AI Controlled Army

[TheRiddler]

Hi all,

As a casual user, most of the AI issues don't seem to bother me too much (as in I don't really play often enough to notice them etc).

However, I was playing last night on E/E (I said I was a casual user!). I had a Numidian town surrounded with my large force (full stack including general) and a smaller force of cavalry and assorted other units (no general) that had been marched down from one of my cities - there was a full stack garrisoned in the Numidian town.

The Numidians sallyed to try and break the seige and sensibly attacked my smaller force - which I got to control during the battle and my large force was AI controlled.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had a tough battle - cavalry against spearman is not a pretty sight - had it been on anything other then Easy I probablywould have lost. My main query is around my main force- it did absolutely nothing all game except for march to the gates and fire arrows - now considering that they had an Onager, 2 Ballistas and a unit of merc elephants, why did they not try and break the wall down and help my smaller force? Is it because the Numidians attacked me and therefore the onus was on them to break the seige? If I hhad sat out the timer for a draw, what would have happened?

Finally (sorry for the long post) - does anyone know how the battle timer works? Why do I sometimes get 20 mins and sometimes 30 mins?

[IliaDN]

Only one idea about the army:
maybe just because of some AI bug?
P.S. You are lucky AI didn't get your general killed it's an often thing with reinforcements.

[bubbanator]

If you are playing the 1.2 patch, you can change set it so that you will control reinforcements. You can still only have 20 units on the feild at one time but I strongly recomend it over the AI control.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Why do I sometimes get 20 mins and sometimes 30 mins?

I think the game is assuming that if the terrain is flat, you'll easily win it, so gives you shorter time and vice-versa. I'm not exactly sure, but that's my view of the situation.

[Craterus]

I think I get 40 minutes for a siege. Big ones anyway.My siege of Athens was pretty big, I'd call it a pyrrhic victory, masssive loss of life on either side, mainly due to their arrow towers and annoying peltasts on top of the wall.

[Lord Hammerschmidt]

I may be mistaken here, but it's my understanding that the battle timer is a way to simulate the length of day, hence it is longer in summer, and shorter in winter. However, there seem to be discrepancies outside that simple formula, so perhaps there are other factors as well.

[Marquis of Roland]

Never let the AI control your reinforcements! The AI is stupid beyond belief: what kind of "intelligence" sends almost always sends the general careening through a wall of spears???

I've had the AI completely ruin carefully put together, veteran armies that, if used with ANY kind of intelligence, would have wiped out the enemy army without breaking a sweat. Instead, the AI will commit them piecemeal (with the general being first) and forget about elephants or chariots; if you give the AI control of these type of troops, they will run over your entire army to get to the enemy.

Whenever I fight any kind of battle, I will move all other armies far away so the AI won't ruin my silver/gold chevron armies that took me many, many turns to get them that experience.

[runes]

"Never let the AI control your reinforcements! The"

agreed. i had a small army and a sizeable army, facing up a gainst a good sized enemy. we were far apart, which was the problem. i controlled the smaller one because it had my favourite general.

his army charge the britons, and got completely wiped out (when i saw the vid for the death announcement, his captain was killed by peasants... yes, peasants... mind you, these were roman cavalry, possibly armoured)

so i rushed up with my tiny reinforcements and did all the dirty work.


paaaaathetic.