AI in battles can get real stupid at times!

[yeahme]

Overall I think CA has improved the AIs in the real time battles, but more improvements are still in need. Several times I was out numbered about 3:1 and defending after refusing to seige the castle... I was like cool so CA actually makes a real effort to have people lay seige because of the massive enemy reinforcement for not doing so. But what I realized was that defending the massive 3000+ army with my 1000+ men is actually easier than attacking the castle! I lined about 7 groups of arbalests and the stupid AI just sends in groups after groups of about 3-4 army into my ray of arrows! After shooting and killing about 75% of the soliders in the groups they would just run away! Absolutly no organized attacks at all! AI just sends little groups after groups into my arrows and gets wiped out! This is a serious problem I think that needs to be look at! AI should instead organize the entire army for an attack and when that army fails... allow the incomming reinforcements to wait and form another big army and then attack together again. Stop sending in small groups of man and get shoot at!

[Papewaio]

Level of difficulty of the game?
Rank of opposing general?

[Swoosh So]

lOL of course its easier to defend than attack a castle otherwise why have them

[yeahme]

wow you guys sure reply fast! yeah the level of the game was on both hard and expert... there were both filled with 3 to 4 star generals in the army and my general was of 4th rank himself. Another problem is the with the bridge defense... The enemy seems to run whatever army across that bridge including still loaded archers and arbalests! Please have a lil more organization that's all i hope for. Other than that the AI is great at doing other attacks... especially skirmishes and stuff!

[Swoosh So]

I always hated with shogun how archers and muskets would march right into my cavalry!! i mean come on thats abit dizzy

[Papewaio]

On hard and expert with good generals that ain't a good thing to hear.

I was hoping you would say easy or normal with low star generals.

[Swoosh So]

Dont trust yeahme look at the size of his nose!

[yeahme]

Quote Originally posted by Swoosh So:
Dont trust yeahme look at the size of his nose![/QUOTE]

Hey that's a good one! Didn't even see that! LOL!

[hach]

Yeahme

Did you have unlimited ammo on?
Perhaps the AI was banking on your Missile troops running out of ammo?
But from the amount of troops you killed i can oonly assume you had this option checked?

Hach

[yeahme]

hach,

No I do not have unlimited ammo on... all settings are under default except unit size to medium. As you prob know the arbalests fires at a much slower rate than archers but more accurate and powerful especially against armored troops. They are normally capable of lasting through a long battle before running out of ammo. The fire at will option is not checked as i pick and choose when and where. This is a very powerful tactic/unit if used correctly... but again my biggest complaint is the lack of organization from enemy army... had they attacked me in an organized all together fashion there is no way that my arrows can do that much damage. And the reinforcements really come in small groups after groups towards my well stationed arbalests.

yeahme

[Ii Naomasa]

The AI does seem to have problems regrouping itself when reinforcements come. It often just keeps rushing the new troops up to the messy line of scrimage (which often results in them being ganged up on by two or three of my units...if I don't decide to just try to spook the unit and send everyone charging at them for twenty yards. It does tend to make large battle defenses almost boring because you rarely will face a cohesive opposition once the first wave it broken.

I'm curious about what causes the computer to just keep throwing men away like such without much thought, because I HAVE seen it take a moment to rearrange an incoming set of troops, so it's not like it's just completely lacking in that aspect.

My favorite AI tactic so far has been one battle where my English faced off against an equal amount of HRE units. Because they weakened and few in number, I hid two highlander units and a light cav. force in the woods on the side of the battlefield to use as flankers once the battle got underway. While they were waiting patiently, staring out over the valley full of enemy below, they heard the sound of horses to their left. The AI had sent two cav units down the wooded side of the map to try to flank me. Had I not had my three units there that jumped them and scared them off, I actually might have had some serious casualties, if not problems, when they came charging out of the woods.

[Kalisari]

Weird...
I've never gotten that when I was playing hard difficulty

They always form a long line which surrounds me, and then charges in from all sides

[Karmakaze]

Quote Originally posted by yeahme:
wow you guys sure reply fast! yeah the level of the game was on both hard and expert... there were both filled with 3 to 4 star generals in the army and my general was of 4th rank himself. [/QUOTE]

YOUR men/generals are all 3-4 stars, but what about the attacking general? If you were hit by a 1-2 star general i could see this happening..

Or did i misunderstand your reply?

[yeahme]

Karmakaze,

I meant the enemy's generals are consisted of 3-4 stars and mine was of a 4 star. When the AI decides to attack while their province is over taken by you outside their castle they normally send, it not all, most of their armys from the neighoring provinces. Therefore it results in mix of many different ranking enemy generals in the attack. Give it a try with the arbalest (very powerful) and lined up about 7-8 groups of them... you'll see your enemy run! Once they start running away they just again send small disorganized groups after groups into your arrows. Do not bother chasing them, b/c if you do your arbalest becomes useless. You can however, use your cavalry and do a chase return tactic. Just gotta make sure the cavalries dont over do it and end up in the reinforced enemy's hand. And just to add a lil more fact: I was playing the Italians being attacked from the Hungarian, so i duuno, maybe the Hungarian army is very weak? But then again they did out numbered me 3:1.

[Kraxis]

Hm... could be he (the enemy general) had the vice where he gets -2 Command on attack or something, and then it is not unlikely that happened.

I have only had good experiences with good generals.
The first battle I had with the Turks, as the Byz were full of Sun Tzu's teachings. Deviding my forces, advantage of forces available... I only won because my Trebizond Archers were able to repel a Horse Archer charge in melee.

[Forward Observer]

Playing on the normal level, I have had some of the battles like you mention, but I have also had just as many battles where the A.I. was smart and suckered me in. I have also been flanked from both sides at once. It seems to be a bit random, but the smart attacks occur more with the higher ranks.

If you want to see this in action, start playing the instant battles, over and over again. A few will play out the same way almost every time, but there are others where the ememy starts from one of three or four different locations each time, and they make different maneuvers from each start, and this will also vary based on what you do with your army.

Sometimes they come head on, and sometimes they try to flank. Sometimes they send feeler units out which you can wipe out if you are careful, but I have also had a feeler unit suck some of my crack troops into trouble.

I think that on the whole it just simulates real life warfare. Some Generals are good, some are lucky, and are just plain stupid. Look at Custer.

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Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.

[This message has been edited by Forward Observer (edited 08-31-2002).]

[Gregoshi]

Ii Naomasa said:
Quote I'm curious about what causes the computer to just keep throwing men away like such without much thought[/QUOTE]

Substitute "computer" with "generals" and I'm sure many a soldier over the centuries has said the same thing.

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Gregoshi
A Member of Clan Doragon

[Gregoshi]

Actually, I had a battle in which the enemy shifted his forces from my front and moved left. This movement was at the extreme limit of my vision. The enemy moved through a small wooded area and came out the other side to set up on a small hill - well, about half of them came out of the woods. The other half stayed hidden in there waiting for me to attack. Unfortunately for them, I noticed the lack of numbers I was expecting to fight. Where the AI fell down was that when I did attack the "bait", they didn't spring the "trap". But I was none the less impressed that the AI would do that.

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Gregoshi
A Member of Clan Doragon

[Cheetah]

Shiro, Pape plz transfer this into PAF. thx

unless someone takes up the conversation

[Oda Matsu]

Gee. I have the same problem.

That is, when I'm psyched and take the time to arrange my forsec into battle groups, my attacks on the computer player are usually devastating. Sometimes however, the battle is too big, I'm too tired, and/or the computer has suckered me into a premature spear charge, in which case I find myself giving up on clever maneuvers and simply charging all my troops at their general/king. On more than one occasion this has led to disaster; as my attention is distracted with a pursuit somewhere, or responding to my own general getting ambushed, the computer player destroys my units piecemeal.

Anything CA can do about my wetware AI? When is the Prima book coming out?