Normal Vs Hard/VH difficulty

[Puzz3D]

I wonder what would happen if you did this in STW or MTW? I remember STW had an "insta-rout" mechanic that meant your units would run if you simply trying to lead the superior AI on a wild goose chase. But I don't recall it boxing in lone cavalry units any better. I suspect it still just groups all and clicks on you.

In STW, it didn't group all and attack one unit. It would attack with a units that had an advantageous matchup. If it didn't have such units, it would try to flank your unit with the best melee unit it had. If you turned to meet that threat, it would attack you exposed flank with some other unit. Since yari had a strong anti-cav bonus, the AI would chase a cavalry unit with a yari infantry unit up until the cavalry unit left the proximity range. At that point the yari infantry unit would return to the army. It would also chase a cavalry unit with a cavalry unit if its unit was better. STW had a yari cav unit which had an anti-cav bonus that was ideal for that since it was also the fastest cav. If your units were not in range, an attacking AI army would march toward you as a group or march around trying to find you if your units were hidden. In any event, the Benny Hill code would eventually cause your unit to slip into an unrecoverable rout if the AI couldn't catch you unless the timer ran out. STW/MI refined the Benny Hill code by not incrementing the retreat counter is the unit was a skirmisher which still had ammo. MTW further refined the rout characteristics by giving a morale penalty to partial units if the majority of the army had been decimated.

There were quite a few refinements in the older battle engine that are not longer present in the new battle engine, and even some players who consider themselves vets aren't aware of them.