Shooting Commanders

[The Darkhorn]

I'd like to see how everybody feels about this. Surely you are all familiar with the fine defensive formation, on a hill, back to the edge of the board, no exposed flanks. The AI mainly mills around as it's missile units try to outduel you (which is folly). You know the drill...shoot their pants off then charge with the cavalry and rout them. Now, not that I look a gift horse in the mouth, but (especially once you have arbs) it is just so easy to shoot down a general. He just waits and dies (maybe changing position a bit). I mean, sometimes, he'll lead an attack. Most of the time you just have all your arbs shoot at him for a bit and poof--he's crowmeat. Why won't he get back out of range when his unit shot to pieces? Sometimes I feel like he doesn't have a sporting chance. Am I a murderer?

[gaijinalways]

What level are you playing on? Generally on expert, the AI will move his general out of range, sometimes more quickly than I will!

As to missile duels, not always, though the AI will try to sweep up the hill you're on if they can.

[Ciaran]

I love those defensive hill battles, especially with gunpowder, since that´s one situation in which gunpowder units are of real use (bridge battles are the other), the height advantage gives the the necessary reach and their morale penalty sends the enemy to run. The good thing is, they´ll retreat, rally, charge again, lose a couple of men, rout, rally... an ideal situation if your goal isn´t to rout the enemy but to decimate his army.

[Alexios]

This kind of battle is the one I enjoy fighting the most. Whether I'm the attacker or the defender, I love it when the enemy comes to me and I have a fairly large hill to perch my spearwall and missile units on. In one such fight, I had my archers and arbs firing in such unison that there was a constant rain of arrows falling in on the enemy. Man, what a beautiful sight that was!

Anyway, to answer your question, I think you will find the Difficult and Expert levels of play completely different then that of Normal and the lower levels. I am currently playing on "Normal," and yeh, I've noticed the AI does some pretty stupid things with its general, like prancing him aimlessly back in forth while my arbs use him for target practice--or worse yet, leading him in a full-frontal charge into my spearmen right at the onset of battle. I don't recall seeing the AI do anything stupid like that while playing on the "Difficult" setting (which I've done only once, by the way).

[gaijinalways]

Kind of figured that, though sometimes even on expert the AI will do some pretty inane things. The general's unit tends to hang back, though with it sometimes being a jedi type, you might feel fortunate that it does!

I still like to take potshots at the general if I can, especially swarming him, though sometimes I can't spare the units and have to protect my own general !

[Vladimir]

There is no cheese on Expert and no, the enemy general doesn't withdraw from missile range. Rarely does the General even withdraw from gunpowder range. Even if he does, he usually is so close that I can cause him to attack (usually into my spears). But yea, that's how I win my battles. If I see that the enemy general is down to one unit and attacking, I start to sweat , because I know he is going to withdraw before I can kill him.

Again, harping on about gunpowder: Gunpowder is best on offense. Just line 5 arbequsers in front of 5 spears/pikes, and walk in formation towards the enemy. Since he's defending, he'll usually stay put, the rest is simple. If he's on supperior terrain, send your army to his flank to get him to move to less favorable land. That and bring a few cannons along for terrain denial. I don't kill as many generals when attacking with guns but I get some really decent kills and can sometimes get him to rout.