AI Aggressiveness/Competence issues

[richarnd]

I'm having some problems with the AI aggressiveness in Vanilla RTW at both Medium and Hard campaign difficulty. Before I go ahead and see if moving on to VH corrects the problem, I'd like to find out from those with more experience if I'm doing something wrong or if this is a known issue.

basically, the AI rarely seems to take territory beyond a token settlement or two during the first few turns. Later, some factions do get into knock-down wars, but the factions that are supposed to expand (primarily the roman factions) do not.

Example: In two successive campaigns at Hard campaign difficulty, the following happened each time:

1) Julii took Caralis. In one of the two, they did not even take Segesta. They then stopped expanding.
2) Brutii took Apollonia, then stopped.
3) Scipii besieged Syracuse, then broke off the siege.
4) Carthage did nothing (that I could see - deeper Africa was in Fog of War)

My initial campaigns were as the Julii (like everyone), and I did not notice this provblem then. In fact, both the Brutii and Scipii expanded significantly, taking most of Greece and all of Sicily, respectively. Carthage did seem to be pretty weak, but from what I can gather I'm not the first to have noticed this.

My primary concern is with the Julii. The Brutii seem to be OK, if a lot slower in expanding than I am when I play them. The Scipii I am less confident of, but my data's not good because I played factions in their area in the tests and made their life somewhat difficult.

When i play as the Julii, taking Mediolanum and Patavium are priorities - I take them as soon as I am strong enough, sometimes even ignoring a senate mission to take Caralis. I don't expect the AI to do this, but not mounting an attack within 15-20 turns is a problem. In one game as Brutii I had become rich enough to buy Patavium and give it to the Juliii before they had even taken a 5th settlement.

Is this in line with your experiences? If so, would moving up to VH help correct the problem?

I initially thought the problem might be due to my installing the Cherry Vanilla Pack, but not only does that not make sense given what I know about the changes made, it also doesn't explain the problem persisting even when I reverted to vanilla RTW....

[Ldvs]

Besides Carthage and the Seleucid Empire that are always defeated very quickly I haven't noticed any troubles, the Roman faction are very aggressive, especially the Brutii and Scipii. I play on VH settings but my first campaign was on H and I didn't encounter such problems.

[Colovion]

Your problems have nothing to with the Cherry Vanilla pack, as you rightfully assumed.

All your concerns are valid, and I share the same ones. In fact, I've found that AI factions have an incredibly difficult time assaulting and conquering settlements held by rebels and I've seen a dozen or more of the AI's units loitering about outside of the rebel-held settlement and never seiging it, or if they do - they always back off eventually. I just sit and hope that CA is building a mammoth of a patch at the moment.

[*Ringo*]

In my experience the Julii do have a problem expanding, like yourself, i always capture Mediolanum and give them as a gift. Once they have that region they often expand slowly into Gaul. If you don't "help them out" they seem to pile armies directly into Gaul without any proper support. This often ends with Julii stacks strung out and picked off at will by the Gauls. Not very becoming of the Roman strategic genius that i was lead to believe they had!

I also don't think (from memory) Carthage have ever captured any regions in any of my campaigns so far. I'll be happy expanding my empire and get the message that Carthage has been wiped out!!! I've not even fought against them once yet! (Except for historical battles)

I have taken Spartan's advice now though and tweaked the AI personalities. This is yet to have an effect until i start a new campaign, so i guess we'll see how it turns out.

*Ringo*

[Slyspy]

In my game as Carthage I hold two cities in Sciliy. The Greeks still have their one. Both of us are at war with th Romans. The Romans (Brutii and Scipii) constantly land piddling units of troops who consequently do nothing, just building up until I kill them. They don't come near me and do not try to besiege the Greek town, just stand next to it. There is also a large Greek stack on the island, but this does nothing to the Roman stacks. So everyone just stands around, and generals die of old age (unless I get them first)! Also the Greeks will not ally with me despite the threat of Rome. Neither will the Egyptians, the Spanish, the Gauls or the Numidians. Very strange.

[Didz]

In my game (Brutii: Normal) the Julii have managed to conquer most of Gaul and Spain, whilst the Scipii managed to build an empire in north Africa. Britannia also seems to be doing well and I have noticed some British provinces as far east as Northern Macedonia.

However, I agree that the AI does seem to take multiple attempts at capturing rebel cities, rarely sending a large enough force to do the job.

[Thaum]

In my game as Carthage I hold two cities in Sciliy. The Greeks still have their one. Both of us are at war with th Romans. The Romans (Brutii and Scipii) constantly land piddling units of troops who consequently do nothing, just building up until I kill them. They don't come near me and do not try to besiege the Greek town, just stand next to it. There is also a large Greek stack on the island, but this does nothing to the Roman stacks. So everyone just stands around, and generals die of old age (unless I get them first)! Also the Greeks will not ally with me despite the threat of Rome. Neither will the Egyptians, the Spanish, the Gauls or the Numidians. Very strange.

OT
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts or even alliances Slyspy. I also was in the same position as you, however with the Greeks as my allies. Then the turn-coat bastards stabbed me in the back and took both my cities in Sicily.

That big stack that they have is a whole load of armoured hoplites which I could not kill with anything I had on the island. I had no sligners or skirmishers. I eventually had to bribe (something I never do) them to get rid of them as all my main armies (and Generals) were either campaigning or seiging in Numidia, Rome, Spain and North Italy and I was really Stretched at the time. Would have lost the game if I did not bribe. Anyway, my point is exterminate them as soon as you can. Lousy double crossing Greeks ;)

As for the the main point. Yeah I have noticed that once the AI has achieved certain objectives, it tends to sit on its hands. I have only played as Julii and Cartage, but not one of the Roman factions has tried to launch an assault against Cartage. Even though they control the seas. This would make control of the seas a lot more important (from a stragetic point of view). Apart from that having great fun with my War elephants.........Squish squish little Roman..... haha