Campaign AI still disappointingly stupid?

**wzup** · 11-23-2006, 17:23

Originally Posted by neilm85uk

In an English campaign Edinburgh, taken from the Scots, was assaulted by eight units of cavalry. This was quite amusing when I reached the battle map.

they tried to pull that on me too

**Furious Mental** · 11-23-2006, 20:12

One unit stacks? I don't know what you're talking about. In my HRE campaign I haven't been the subject of one such attack- the AI always sends a full stack or close to one my way.

**Senta** · 11-23-2006, 21:01

i play on h/h with Poland. been at war with all of my neighbours for over 30 turns. HRE and Denmark keeps coming at me, i beat them back, usually annihilating their armies and yet they come back... they do bring lots of troops but after i have won every battle decisively and taken some teritories from them on my penal expedition, you'd think they would stop... at least Russia is being extremely passive, sending priests and trying to bribe my generals.

**GFX707** · 11-25-2006, 04:30

Why do people say "I've been at war with all of my neighbours for years" like it's a great thing? Why is it that most campaigns, alliance or good relations or your army dwarfing theirs or not, you're just going to get attacked by all of your neighbours no matter what you do in this game? Isn't that a little mindless? Sure, you get all the fights you want, but it's just unrealistic. Like I said, in order to win the campaign, I didn't have to declare war once.

**Werner** · 11-23-2006, 21:16

Originally Posted by Furious Mental

One unit stacks? I don't know what you're talking about. In my HRE campaign I haven't been the subject of one such attack- the AI always sends a full stack or close to one my way.

Same in my HRE campaign. And I am playing m/m

**GFX707** · 11-25-2006, 04:32

Originally Posted by Werner

Same in my HRE campaign. And I am playing m/m

I really wish I could say the same, but currently Rennes, a citadel containing some 15 units (all infantry), is under siege by 2 units of the French....a general and some archers.

**Reapz** · 11-26-2006, 02:42

Why do people say "I've been at war with all of my neighbours for years" like it's a great thing? Why is it that most campaigns, alliance or good relations or your army dwarfing theirs or not, you're just going to get attacked by all of your neighbours no matter what you do in this game? Isn't that a little mindless? Sure, you get all the fights you want, but it's just unrealistic. Like I said, in order to win the campaign, I didn't have to declare war once.

GFX if you don't try to expand and capture 45 provinces perhaps they might not all attack you but what is the point of that. It is a Total War strategy game after all. Also I'm not sure what you mean by "unrealistic" as history is replete with examples of allies attacking allies. It would be a pretty boring game if an alliance put an end to the possibility of being attacked.

What difficulty settings are you playing with and what factions?

**Musashi** · 11-26-2006, 02:54

Heh, in my current campaign as France, I've been allied with Spain, Portugal, Venice, Sicily, the Papal States, Poland and Byzantium for hundreds of turns.

My initial adversary was England (Despite my best intentions... they got themselves excommunicated for picking on the Scots and the Pope ordered me to break my alliance with them) but I was allied with everyone else... Then the HRE decided to attack me, and Milan broke their alliance with me to keep their alliance with the HRE... Everyone else stuck by me (I've had my borders in contact with Spain and Portugal for ages too) and I got my highest ranking Cardinal made pope.

Milan, the HRE, and England have all been on an extreme downhill slide ever since.

Actually the HRE did something quite intelligent and made up with me, tried to renew alliances and everything, realizing that attacking me would only get them excommunicated and gangbanged by their myriad enemies.

Unfortunately for them I don't forgive easily, so I assured their ambassador that all was forgiven and forgotten, and as soon as he left I called in my four best assassins and told them to go to work.

Took about ten years to wipe out the HRE's ruling line... Totally worth it though.

**Waleed** · 11-26-2006, 05:16

Currently I am playing as the moors and I've taken all of Iberia and I am pushing the English out of France. I was once at war with the French but now have an alliance. I've had an alliance with them for 30 years and they didn't attack. They had two provinces left which were Ile de France and the provence to the right of toulouse (forgot the name). I always kept a big enough army to defend right next to their border in case they tried to pull anything. They didn't even dare invade me. The English sailed in reinforcements and two of my armies got bogged down in fighting near Caen and I needed to send my army on the French border up to support them. 3 turns after I did this the French saw that toulouse was poorly defended and decided to try to besiege the settlement.

I wouldn't call the Campaign AI dumb, rather, opportunistic. You can have a faithful ally but you need to show them you can defend yourself should they try to pull anything. The bigger you become and the smaller your border allies are the more dangeous they are. They may try to take a province or two of yours for their own preservation.