you're not, and you're constantly fielding units which are just plain better in the field than the AI's, you'll slaughter them without much hardship, and even without being "super gosu" as someone put it.

[QuintusSertorius]

Use more historical compositions and mediocre units (hippeis, pantodapoi, equites etc; the units you'll find as "surprising bad" in that very entertaining topic). I'm a quality nut (which is why I hate my low-grade Hai armies of the current campaign) but if you're not, and you're constantly fielding units which are just plain better in the field than the AI's, you'll slaughter them without much hardship, and even without being "super gosu" as someone put it.

Agreed on historicity, I tend to aim for feasibility and economy rather than pure effectiveness. That's why having experimented with thorakitai as the centre of my line (who were very effective), I removed them. They're better than classical hoplites who make up the rest of the centre, but they're also supposed to be the later development of the peltastai/thureohoroi evolution. So I shouldn't really be recruiting them for a while yet. I now have an all-hoplite centre (3 units of classicals) for my Pergamene armies.

There are a few mid-range units that are really good for their cost. Mostly from the universally available (as mercs and regionals) Greek roster - classical hoplites, peltastai, Thracian cavalry. Having experience and weapon/armour upgrades from buildings can turn ordinary units into surprisingly effective ones. Add human generaliship and it obviates the need for elites or any high-end units.

But I agree, even with mediocre or ordinary units, in a smaller-than-full-stack army, you'll still tend to beat an AI full stack. Plus that sort of army is a lot cheaper and easier to resupply after you have losses.

[Blxz]

Field smaller armies... I don't think I have ever had a 20 unit stack, I am way too cheap for that.

Try to limit the armies you field. Just coz you can afford 6 fullstacks of TAB's doesn't mean that its the best choice to wipe out 2 province Pontus....for example.

Make things intentionally difficult. Don't recruit units until you are under attack. Avoid gamey tactics. Change your tactics from the usual and try new stuff. Do the unexpected in your campaigns....I invaded the baltic and steppes as my first order of business in my sweboz game. THAT forced a real re-think of how I conduct war. Once I beat the Saka I might go and invade south to the Saba.

If this is still to easy limit yourself to 10 unit armies.....9 unit armies.... and so on. If you are so good that you can win the whole game using a single unit, not retrained, to conquer the entire map then maybe go try a different game. Until then there are ways to make the game harder.

[QuintusSertorius]

I think being cheap does go a long way to balancing things. Full stacks are rarely necessary, and cost money.

I also use Force Diplomacy to enforce actual periods of peace (and thus trade that AI factions, as well as me, benefit from) rather than constant warfare. So once we've had a good few battles and some land has traded places (or not sometimes - I often take, destroy buildings, then return with ceasefire), we have peace for a time.

I also try to make sure there are pretexts for war, usually waiting for the AI to attack me first, rather than being the aggressor.

[rotten]

If you want to give the AI a chance, rather go for the expensive units. Then if you lose men you'll be damned sorry!

[Atraphoenix]

(Ctrl+A) + alt gr + click twice on enemy general = let the AI annihilate all of your army :-)

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I always focus on town-building as the highest priority, not my army. Thinking like a modern politician. The aim is to get rich, not conquer the world. Trying to get by with the smallest, cheapest army I possibly can. Recruiting as little as possible.

I give myself a house rule of only allowing myself 1 elite unit in my faction per town that I own. And by elite units, that includes FM bodyguards. So if I own 5 towns, and have 4 family members, then my faction is only allowed 1 other elite unit. If I have 5 towns and 5 FMs, then I'm not allowed any other elite units at all.

So even when I have 20 towns and 15 FMs, my powerful faction will still only have 5 elites who aren't FM bodyguards. There will only be 1 non-FM elite unit per army.

[Rahwana]

add some big economy bonus manually in EDB, and made the unit recruitment 0-turns, the AI will spam fullstacks after fullstacks, don't believe it? Play Roma Surrectum 2.

Huge economy bonus (NOT SCRIPTED ONE) will push the AI to recruit more, and actually, they will recruit somultaneously with 0 turns recruitments, when they have their money. So... you'll get big battles after battles, and most often you'll play your 2 stack vs 3 AI stack, that will even the playing field more since your another army will have suicidal generals as well, and you must do the best job to keep your "ally" alive

But when you are not a big fan of battles after battles, you'll found that boring