pavise crossbow vs. genoese crossbow

[Reapz]

Spark

I tested the phenomenon you are bringing up and the answer is both yes and no depending on the type of unit.

If you take basic archers - peasants or basic longbows against the same unit type handled by the AI then the AI doesn't do any better or worse than you do. There is no technique edge to a human.

However in specific scenarios if you take non-identical units sometimes the results vary between human and AI control because the AI will use different tactics. Handling Pavise Crossbow Militia the AI and human are the same. With Genoese Crossbowmen the AI doesn't always do as well as a human. The reason is that the AI will not sit back at long range but actually advances the Genoese one to three times against longbows, or weaker crossbows, and whilst in motion they don't fire and get more casualties than a human keeping them firing constantly from a distance would get.

All that said however consider the following. If you are testing these units for campaign usage then the AI is going to be your opponent in every battle so human results are irrelevant (except they show that the AI might do a little better sometimes with different tactics). If you are testing multiplayer, not campaign, then trying units in human hands makes sense. I personally only play campaign so all my tests are against AI. I would be cautious in extrapolating to MP for the above reasons. The OP was clearly talking about campaign so I think my results are valid for his question.