Seldom mentioned Huge AI weakness

**Tyrac** · 12-17-2004, 18:05

It has probably been mentioned but have not seen it in all my trolling of various rtw sites.

The AI NEVER EVER attacks a unit you withdraw with on the strategic map.

If the small weak AI army the player attacks withdraws the player simply follows and 90% of the time is able to attack a second time. The AI player does not do this so the human player's field armies are INVULNERABLE! Outside of city seiges the human player gets to choose every single battle he or she fights!

In order to get a greater challenge, one of the things I do is I never withdraw. Try this out. It is VERY hard to not click the withdraw flag when a full enemy stack hits the 4 units you were sending home to get retrained or a solo leader that you were going to have govern one of your cities. What would your win loss record look like if you NEVER withdrew a field army?

Hey the AI can't run away from you so why should you be able to run away from them?

**Puzz3D** · 12-17-2004, 18:27

Actually, that has been pointed out before, and I believe CA is aware of the problem.

**Ellesthyan** · 12-17-2004, 18:31

Tyrac, this is not always true. I have been attacked by the same army (I admit, much to my suprise) after withdrawing from the earlier attack. In the same turn, mind that :)

**Fridge** · 12-17-2004, 18:33

That's a very good point, Tyrac.

Sort of noticed it happening, but never really considered it. And I'm guessing that's something that's hard-coded and not moddable. Gnrr. Unfortunately, your method of nixing this AI exploit depends entirely on the player having a certain amount of backbone and moral courage. Me, personally? Run away!

By the way, are you named after the popular UK neckwear emporium? In which case, I have a friend called Sokshoppe you might like to meet...

**Tyrac** · 12-17-2004, 18:36

Originally Posted by Fridge

By the way, are you named after the popular UK neckwear emporium? In which case, I have a friend called Sokshoppe you might like to meet...

I have been using this name in various forms online for about 10 years now and that joke (in its various forms) never ever gets old! _sarcasm_ ;)

Also I must admit sometimes I still withdraw..... but I always feel real bad about it afterwards. :)

**Sin Qua Non** · 12-17-2004, 19:27

The AI often attacks my same army twice in a turn. The twist on this is that I almost never see them use the same army to attack. They usually attack with 2 separate armies.

**Oaty** · 12-18-2004, 08:15

What I do is retreat that army to the city or nearest fort. That way it no longer blocks there path to there goal. The A.I. I do'nt ever target troops in your provinces(from my observations), they only target offending armies in there lands and target cities in your provinces.

Also another bad feature IMO is when you lose a battle it is automatically over. So let's say I had 1000 men on the battlefield and the A.I. had me down to 500 men when they all routed. those 500 men will be on the campaign map because the A.I. does not have the option to continue the battle and chase down all routers. Whereas the human can hunt them all down reducing those 500 men all the way down to zero. I'm almost tempted when it says continue/end battle to hit end battle so I'm atleast on the same level of fairness as the A.I.

But rarely do I have that problem of recieving a humilating defeat.