1.3 RTW Comments

[Jambo]

Last night in a large battle versus the AI Celts in which I had two armies versus their one, they had a tendency to use their slingers in melee situations. It seemed that they also had trouble firing at will when I was clearly in range.

It wasn't consistent throughout the battle, since at times they did manage to shoot and cause damage, but whenever my cav in particular had their backs to them they'd charge and proceed to get massacred as the cav then turned to face them.

I play on Hard battle difficulty so the bonus to attack may play some role in the AI's poor decision making. Does the plus to attack at Hard also get added to the missile attack value? Or is it simply the melee stat?

Strange.

[Puzz3D]

Last night in a campaign battle I had 120 Julii men attacked by a 750 man Brutii AI army. I didn't have any ranged units and waited on a hill. The Brutii army moved up in a semi-circle around my army and stopped. They had one archer auxilia behind their line protected by a melee unit. The archer fired at my men for about 5 minutes killing some. The AI then charged with its main line, the archer unit stopped shooting so as to not hit their own men and it moved forward.

[Red Harvest]

Last night in a large battle versus the AI Celts in which I had two armies versus their one, they had a tendency to use their slingers in melee situations. It seemed that they also had trouble firing at will when I was clearly in range.

It wasn't consistent throughout the battle, since at times they did manage to shoot and cause damage, but whenever my cav in particular had their backs to them they'd charge and proceed to get massacred as the cav then turned to face them.

Yes, that is about what I normally see as well. Sometimes they shoot a little, sometimes they stand there and do nothing, sometimes they charge...often in the same battle. A lot of piecemeal work too, feeding in one unit at a time.

There is definitely an issue with the AI using skirmishers or whatever is close to try to charge the back of cav, etc.

[Jambo]

Is it just an issue with slingers or short ranged units like skirmishers? Does increasing their range make them operate more cohesively?

The battle I had was rather unusual in that they AI had to split its forces to deal with my two attacking armies approaching from different directions.

[Red Harvest]

Is it just an issue with slingers or short ranged units like skirmishers? Does increasing their range make them operate more cohesively?

I see the same with slingers, archers, and javelins. Range probably helps, because it makes them more likely to get a "shoot" signal before something else happens closer to them; but all three still prefer to enter melee rather than to stand and shoot.

You can kill off the Numidian missile cav fairly easily now. They come rushing forward at other Numidian cav or skirmishers, trying to scare them away. If you take the men off skirmish, the cav will take some casualties then decide to complete the charge. If you have cavalry behind, etc. then it is fairly easy to charge the Numidian cav and finish them as they make contact. No need to chase them down anymore.

[Puzz3D]

Last night in a large battle versus the AI Celts in which I had two armies versus their one, they had a tendency to use their slingers in melee situations. It seemed that they also had trouble firing at will when I was clearly in range.

I play campaign on medium difficulty, and I'm seeing ranged units hang back and shoot. Of course, they don't shoot if one of their own units might get hit. I'll watch the behavior of AI ranged units more closely in future battles.

It wasn't consistent throughout the battle, since at times they did manage to shoot and cause damage, but whenever my cav in particular had their backs to them they'd charge and proceed to get massacred as the cav then turned to face them.

I think the AI is overestimating it's chances to win in melee even in frontal fighting. Also when making a rear attack, I don't think the AI considers that your men will turn around once they are engaged. I think it's just looking at the combat comparision of its unit vs the back of your unit which is a huge advantage in RTW. I've watched a lot of individuals fighting in RTW, and it's almost a sure kill when striking at a man's back.

I play on Hard battle difficulty so the bonus to attack may play some role in the AI's poor decision making. Does the plus to attack at Hard also get added to the missile attack value? Or is it simply the melee stat?

I don't know, but, if melee capability is what's being used to make the decision to charge, it doesn't matter if missle attack is affected.

[Red Harvest]

23. I had forgotten to check earlier, but one improvement with 1.3 is that two new horse skeletons (speeds) have been added. The new ones are:
fs_medium_horse
fs_cataphract_horse

In testing the speed hierarchy is as follows (fastest to slowest):
fs_fast_horse = light horse
fs_medium_horse = medium horse (and "generals horse")
fs_horse = heavy horse
fs_cataphract_horse =cataphract horse

The cataphracts are in between camels and heavy horse in speed. (There doesn't seem to be any speed penalty for cataphract camels though, as there is only one skeleton.

The choices of horse for various units are still a bit different than what one might expect: equites are on light horse for example, meaning they can keep up with Numidian cav and the like, something they were incapable of. However, one now has the power to fix this to a greater degree: (and chariot speeds too, since you can swap out their mounts!)

[Belenus]

The AI is acting kind of strange when I have a reinforcement army on the battlefield. What happens is if I enter a battle, and the reinforcements are on the other side of the enemy, (for example, I'm entering from the north, my reinforcements are coming from the SW, and the enemy is coming from the SE), the enemy army will get stuck constantly running it's army around to face both my army and the reinforcements, even if my reinforcments are a few units of Hastaii. All the constant running around makes the enemy army tired, making it too easy to rout them with one charge. It helps when I'm outnumbered, but it doesn't help me kill most of the enemy forces since they all run at the first hit.