AI Blunders

[Melmoth the Wanderer]

I was defending one of my Greek cities from the Julii. When I came to deploy my units I stationed armoured hoplites at the open gates. When the battle started the Romans threw down their ladders, abandoned their seige towers and rushed my open gates. An entire army was held in the gateway by a single phallanx and were massacred by boiling oil. There was a great big pile of charred remains. It looked and sounded horrible.

Playing the Britons I stationed my chosen swordsmen at the end of a bridge and placed my light chariots and slingers on either side to catch the Julii in my crossfire. Again a full Roman army rushed the bridge and were massacred in a hail of arrows and rocks.

Does AI have a death wish?

[Wilhelm The Mediocre]

Yes.

[Rilder]

yea that happened a couple times in a pbem campaign i had started with me friends ^^ first by Carthage, then by the Scipii in syracruse spys had opened the gates for them and they came charging in, wasting elephants on me it was sweet

[Melmoth the Wanderer]

Yes, I've had elephants wander up to my gates only to get toasted - a Baba Q

[RemusAvenged]

My favorite typical AI blunder is when the enemy general rushes well ahead of the army straight into a spear unit and routes long before any one else comes.

I once had elephants that charged at my pigs. What a flamming mistake.

[The Darkhorn]

I'm not sure that this really counts as a blunder, but I routinely turn the Khan into a porcupine on the bridge when they attack Kiev in 1232 or 1233. He has no heirs and suddenly they are rebels!! This happens every game I play when I am in the east.

Xp

[Guns N Roses]

My favorite typical AI blunder is when the enemy general rushes well ahead of the army straight into a spear unit and routes long before any one else comes. .

Yes, that is my favorite blunder as well

The general unit charges at me first all of the time

[sbroadbent]

I had one battle where I believe my computer was drunk, or stoned.

I can't recall the specifics and unfortunately don't have the replay I saved. I was playing the Danes vs the Spanish, and I sent my Turcopoles out for some initial missile fire. What happened was very strange. As I lured the spanish troops out (mostly one at a time) they would approach, and then subsequently turn around and sit there taking arrows. After a few losses they'd either turn around and attempt to approach, or run back to their main forces. I moved up all the rest of my missile troops and continued to pelt the enemy. Every unit that approached would get to some point between their starting position, and my position, turn around and continue to take the missile fire.

There is even a moment when some Feudal Men at arms begins to charge my Turcopoles, and at the last moment they stop, turn around and keep taking it. It was as though they thought I'd be coming from the opposite direction and couldn't figure out why they were taking so much damage.

[Alexios]

I've experienced these kinds of things almost everytime I go into battle. I've even had the enemy general's unit approach my archers, stop for a few moments, take on heavy casualties from my arrow fire, then flee the battlefield with the rest of his army following. How stupid is that?!

What level of the game do you play on? I've seen these kinds of things happen while playing on the "normal" level, but have never played on "hard" or "expert." I'm about to move up and start playing my next game on "hard." I'm hoping to meet a more challenging AI.

I'm also wondering if there have been any improvements made to the AI in latter mods of MTW/VI or in RTW. It would be interesting to fight a more intelligent AI - perhaps one that would even deploy certain battlefield tactics that have been used throughout history, such as the pincer movement or double envelopment (or even better yet, an AI that can detect when I'm using a certain tactic, then take counter measures to try and stop it).

[Ludens]

What level of the game do you play on? I've seen these kinds of things happen while playing on the "normal" level, but have never played on "hard" or "expert." I'm about to move up and start playing my next game on "hard." I'm hoping to meet a more challenging AI.

I'm also wondering if there have been any improvements made to the AI in latter mods of MTW/VI or in RTW. It would be interesting to fight a more intelligent AI - perhaps one that would even deploy certain battlefield tactics that have been used throughout history, such as the pincer movement or double envelopment (or even better yet, an AI that can detect when I'm using a certain tactic, then take counter measures to try and stop it).

In M:TW and S:TW the battlefield A.I. got more canny as you increased difficulty level. For example expert A.I. would activily scout for ambushes if your visible army was smaller than the at the pre-battle screen. It also got a slight stat bonus for its units. The R:TW A.I. gets a big stat bonus but doesn't get any smarter.

A.I. in Total War is hardcoded, but we can alter it's preferences to some extent. Modifications for M:TW mainly focus on the strategic side. The XL mod increased farm income and decreased trade income thereby compensating for the A.I.'s inability to form ship lines. The MedMod changed building preferences so the A.I. focused more on economic development and ship productions. In both cases the A.I. generates enough money to field decent armies as opposed to peasant hordes. However, I don't think the battlefield A.I. was touched in either.

In R:TW the A.I. has got rather bad standard battlefield formations. DarthMod and DarthFormations improved this, leading to a more competent A.I. (though I heard some reports that DarthFormations actually makes the new 1.5-patch A.I. perform worse). Also slowing down combat improved performance, as the A.I. seems tuned for slower battles. I recently started playing with Europa Barbaorum Beta and so for I am quite impressed with the A.I.: it finally seems to work, even though the Beta still works in patch 1.2.

[Alexios]

Okay, thanks Ludens. Perhaps I'll just skip over "Hard" and go directly to "Expert" and play an MTW game on that setting to see how challenging it is. After that, I'll probably go ahead and install VI, which I purchased just the other day, then look at installing XL or one of the other mods.

So would you say the AI engine in RTW is superior to that in STW and MTW?

[Ludens]

Perhaps I'll just skip over "Hard" and go directly to "Expert" and play an MTW game on that setting to see how challenging it is.

If you want the most intelligent A.I., hard is sufficient by my knowledge. It also increases the combat stats of A.I. units with 10-15%: not so much you'd notice, but enough to give it an edge when equal units are fighting. On expert the A.I. gets a bonus of 30% as well +5 morale. The latter is important as it makes A.I. last far longer than yours. I do not know what the differences are on the campaignmap.

So would you say the AI engine in RTW is superior to that in STW and MTW?

Actually, I would say it's inferior to S:TW and M:TW. There has been a lot of debate about this in the Coloseum, and some people argue that the R:TW A.I. is the same as that of M:TW, but is handicapped by the increased battle speed and decreased balance. This may be true, as slowing down and balancing the game does improve its performance; but M:TW A.I. would never frontally charge a unit with a weaker unit whereas R:TW A.I. does. In M:TW the computer would scout for hidden units whereas R:TW forgets about them even if had seen them take up ambushing positions. M:TW A.I. could do ambushes itself, but I never seen R:TW pull one of on the battlefield. The M:TW A.I. clung to hills when defending and would relocate if you managed to get higher than them. In R:TW you can just walk around them to get the higher ground and it would never try to stop you.

R:TW is somewhat more flexible with formations, but its general performance in battles is nowhere near that of S:TW or M:TW. BI and the latest patched did improve things, but it still not at the same level (though I haven't tried BI yet). All in all, the A.I. is a lot worse in battle. It can be improved through modding, though.