the allied AI reinforcements suck

[Deus ret.]

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

[Oaty]

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]

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

[Matheis]

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]

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.