RTW: Auto-resolve battle woes

[Mythrantar]

I am baffled by the way the AI calculates victory or defeat when you tell it to autoresolve a battle. Almost every battle that I have asked the game to auto-resolved has resulted in defeat (from close to crushing) while whenever I took command of the battle personally I have almost always won (clear or heroic victories). The most ridiculous example was during the siege of Carthage with 3 armies of at least two chevron-units (silver pikemen, silver legionnaires, kataphracts, companion cavalry, archers), upgraded to silver or better (I am plying as the Seleucids: 160BC, controlling 34 provinces so far and at war with all the roman factions). The defenders (Scipii) sally forth and bring in reinforcements for a total of a little over 3000 men (mainly legionary cohorts but there are some urban cohorts in the mix as well, auxiliaries and 2 generals). -Every- time I asked the AI to resolve the battle it led to a crashing defeat (losing over 6000 men ). When I took command, I crushed them (they escaped with 50 men) while I lost 1700

In MTW this never happened: If you had the superiority in numbers and eqauallity in upgrade levels I never needed to command the battle personally.

So, what gives?

[Mythrantar]

I also forgot to add that my armies did not have generals and I am playing on very hard/manage all settlements, long Imperial Campaign.

[ZIM!!]

thats why your loosing your Army needs good leadership if its going to win a battle I suggest when fighting battles especially important ones get your best General in the Army this is designated by how many stars he has make sure he has more stars then your opponents general then try auto resolve and see what happens

[Indylavi]

Yeah, you need a General with some leadership. The other day my army of 368 men took out a rebel army of over 1,000 because I had a 4 star general in command. Just get a somebody with some rank and you'll be fine

[Tricky Lady]

Autoresolving battles in a TW game is very often equal to taking a huge risk (in terms of winning or losing the battle). I don't know how "experienced" you are with regard to the TW series and its battles, but generally you will do much better when fighting the battle yourself than having it autoresolved by the computer (even when your army doesn't have a good general).
I used to autoresolve a lot in MTW (especially towards the end of the game), and lost many more men then I would've lost when I would have fought the battles myself.
BTW, the AI has also a tendency to "kill" your general when you autoresolve a battle. Did this once yesterday in the Prologue campaign, when one of my faction leader's sons (an average general but good governor) faced an outnumbering Greek army (I believe it was something like 250 vs. 450). I autoresolved, and -BAM!- bye bye general. It was a crushing defeat. I don't think I would have managed to win this battle, but at least I would still have got my general.

[Indylavi]

Yeah, it's always best to play the battle yourself. If you have to autoresolve then try to gain as much advantage as you can. I also lost a General and even one of my gift units from the Senate.

[PFJ_baby_jesus]

I think the main strength of RTW is the ability to actually playout every battle (by saving inbetween), why auto-resolve anything?

Be a man (albeit a cruel & merciless one) & personally smite every enemy, go though the pockets of every corpse & start taking pride in every rebel you nail to a cross or barbarian head you stuff on top a of pointed stick

[Lemur]

I think the main strength of RTW is the ability to actually playout every battle (by saving inbetween), why auto-resolve anything?

WHy auto-resolve anything? How about, um, because you have an outside life, and you can't spend five hours a day playing, and you'd still like to complete the Imperial campaign?

It's all about options -- hard-core players should have the option to hand-fight and precisely position every little thing, and regular players should be able to pick which battles need personal attention. I'm almost done with a Scipii campaign, and I would never have been able to get near the end in a week if I'd been hand-fighting every skirmish.

[GonzoDave]

Is it me or do elephants always get mauled in autoresolve, regardless of the size and skill of your enemies?

[R3dD0g]

WHy auto-resolve anything? How about, um, because you have an outside life, and you can't spend five hours a day playing, and you'd still like to complete the Imperial campaign?

I have to agree with that. When wifey is looking on disapprovingly because the washer is leaking and I'm blowing up Gauls & Rebels, I need to resolve the problems as quick as I can.

I do play the battles against the towns, but there are just so many battles to fight that sometimes you gott'a autoresolve or you'll only get a few turns a night.

And the presence of a good general is imperative for autoresolve.

[PFJ_baby_jesus]

It's all about options -- hard-core players should have the option to hand-fight and precisely position every little thing, and regular players should be able to pick which battles need personal attention.

thats the point i was making :)

in MTW, i'd get 1/3 of the way through a campaign & find I'd 5 or 6 fairly substancial battles at the end of a turn

with NO chance to save in between

THATS where the 5hr seshes were coming in for me

the turn sequence of RTW & it's saving points is a major imporovement

now i can play for 45mins & still not have to cop out of ANY scaps

I'm almost done with a Scipii campaign, and I would never have been able to get near the end in a week if I'd been hand-fighting every skirmish.

why rush a campaign into a week?

i've waited a year since placing my order for this game ...

not saying that everyone should play the same but savouring the game has it's advantages until the MP scene has settled down ...

[Red Harvest]

I am a hardcore player and want to fight important battles, not the 10:1 slaughters, but autoresolve completely sucks! I wish there was an "auto-resolve, massive walk over" option. Right now I have to play many stupid little battles with one unit vs. my half or full stack. It is just a waste of time! If I use auto resolve I get ridiculous results and the little enemy army often retreats to lick its wounds and fight another day rather than being eliminated!

Here is a perfect (real) example of auto resolve as it normally plays out:

Enemy: 1 unit of vanilla archers

Me: 4 star general/family member, with lots of cav, a little infantry, and a unit of elephants.

Location: open desert, no where to hide

Result: "close victory", killed about 1/3rd of the archers, who escaped to fight another day. I lost nearly all of my elephant unit--1 beast left, and it would rout immediately on any desert map after that. I also lost as many other men as the enemy did.

And the naval auto-resolve is equally bad.

[Spartiate]

Hah.............you think that was bad.Massilia revolted against me so i brought 2 nearby armies in at the same time.With superior troops plus siege equipment and twice the number of troops i decided to auto-resolve.The result was a clear defeat with a dead family member and a lot of dead troops.No more auto-calc for me.

[Tricky Lady]

WHy auto-resolve anything? How about, um, because you have an outside life, and you can't spend five hours a day playing, and you'd still like to complete the Imperial campaign?

Voilà.
Even though I am not in such a position to claim that I actually have a life I do agree that sometimes playing each and every battle gets tedious. For instance, you play from 6pm to 2am, you get tired and want to shut down the game and exactly at that moment you get attacked by three close-by enemy armies... That's when I get very tempted to autoresolve, even though I know the results will probably be disastrous.
And before someone brings this argument up: yes I know you can exit the campaign before you get in a situation where you'll most likely be attacked by a few enemy armies, but I suppose you also all realise that this game is *far* too addictive to really *do* this

[NimitsTexan]

I only use autoresolve on battles that are so hopelesly lopsided (1000-200 type battles) there is no point in fighting. I would prefere to never us it, but if I had to fight out everytime some Gallic warlord with a couple hundred swordsmen tried to attack one of my legions, it would take me siz months to play a campaign.

[sapi]

I try not to autoresolve unless i am really pressed for time, with wars on all fronts. I think that the computer heavily weights the general's command rating, but, as other people have said, it's a risk between using a good general on autoresolve and having a better chance of winning, and maybe losing that general thanks to the AI's suicide tactics.

[Red Harvest]

I don't think it weights the command rating much at all. It seems almost entirely random from the half dozen times I've used it. Then again, the pre-battle screen that shows the "balance of forces" seems pretty whacked at times too.

Perhaps auto-resolve assumes the human will use the AI's patented "suicide daimyo" charge?

[bigredlemon]

I attacked a group of only peasants (60 men) with 3 equites and a 5 star general.

Auto resolve result:

they lost 40 pesants

I lost 25 equities AND my general.

how is this even possible? they could have all gotten off their horses, picked up a butter knife, and still come out on top after charging into the enemy

[DisruptorX]

Is it me or do elephants always get mauled in autoresolve, regardless of the size and skill of your enemies?

YES. I lose elephants and then nothing else when I autocalc.
What the heck.