Not often, but sometimes the AI surprises

**Old Celt** · 04-29-2005, 18:25

One of my favorite tactics is to load up a few units on a ship and go take Kydonia as soon as I can afford it. The location is very good for trade, and Kydonia yields great income. I probably have more than 500 gameplay hours in RTW, and had never seen the AI attack Kydonia other than blockades. Until last night.

I'm playing as Numidia, and didn't bother much about defenses for Kydonia because I'd never seen the AI attack there. I had about 12 total units on the island and a stockade wall. At least 4 of the units were peasants. Luckily, I had 3 generals there, because of the luck of adoption placement, and a child coming of age there. I had 2 Numidian jav cav, and a few skirmishers. Much to my surprise, Thrace came out of nowhere and dropped a full stack on my island! They had at least 6 falxmen, 2 cavalry, several units of levy pikes, several militia hoplites, an archer unit, and some skirmishers. No general. They had no movement left after landing, so couldn't lay siege that turn.

I decided to meet them in the field, but had very little hope of winning. I took all my non - peasant units out to attack, and let the AI control the peasants. It was a very tough battle, but by using all my cav units together, I was able to create flanking opportunities for the skirmishers and peasants. I was surprised to win, but that the AI made the attack at all really amazed me. You would think that you had seen it all after 500 hours, but there still are some surprises.

**Dutch_guy** · 04-29-2005, 18:41

nice to hear , that the AI can and sometimes will actually do surprising / weird things.
What is also strange is that Thrace attacked you , not the Greec nor the Macadonians, who have a much better chnace off getting to the Island
but still , it sounded like a good experiance

**Craterus** · 04-29-2005, 18:47

Maybe Greece and Macedon had all ready been knocked out by the boring, overpowered, predictable Romans.

**Old Celt** · 04-29-2005, 19:10

Heh, hard to tell when you are Numidia. It's tough to survive so you don't have the luxury of a lot of needless spies or diplomats running around. I have an alliance with Greece and as far as I could see, they had only Rhodes left. I think Macedon had 1 province left, but not sure. Thrace was completely a mystery to me as I didn't venture that far.

I had another strange attack on an island with the Scipii attacking Palma. I had all of Sicily and was blockading Capua. Instead of trying to get Sicily back, they dropped off their troops at Palma. I had good defenses there and really "maced them good" as Homer Simpson would say.

BTW, I really recommend Numidia highly if you like lots of tense difficult battles. While you are trying to build up your economy, Egypt always builds a bunch of stacks to send after your eastern borders. It's always a tough and entertaining war to beat Egypt down. They are the faction I love to hate!

**katank** · 04-29-2005, 22:29

That is except for Numidia's eastern blitz. This involves storming into Thebes before a wall is built, turning it into an archer factory and starting to take over the Nile delta. This can turn Numidia's economy around nicely combined with attacks upon Carthage and Thapsus.

**Viking** · 04-30-2005, 09:55

Regarding Kydonia and Crete, I`ve once seen it conquered by the Greeks, without me being involved. That was also a fun experience.

And now there`s a stone wall around Crete, I think the greeks likes the place.
But then again the romans are about to destroy the Greek Cities

Originally Posted by katank

That is except for Numidia's eastern blitz. This involves storming into Thebes before a wall is built, turning it into an archer factory and starting to take over the Nile delta. This can turn Numidia's economy around nicely combined with attacks upon Carthage and Thapsus.

Thanks for the tip!

**PseRamesses** · 05-02-2005, 13:34

In my current RTR game as the Seleucids the Macedonians has taken out Greece and Thrace. Subdued Dacia into a protectorate and allied with the Romans and SPQR. Currently they are at war with.... no one!!! and haven´t been for well over 20 turns??? I do hope they are building up to invade me in Asia Minor ´cause I do want Kydonia, Chalcis and Mytilene. If that doesn´t stop them I´ll move on Sparta and Corinth, with the last wonder I don´t own, and put a fort at the Peloponnesan strip....mmm yummy! Remember the battle at Thermopylae? Muuuahahhhahha!

**Bhruic** · 05-02-2005, 21:53

It's interesting, I actually saw the AI pull off a great move, except it didn't work.

I attacked a rebel army of 2 warbands and 1 skirmisher warband with my spear warband. I had 2 spear warbands and 1 peasant unit as reinforcements. I moved my one spear warband army in towards their forces, expecting them to just stand there, while my reinforcements marched towards the battle. To my surprise, one of the warbands split off. He ended up completely circling around the one spear warband, and attacked from what would have been the rear (I changed their facing to take the charge).

I was even more surprised to see the second warband charge from the now-rear, while the skirmisher warband was off delaying the reinforcements.

Surprisingly, however, being sandwiched between two warbands didn't faze my spear warband much. Sure, they took a few loses from the initial charge, but they managed to rout the unit attacking their front, and cause the second unit to withdraw from the fight.

Still, it was a good maneuver, and done quite well. Had they had some quality units (or a decent general), I'm sure I would have lost that part of the fight.

Bh

**dismal** · 05-02-2005, 22:46

Once while playing Scipii, I saw Thrace land a stack near Messana a couple times, but the next turn they loaded back up and left.

Maybe Thrace's AI (known as "sailor napoleon") is more likely to move units by ship.