Shooting Commanders

**Ciaran** · 08-07-2006, 12:30

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** · 08-08-2006, 23:26

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** · 08-08-2006, 23:47

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** · 08-09-2006, 01:28

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.

**Ironside** · 08-09-2006, 08:13

I stopped primarly targeting of the enemy's general in most cases (plays on expert). He usually dies anyway though.
I do an exception in a major battle were he got an 8-star though, especially if I got a weaker general.

**gaijinalways** · 08-11-2006, 18:59

It varies, the being able to kill the general. Sometimes he is shy and doesn't come out to play until later in the battle. Also often I might get him to run away, but the AI troops will not give up and the general will come back later, sometimes as an ambush unit. Great fun though.

**Alexios** · 08-11-2006, 23:30

Originally Posted by Vladimir

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...

Depending on the size of the attacking force, I have found this to be NOT the case in the majority of my battles. Usually when I approach the AI to achieve a better terrain advantage, what inevitably ensues is an endless cat-and-mouse game of my army chasing his army all over the battlefield. This can be very frustrating, as it wastes away valuable time on the clock (which is needed in order for a ranged attack to succeed) and severely wears down my units (especially if they're marching around in the desert!).

Sometimes, if I have enough spear units and ranged units, I will split my army into two groups, and then approach the AI on BOTH flanks. But this can sometimes have dire consequences as well, as the AI seems to "choose" the weaker group, then attack it once the arrows/bullets start flying. I lost a huge battle like this once while fighting the Egyptians in a desert province.

Originally Posted by Vladimir

That and bring a few cannons along for terrain denial.

What exactly do you mean? Do you use them to prevent this kind of cat-and-mouse scenario? How do you keep the AI from overrunning your cannon positions without having to commit units to protect them?

**gaijinalways** · 08-12-2006, 05:01

I find this to be common on expert, this cat and mouse running around. The AI wll try to tire you out, especially if you eventually have to run up hill, but also to not let you gain an ideal set up as the AI keeps shifting hills. Though the AI doesn't just run blindly, it rather tries to avoid the player being able to just bombard the AI, especially if the AI has few missile troops.

Also, using two groups, be careful that they are not too far apart, as the AI will often attack the weaker group as already noted. To avoid this, I find I use three groups sometimes, and I may use a smaller group as bait while flanking the AI group that attacks my tasty morsel

!

**Ciaran** · 08-12-2006, 10:43

And that is precisely why the MTW AI is considered superior to the RTW AI - rightfully so. MTW is all about maneuvering the other side into an inferior position, I´ve seen battles with thousands of soldiers on both sides, resolved with only a few losses, entirely due to maneuvering.