RTW v1.5 custom battle and replay test

[Red Harvest]

Tried the same test, used my standard formation of archers in front. Tried on offense and defense. Slaughtered the AI both ways while giving only a few instructions. (E.g. Group march order, followed by sending each hastati to attack another hastati when the AI hastati started to attack.) Didn't even bother to give follow up instructions as the AI army was beaten by then.

The AI simply cannot deal with missile units in front of the player's line. It won't engage in intelligent counter missile fire/attrition. On defense it will march its archers foward and try to reach range to shoot at the hastati while taking whithering fire. Sometimes it fires a volley or two at the achers before moving forward toward the hastati. Meanwhile, my archers shred its ranged units. Then it sends forward the hastati, who get shot up along the way and rout as my FAW pila slaughter them when they try to engage piecemeal. Result 5:1 casualty ratio.

On offense the AI marched the hastati forward first getting shot up for awhile while its archers took position. It then sent the hastati toward my line, so I gave the standard attack command and engaged 1 vs 1. Took some missile casualties this way, but easily won the melee. Result 3:1 casualty ratio. Would have been far worse for the AI, but I took a "hands off" approach for the most part, and didn't do any 2 vs. 1 attacks or slam into the flanks or rear, or even chase around archers so that they could be mown down.

I don't see that much has changed in this kind of test.

[Red Harvest]

Earlier I did a test of AI hastati captain with an archer auxilia vs. my triarii captain and roman archer--archer in front on defense. The AI marched it's longer range auxilia forward through my fire, getting slaughtered without stopping to use its superior range. My triarii charged the hastati when they approached...melee was in the hastati's favor. My archers routed the auxilia, suffering 3 casualties. When the triarii routed my archers finished off the hastati as they tried to attack.


Puzz3D,

Your previous comments in other threads about the AI failing to account for missile casualties still hold true. The AI often ignores them with its own missile troops so that it can target melee units. Not a smart move as its ranged units are killed off before they can cause much damage. I don't know if it is because they have lower cost or lower melee stats or what, but the AI does not consider them worth targeting directly. It concedes the missile fight before melee.

[Puzz3D]

Puzz3D,

Your previous comments in other threads about the AI failing to account for missile casualties still hold true. The AI often ignores them with its own missile troops so that it can target melee units. Not a smart move as its ranged units are killed off before they can cause much damage. I don't know if it is because they have lower cost or lower melee stats or what, but the AI does not consider them worth targeting directly. It concedes the missile fight before melee.

The AI is shooting at what it considers the most valuable enemy units. I think it's looking at the melee stats to make this decision and also the armor rating. If you have two hastati and turn one of them around, the AI will shoot the one which has its back turned to it. I think by increasing the ammo and effectiveness of archers, RTW has exposed weakness in how the AI handles ranged units. It was always there even back in STW, but there shooting a 500 koku warrior monk with a 300 koku archer made a lot of sense since the warrior monk was the most powerful unit and it had low armor. Archers in STW have 28 arrows and with 4 second reload it uses all of it's ammo in just under 2 minutes of continuous fire, and it can kill an entire warrior monk unit. This is the AI that has been ported over to RTW.

When I play against the AI, I don't use manual targeting. I use fire-at-will and let the AI decide what to target. That way I'm under the same restriction as the AI in regard to what gets targetted. Likewise, I use the default formation given to me at the start of the battle with melee infantry in a single line flanked by cavalry with ranged units set behind the melee units. My idea being that this is the formation with which the AI has been designed to deal. The one exception is that if the AI puts my triarii in the line, I'll place them in reserve near my general. So, for the most part I play the AI's game in an attempt to give the AI army the best chance of beating me. This is also why I turned fatigue off since the AI doesn't know how to manage fatigue. The AI doesn't know it's men are going to get tired if it moves them just like it doesn't know that enemy ranged units can inflict casualties.

Playing down to the AI is what I feel I have to do to get better battles. I don't increase the difficulty level. I restrict what I do.