Alexander first impressions

[Jambo]

The historical battles are probably hard (with decent AI) because they're scripted more. The only time a true assessment of the AI can be made is during bog-standard campaign battles..

[Mount Suribachi]

Yes, but a couple of people said they noticed the better AI during campaign battles - which is a promising development.

Question is, does this improved AI carry over to RTW & BI games? If so, the this may be a must to d'load.

[edyzmedieval]

I WANT TO SEE SCREENSHOTS!!!!

[econ21]

I managed to fight my way through Darius and several stacks of his boys last night. I was a little intimidated by their number of concentrated stacks, so I fell back on a bridge defence. Maybe a little lame, I know, but it is good that the tough strategic situation makes you want to rely on ambushes and bridges etc to claw an advantage. Due to the large Persian fleet, I have not yet been able to reinforce Alexander. This would be a very challenging campaign played RTR style, where you can't recruit and retrain in newly conquered settlements.

The battles are starting to get easier though. Maybe it is because Alexander is now picking up command stars; maybe it is because I am learning how to use a Macedonian army (essentially phalanxes + companions). I am routinely killing 1000+ for under 100 dead. It's not that the AI does anything very stupid - they seem to form up decent long lines before attacking, rather like the barbarian AI of RTW. Part of the problem is the low morale. The Persian line just seems to crumble within a few seconds of making contact with my phalanx line. My Companions are able to rip through them too - perhaps a reflection of cavalry being so powerful in RTW. The Persians don't use their many archers to get a significant advantage - they really should wait and shoot it out, waiting for low ammo before attacking (I swear the MTW AI did that). Most of their cavalry folds when hitting a phalanx (it is only the 2HP general units that seem able to penetrate them and only the Barbarians have them - the Persian generals have missile chariots that are nasty against cav but not good against pikes). Companions are not that superior to some of the heavier Persian cavalry but the charge bonus is a big deal and you are usually able to fight to your advantage. The biggest disappointment are the hypaspists - the AI archers target them mercilessly; even the Persian infantry mobs them and I am regarding them rather as redshirts from Star Trek: any encounter, you know those guys are going to get it.

However, I'm looking forward to an Alexander: Total Realism and am almost inclined to make one myself. The strategic situation is challenging and if you Alexander's recruitment was more limited, it would be very interesting.

I'll try and get some screenshots but one of the big problems with RTWs high battle speeds is that you don't really have time to savour the action and the graphics. Darius died in a second, almost unnoticed.

[Kralizec]

Even though its a far cry from historical realism, this game sounds interesting. Keep tellung us more econ21

[Jambo]

A good indication of whether there has been any improvement made to the AI in Alexander would be to find out whether or not the large siege towers are still bug-ridden when attacking large stone walls? i.e. do the troops still sometimes fail to climb to the wall and instead mill about the bottom of the siege tower as they do in the most recent RTW patch (1.5)?

[phred]

Here are some screenshots. I'll post more after work. I've already fought this battle(heroic victory), but I didn't take any screenshots. I'll fight it again and take some more shots.

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[econ21]

Wow, you're playing aggressively, phred, attacking three stacks! What difficulty are you playing on? I'm just trying M/M to see how it plays, but even so I'm also meeting multiple large AI stacks.