Suicide commanders - a game killer?

[Morindin]

There are many AI flaws in the battles:

1.) Generals die too quickly.
Their troops do not protect them, they do not care much for their lives and die

- this usually sents the rest of the army routing, especially weaker enemies like the Gauls

2.) The AI waits for you to encircle it completely. Even MTW's AI walked simply higher or attacked or did something, in Rome it just waits.

3.) Sometimes Units just stand around and wait to die of arrow fire - till death.

4.) CTRL+A and rush through the gate/breach and you will probably win the Siege even if outnumbered.

5.) Cavalry Charges are powerful without end. I did not try Elephants yet, but I fear:

Battles usually end up with the "loser" having a loss ratio of 99-100%.

(Hard/Hard)

Add to this that I can bribe a full Army of Principes and Early Legionaries for some 3000 Gold with an untrained Diplomat.


This is really sad, as these factors all make the game worse than MTW, while it shines in so many aspects.

Dumbed down and sped up battles plus some flaws of the overall really greatly improved strategic map / interface (Micromanagement difficult due to lack of "cycle spies" button e.g.) are just sad.


Be honest - if this is 92% or 109% of 100... then there is something seriously wrong with the Hype!

1) Yes generals die quickly, but MOST generals are captians. The rest of your point only applies to the Gauls.
Most other stronger factions units fight for a looong time with or without their general. I had whittled a Carthagian Iberian infantry unit down to one man last night before it routed.

2) Every time I try to flank the AI it will break some of its army up to counter flank, this implies coming from behind, anywhere. The only times it seems to not do anything is if its defending on high ground or severly outnumbered. With larger numbers, ive seen plenty of times where the AI in RTW has done exactly what its done in MTW, positions itself on higher ground, move its forces out of missile range, send out fast units to engage my flanking cavalry, etc. Ive also seen it do, just like MTW, stupid things. Over all though this part seems improved apart from a few circumstances. See Below

3) Yes, this only happens though if you vastly outnumber it and the AI doesnt do anything, because any option is suicide! If the AI has a large army it wont sit there and let you pepper it with arrows.

4) The AI comes off its walls when you've breached the castle defenses and captured the gate in a siege. Again maybe against Gaul towns this tactic works, against a Carthagian/Greek army holed up with archers in a proper city, doubt it.

5) Cavalry charges get minced by their counter unit from all my experiance, both multiplayer and single player. Charging an infantry line is going to be devistating, but I felt thundering Knights charging an infantry line in MTW and killing maybe 5-6 guys was a bit underpowered. Remember all the cavalry is underpowered threads in the MTW multiplayer forums? Go back and read them.
Cavalry in RTW is undoubtadly much weaker in melee however. Perhaps their charge bonus is too strong for their cost, but the fact cavalry sucks in melee much worse than MTW cavalry ever did is a balancing act and realistic too (no stirrups etc)
War elephants are very strong, but they also cost 2600 and you get 12 for that cost.

6) The ratio in battles in RTW is pretty much the same as MTW 1.0 and MTW 1.1. The only difference is you take no prisoners. Since I hardly took prisoners in MTW, since you were always overflowing with money, the dread vices helped, and it saved you fighting the army again, this is hardly a problem.
Running cavalry though routers MTW 1.1 is the same as running cavalry though routers RTW, except the RTW routers dont magically dissappear like they've been abducted by aliens.
Also the maps are larger in RTW giving you more time to chase down all the routers and win decisively.

7)

Add to this that I can bribe a full Army of Principes and Early Legionaries for some 3000 Gold with an untrained Diplomat.

This is truely an exaggeration or a one off pot luck scenario. By the same account, its cost me over 3000 to bribe one army of those Spanish javelin thrower guys.