Phalanx and auto resolve

[sapi]

Has anyone else noticed how the phalanx isn't taken properly into account in auto resolve battles?

for an example, i had an army made up of armoured hopelites vs the romans. At first, i hit autoresolve. I had about 600 dead to 100 casualities inflicted. I re-loaded and fought the battle myself. Heroic Victory!?

Then, early in another greek campaign, i was defending sycrause from the scipii. I hit autoresolve and was slaughtered, only inflicting 100 casulaities. Again, i fought myself and killed the entire roman army for about 50 losses.

Now, i know vh difficulty puts penalties on auto-resolve, but this example proves it stupid.

I personally commanded the assault on sycrause (as the scipii), split my forces to attack two gates and charged. Against a phalanx, of course. I lost the battle badly. Autoresolve: 50 casualities to city captured!

The ai just fails to take into account the stopping power of the phalanx. (in the above scipii example, i lost so many men as the phalanx parked me within range of 4 towers and the gatehouse ;)

[Ziu]

Yea, auto-resolve is horrid.
Early in my first campaign I attacked a small settlement that was defended by one general and his bodyguard unit (40 odd men) with a 370 man army that included a general. I was defeated outright with my general dying!
That was the last time I ever used auto-resolve.

[sapi]

Adding another great phalanx story....

I started a custom battle, with me (as greeks) vs the 3 romans and the gauls, in a city siege. I used 8 units of 3gold, full upgrade spartan hopelites. The romans had a full army of legionary cohorts (no upgrade) and the gauls an army of chosen swordsmen.

I deployed my spartan hopelites to guard the streets. The enemy charged and the battle commenced, it lasted about 30 minutes.

End result: 4732 kills, 96 casualties. LOL

That is amazing. Vive la hopelite!

[Quillan]

Nothing is really taken into account in auto-resolve. I'm sure you've noticed there is a certain amount of rock/paper/scissors to the units in this game. If you put an army of 10 armored hoplites on the field in phalanx formation, and I had an army of 10 upgraded forester warband on the other side, you'd probably be dead to the man before you could get to mine. None of that is figured in when the game auto-resolves a battle. It's strictly a number crunch with a lot of randomness thrown in.

[chemchok]

The campaign difficulty setting you choose has a huge effect on auto-resolve. If you're playing with H/VH, expect some poor results.

[lars573]

The campaign difficulty setting you choose has a huge effect on auto-resolve. If you're playing with H/VH, expect some poor results.

Add to that lack of a general or a shitty one and you have your troops getting butchered. Also since I prefer to auto resolve I always play the game on medium or easy, plus that way I always win