Crazy AI or Heroic Coding?

[Lochar]

I had a mission to take out the french king by his devious heir. Well I cant seem to get any Assasins skilled up that good but I figured he was in his castle with only 1 other unit as a garrison. (BTW later found out cant complete mission this way it just cancels)

So I loaded up my cannon and a few troops and assaulted his fortress. I figured my cannon could make my openings so I would skip siege equipment.

Well there I was with 2 cannon units, about 4 foot type 1 archer and my general. I was prepared to spend time hammering at his gates to plow my way through.

How I was surprised when I see the gate opening a minute after bombarding and the king riding out to charge my troops. Quickly I moved my spearment to protect my guns and he ignored them and made a beeline towards my general. So I figured I would throw my spearmen in his path, he actually chopped through a mass of them and never once reached a wavering stage. I was almost getting worried that I was going to lose my troops to 1 unit! Then out of his gates comes his only other unit and so I used my general to charge this.

Needless to say, I wondered if the AI was really insane or was this some code that almost acts like a "I know I cant win but by god I will die fighting!"? Not to mention if their were any boosts for this as I cant believe how the King's unit was surviving all my spearmen and actually wiping the floor with them. If I would of attacked with less I actually might have been in trouble.

[Darius]

I wish I could have seen that, it made me want to root for him (no offense to you of course lol)

[PaulTa]

Great story but how the hell are we supposed to know?

[Quickening]

Ah good stuff. It's times like this where the imagination comes into play. I would also be rooting for the defiant King to be honest

[troymclure]

nice one, i'm leaning with the king's last charge as well. That or maybe the AI was trying to sally to destroy your siege engines or something. Either way, it turned out pretty cool.

[LegioScythia]

You got a mission from the heir ? the only missions i get are from my council the pope and sometimes rarely the guild

[Lochar]

You got a mission from the heir ? the only missions i get are from my council the pope and sometimes rarely the guild

Yeah, I really felt bad about it too. I was in dire straits with coin as I built up too big of an army for other campaigns and it was draining me. It was 5000 reward. The bad thing was I didnt know it was assasination only. I looked at the kings stats and all his traits were top notch, a real likeable guy. The heir had a sneaky title.

I really wished I could have saved that battle recording.

At first I thought it was a sally to get my cannons but the king ignored those and made straight for my general.

I am at turn 110 and so far thats the only non noble/guild/pope mission I had.

[Spartiate]

[QUOTE=Lochar]I had a mission to take out the french king by his devious heir. Well I cant seem to get any Assasins skilled up that good but I figured he was in his castle with only 1 other unit as a garrison. (BTW later found out cant complete mission this way it just cancels) <<<snip

Was the French King named Louis the Mad or Francois the Insane or the like.I have recieved this mission a number of times from the heir of enemy nations but the King is always a raving lunatic.The A.Is way of taking out a bad leader???

[Darius]

LOL He went straight for your general? Wow. That guy is one hardcore bastard, he's goin down but he's sure as hell gonna try and take you to hell screaming along side of him if he can help it.

[chunkynut]

I've had generals sallying during a siege battle trying to take on the rams/cannon etc that can take down the walls, problem is the gates are open and if they try to disengage I send in my troops behind them .... makes for an easy entrance.

I have had about 2 or 3 of these missions in my English campaign, against the spainish (was at war with them too), byzantians and some one else. The Kings may have become paraniod due to my suicide 1 - 3 skill level assassins trying to take him out every turn for 10 turns hehe.

[Lochar]

Was the French King named Louis the Mad or Francois the Insane or the like.I have recieved this mission a number of times from the heir of enemy nations but the King is always a raving lunatic.The A.Is way of taking out a bad leader???

Actually it was reverse, I had a deceiful heir wanting a just King killed. I swear this king had about 10 traits and all of them good. I wondered if this was part of the reason he charged out rather than a bad king just hiding out.

[alpaca]

Well I hope it's the latter. And I hope they fix the ridiculously overpowered bodyguard units. I lost a battle where I faced three bodyguards who alone slaughtered about half of my army...

[unknown_user]

I've had it happen a few times where the general's unit will charge out during a siege, usually followed by the rest of his men. I notice it happens more often than not when all or most of the units in the city tend to be much better offensively than defensively. Cavalry and axemen will charge out more often than spearmen, for example. :P

[malkuth]

I have had this happen as well. I attacked a Dane Citadel, and the Genral unit just rushed out of the city and attacked me. I was like oh goody. But the guy was like on steroids or something, he destroyed a Armored Swordsman stack, and Beat the hell out of a Unit of knights before more of my army made him retreat.

Then he came out again!!!!! But this time he got toasted. There is almost certainly some sort of extra coding in this cause this guy was crazy badass.

I mean I litterally watched a full unit of Armored Swordsman Die in less then a second. Thats how fast he did it. Then I watched a good unit of Knights get beat up bad.

If this was my cav, general or not. Once the charge was taken out he would of died quick,not this guy though.

[Martok]

Well I hope it's the latter. And I hope they fix the ridiculously overpowered bodyguard units. I lost a battle where I faced three bodyguards who alone slaughtered about half of my army...

Don't bodyguard units have 2 hit points per man, as opposed to the usual 1 hit point? If so, then that's probably the biggest reason why they're so tough.

@malkuth: Perhaps units get extra morale when they're defending a castle/town? This was certainly the case in MTW--troops defending in a siege almost always fought to the last man. About the only time they ever ran away was if they had sallied out from the gate (and therefore had a chance to escape).

Not a perfect explanation, I know, but maybe that's why the king is so particularly uber when charging out of a besieged city/castle.

[belisarius2]

I had besieged Stockholm playing as the English, it was the Dane's last settlement and they were to be(definitely) wiped out on the next turn. Quite laughably, and for the very first time in like 25 or so turns since undertaking their decision to declare war on England, they sent a diplomat to "offer peace". The offer they made was: ceasefire, and I pay them tribute in the amount of 13 some odd thousand(13,000+) florins a turn for the next 3 turns. ... O_o For the ai to make such an offer, it must be truly confused and really still need a ton of work. Its as if the ai was confusing the victor with the soon to be vanquished.

The difficulty on this game is at medium, so maybe this had some effect on things to but... all due respect even the easiest of settings should have the ai playing far smarter and far less insanely. Milan has tried something as similar in the same game, although at least they have approached long before their imminent demise, but their demands were almost as insanely humorous as the Dane's. A few turns earlier I'd gotten a mission from the pope to cease hostilities with Milan for 8 turns or thereabouts, and so I cease and desist once again, even though they, just as the Danes and the French and the Scots, had declared war on me.

So Milan sends a diplomat, their offer is a ceasefire, and demand I pay them 4,000 or so florins. I of course didint accept, but i did at first just to see how it plays out before reloading. So I accept, and then offer them a deal on map info. I offer to trade my map for theirs. They counter with another proposal, give them my map info, they give me 1300 some odd florins, and they add "accept or we will attack" too. =P Even if the ai is whacky and insane it definitely makes for some funny proposals.