Number of Battles and Strategic AI

[Tim]

Darius had 3 major battles against Alexander. In Granicus he fielded about 30.000 men, in Issus 55.000 and in Gaugamela about 500.000.

The first two figures are probably close to the actual number of men he had. But 500,000! No way. Those are Dragon Ball Z numbers.

[ChaosLord]

Ah, well if its just for sallying forth that would make sense. Sallying forth itself is a little odd, it handicaps the defender from the start, if you try to rush out your men get cramped and the enemy rushes you. Sallying forth shoudl let you deply your army outside the gates before the battle. Right now its easy just to sally forth, man the walls with archers and lure the enemy in to be slaughtered with no chance to get at you.

I've fought three "the Mighty"(Legendary Commander) AI chars, two were Gaul/Carthaginian Kings, and the other was the Egyptian heir. The two kings both put up a fight, but the Egyptian heir seperated from his army and I caught him out in the open. Which makes me wonder if the AI tries to move as far as it can sometimes, without taking into account all the troops in its armies. So with family members being cav they outrun their infantry on the campaign map and the like.

Mostly thing 2 stars is the best AI commanders I see, the Egyptians have been tossing alot of 2-3k stacks led by Captains at me. Which aren't as easy to kill as it sounds because they're chariot/bowmen/pharoh bowmen/desert axemen armies that are upgraded. Usually at least 2 experience, i've seen as high as 6 though.

That said, the AI really needs some way to get more govenors/generals, they just don't use them as often as the player. I really think bringing titles back would help, have the AI programmed to use them for only that region and it'll free up family members to lead armies.

[Ktonos]

Well Tim that is true. The historians of that era wrote for about 1.000.000 troops, but that is exagerating. It believed by modern historians that Darious fielded 400-500 thousand men. Macedonians 55.000. And they would propably had lost the battle if only Alexander did not routed Darious himself. The battlefield was so vast that when the right flank Persian cavalry smashed the Greek left they thought that they won the battle, and they could not see the rest of their army routing.