RTW v1.5 custom battle and replay test

[Jambo]

Yeah it's a real shame the AI still has difficulty with ranged units. The problem isn't fixed with 1.6/1.5 and the AI still has a suicidal tendency to use its skirmishing foot units in melee situations when it clearly doesn't have to. Surprisingly the AI seems to be better with mounted skirmishing units...

[professorspatula]

The AI could definitely improve on its use of archers. I think it has improved somewhat with its javelin skirmishers though. I find myself having skirmisher duals much more, and the AI typically sends some infantry ahead of its skirmishers which makes my own skirmishers retreat, giving its own ones a chance to launch an uncontested volley of pointy spears. Hence I return the favour by sending my own infantry or cavalry forward to force their's back again. I've had a few battles now where much of the opening action in the battle is a series of skirmishing and pre-emptitive charges by both sides, and the main fight doesn't occur until most of the missiles are spent. The AI definitely seems more organised than before, though its still restricted by tight formation issues and there's not enough pro-activeness about it.

The AI is now basically at the level I'd expect it to be when the game was first released.

[Puzz3D]

The AI is now basically at the level I'd expect it to be when the game was first released.

That's a good point, and I feel the same way. Only now is the game deserving of the 92% rating it got upon release. Unfortunately, due the the massive number of problems that had to be addressed in the game over the past year, not all of the fine tuning that might have been accomplished could be done.

I'll continue to play down to the AI to make the game more interesting. At least the game is at a point now where I actually feel like playing it.

[Red Harvest]

I agree wholeheartedly with these comments. The game is just now reaching what I would consider a release state. This should have been the starting point for enhancement and fine tuning, NOT the endpoint.

If the game had been released in this state, I would have been happy with it, expecting patches to work out issues that were noted. I would have been ready to buy BI at release (as I did with MI and VI.)