the allied AI reinforcements suck

**Matheis** · 09-12-2005, 04:20

I was attacking rome today my house of juleis legions nearly outnumberd SQPDR by like 5000 to 3000 troops i sorround Rome with 4 legions of 1000+ men with seige equiptmen Followed by 3 reinforcement legions with 3100+ men combined. one legion from each direction. Well my 2 north legions was takeing heavy casuelties he pulls back the other north runs around to the south.

Meanwhile my legion from the south breaks through opens the gates pushes SPQD 50 or so yards halfway into town the battle is close i inflected about40% casuelties the enemy only like 45. Meanwhile my other legion from the south was just standing there doing nothing. SPQ brings in its heavy calvery at its last stand pushes back all my infantry so this is when i need my AI ally with triats and hoplites to come assisst me i see them running to the gates to back me up then at the last moment they walk past the gates towerds the west !!!!

I had pulled my troops back on top of the towers to keep the gates open for reinforcements.

Had the AI reinforcements arrived i would of captured the town but the dumbass ai runs past the open gate.

I hate replaying battles cause its kind of cheap and considerd cheating but this may be the only battle i will reply due to the ai not following orders cause this defeat destroyed 70% of my forces had the ai reinforcements followed orders i would of been saved and won the battle i think next time i wont set it on AI

**Matheis** · 09-12-2005, 05:08

Here is a quick battle map I put together

**Marquis of Roland** · 09-12-2005, 09:09

and that is why I never use AI reinforcements.

**Ciaran** · 09-12-2005, 11:13

They´re crap in sieges, that´s true, but in normal field battles they can handle themselves - sometimes. Playing with the Roman factions, it usually worked fine, but less so when playing something else. Especially if they´ve got Phalanx units the AI doesn´t perform that well, as it usually sends its units into battle as soon as they arrive on the map.

**Deus ret.** · 09-12-2005, 11:27

Yep, and if they start somewhat far off the merciless AI lets the units run over the entire battlefield, rendering them completely exhausted (=worthless) upon arrival in battle. Sadly you can't do anything about that, that's why it's best to shoulder the burden and command the troops yourself.

**professorspatula** · 09-12-2005, 12:07

Never use AI reinforcements in sieges. They're just too stupid.

I once had nearly 12000 Germans (4 armies, 3 were AI reinforcement armies) assault a huge Roman city with only stone walls. I was up against a rag-tag army of Scipii with 1200 defenders. My allies refused to use their ladders and siege towers and I ended up facing the Romans practically alone. Eventually my allies used about 1 ladder and siege tower between them, but the rest of them stood in front of the gates and towers and died. I lost the battle due to time restrictions, and I also lost nearly 8000 men. I never bothered to play an assault on a stone wall in a campaign again.

**Matheis** · 09-12-2005, 22:48

the seige on rome that i was attacking had epic walls so it was impossible to destroy with catapault or sap so i had to use ladders and seige towers but the seige towers would only let me put 1 unite in them i dont know why the wooden ones let me put more then 1 unite in but this one only 1.

**Deus ret.** · 09-13-2005, 01:32

? epic walls can't be taken down ? really?

**Oaty** · 09-13-2005, 01:52

The reason they ran all the way around was as soon as the A.I. selects a route in the pathing system it usually never selects a new route unless it engages, or a nearby unit makes it react.

So the best solution is to try to open the gate closest to the direction they are coming from before you open any others, or at least one that is closer to them.

Anyways as far as cities, it's my opinion they are way overdone for the A.I. to handle, at least large and huge cities. The A.I. can handle minor cities and less with a bit of difficulty but at least it can do something there.

The other problem is a unit might follow a path along the wall allowing them to be in range of enemy towers, getting themselves annilated.

**professorspatula** · 09-13-2005, 01:52

They can be taken down with onagers, it just takes about 6 years before the walls finally crumble iirc.

**Matheis** · 09-13-2005, 02:36

I have conquered rome today with minimel casueltys

what I did was I lured the main SPQ force into a trap I made them leave town to send help to there small brigade of only 80 men I then crushed the 80 men and set up a ambush in the forest and destroyed SPQR main legion killing their leader the surviving 70 troops fled back to rome where I layed seige and conquered the town with minimel casueltys.

There hier fled the town with about 600 men 12 monthes before and they turned into rebels I then dispatched a small unit and killed the hier destroying 595 of them 5 of them escaped.I then gatherd all my remaining legions from the battle of rome and tried to conquer the only neighboring scipio city the odds was even 1 on 1 unfortnitly i was defeated and sufferd sever casuties 3 of the 5 legions from the battle of rome died in this battle or fled the scipios has won this battle but now I am the richest nation i will hire massive mercanry armies and recruit more men then crush them!

The first man to there town gets a jug of my finest wine

MAY ROME LAUNCH INTO VICTORY YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

*RATTLE RATTLE* *BANG BANG*

**Zenicetus** · 09-13-2005, 05:06

AI reinforcements can be useful in seiges if you're sure you have enough spies that the gates wil be open. That pulls part of the enemy army away from your own attack, and (assuming favorable odds) gets it over with more quickly.

Sometimes I enjoy a nice carefully planned seige, where I want to take minimal casualties.... and those I do alone. But sometimes I just want to end it quickly to get on with the next objective. If the gates are opened by spies, then the losses suffered with AI army reinforcements aren't as bad as just auto-calcing through a seige.