First Post! RTW: City Siege: Sad Story

[X6_861]

Hi everyone! I'm a long time lurker finally posting, since I discovered I'm one of the luck few who managed to get a hold of Rome Total War. I managed to get a hold of it at EB Games, and the guy said that he got so many that there was no real point in pre-ordering. Picked up the strategy guide too, though I wouldn't really recommend it. About 2/3 of it is just listing all the units and buildings, and that you can get from the game and the back of the map that comes with the game.

So, a warning to everyone, do not put your units under AI control when fighting. I had suffered some casualities from fighting the Greeks in my last city siege because I had a hard time coordinating my armies in the tight confines of the streets. So I decided that this time I would put my light troops under AI Captain's control once I had breached the city, thinking that this would leave me time to manuever my cavalry and heavy infantry into key areas.

Well, I breached the city and had my light infantry duke it out with the initial defenders. After I had routed them, I marched my heavy infantry into the city and activated the AI Captain for my light infantry group to deal with the second wave of defenders while I finished arranging my heavy troops. Unfortunately, instead of attacking the second wave, all the AI moved all the troops under it's control outside of the city, leaving me pinned with my flanks exposed . I didn't realize it till most of my infantry was well outside the city walls, and I took even heavier casulties this time around .

I eventually managed to get the light infantry back into the city, but never again will I use the AI option!

[Colovion]

So far I haven't heard anything good about putting your troops under AI control

oh and welcome!

[The Tuffen]

first of all welcome

Cheers for the advice - i wont have rome for another week but it is handy to know

[Tamur]

The only time I've found that the AI is useful is when you're on open ground, ready to simply commit your forces, and already have them in a good position --- group the units you DON'T want to do anything but charge, put them under AI control, and then worry about flanking with the ones that are still under your control.

I had hoped for some big improvements here, but the AI so far is a major liability in any other situation.

Still, for the situation described above (which occurs at some point in every non-seige battle) it's a nice feature leaving you free to do more complex maneuvers elsewhere.