Post-patch AI seaborne invasions

[IsItStillThere]

I'm not sure if this was enhanced by the patch or not, but after patching I've noticed the AI is actually conducting seaborne invasions!!

Venice invaded Rhodes (an island) by sea when I was Byzantium

Sicily attacked a couple of African provinces when I was playing the Moors by sea.

In general, it seemed like the AI in strategy computer games have been pretty poor in the past at moving armies by sea.

This is the kind of progress I love to see

[Shahed]

Yeap ! This is EXCELLENT !

I got a Sicillian Crusade landing by sea, and a Polish one. Great work !

[maestro]

I was really happy when last night, with no warning whatsoever, the Moors turned up on a boat on the shores of Brittany and seiged Rennes. I was elated. Well, until they sat there for 4 turns, allowing me to bring in leet armies to reinforce my totally week force at Rennes. Seriously, they'd have taken the city no problem if they'd have attacked but they didn't

[Handel]

Actually after you play a little you will see this is NOT the progress you should like to see.

Example:
Playing France in new after patch campaign.
1. English and Sctish armies are disembarking at Bruges and Antwerpen. Then the fleets blockade the ports and the armies siege the cities.
2. Next turn. Diplomats come and ask for ceasefire. I add trade rights and demand 2000 florins. They happily agree. I could ask more, but they don't have the money so they will refuse. The armies lift siege and embark the fleets which lift the blockade and sail away.
3. Next turn. Fleets with english and scots armies arrive at Bruges and Antwerpen. The armies disembark and... read again from #1...

[PureFodder]

Milan are playing a wonderful game of disembark next to my castle, see the castle is too well defended, re-embark, rinse, repeat. As for sea invasions, I've had to all but wipe Sicily out just to keep their hands off Northern Africa. Unfortunately they don't seem to expect you to return the favour, the city they came from will often be left almost unguarded with their army several turns away...

[Vlad Tzepes]

1. Sicily occupied Ajaccio and Cagliari long before I (playing as French) thought to go there. Wow I was surprised to find them happily growing there!

2. Sicily just disembarked on Valencia shores and get ready to attack.

3. Byzantium keeps landing larger and larger stacks on Rhodes and is sieging my fortress there.

4. Portugal landed troops near Cernavron (sp?) and besieged the Scots (which, by the way, obliterated the English).

I'm not feeling safe anymore! Now anybody could attack you anywhere!

This is great.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

Yup - it's fixed - I don't remember reading anything about it in the patch readme, so I was quite disappointed when I read that. When I played my first HRE campaign post patch, I couldn't believe my eyes to see a scottish army besieging Bruges - I first thought that some scottish diplomat probably bribed some continental rebels, but the I was overjoied to see more and more naval invasions.

Really great, as this was one of my major gripes.

[Shahed]

BTW Corsica has been invaded by the Pope himself. lol.

[John Johnston]

I'm playing a campaign on VH/VH as the Moors, and I've been attacked from the sea an astonishing number of times, more than a dozen in sixty or seventy turns played. Almost all the attacks have been full stack led by general, some of them have disembarked several stacks over a period of turns. I'm most impressed.

On the other hand, when my own seaborne forces turned up at Cagliari and Ajaccio they were only held by rebels; within a couple of turns of my conquering them, both the French and the Papacy turned up with angry full stacks wanting to conquer them. This seemed a bit off for two reasons - firstly, if they had the troops and boats available to attempt to conquer those provinces from my fairly heavy garrison, they surely could've pwned the rebels and bagged themselves a couple of lucrative bases, and secondly, how did they *know* I'd suddenly come into possession? Although the latter could just be my underestimating the computer's perfectly legitimate intelligence gathering, rather than a sneaky trick.

All in all I'm very happy with it, niggles aside.

[trickydicky]

New Danish Campaign - H/H - Current Year 1127 (2 turns per year)

I have taken Sweden, Oslo, Hamburg, Stettin, Madelburg, and Flanders, as well as the whole of the UK.
During that time, I have noticed the following.

Scotland landed a full stack in Brugge, which they then proceeded to take.
However they haven't done anything since, seeing as I took Inverness and Edinburgh while they were playing on the continent.

England keep sending half stacks over periodically, although they don't do anything once they land.

Scicily have taken the 2 Islands in the Med, as well as one of the large provinces in Africa.

The Byzantines have taken Rhodes.

And The Papal States has taken Zaragosa.

All in all, I would say a vast improvement, however there are two things I think need work.

1) When a faction goes off and launches a Naval Invasion, they usually leave no garrisons back home, this makes it too easy to strike behind their backs.

2)When they invariably do land, they don't always attack, even if the local Garrison is small.

I think it's better than pre patch, just needs a little tweaking.

[Hosakawa Tito]

In my Milan campaign, post patch, the sneaky French landed some spies and an assassin on my newly captured island town of Cagliari, and are fomenting rebellion. I love it. hehehe

[IPoseTheQuestionYouReturnTheAnswer]

Yup, the AI is definately mounting seaborne invasions, much to my complete, off-guard surprise. As the Turks, the Moors invaded Corsica with a full stack of troops and laid siege to the city. FIguring they'd never be able to touch it, I just left a pathetic garrison of a couple town militia, and when the time came for their assault, I figured the city was screwed.

But I got lucky! They assaulted with two rams and one tower. The towers blew up both rams before they reached the gates, and the siege tower blew up right as it was about to deploy on the wall. With no siege engines left, I wona nd they all drowned. Woohoo!

So yeah, the AI knows how to attack across water now. I gotta watch out..

[Yossarian]

Another satisfied costumer:

In my campaign as Venice my allies the Papacy landed a small force and took Corinth from Byzantium about ten to fifteen turns after I had seized control over Thessalonica. I know it probably was a coincidence, but it felt really good to see my only ally at the time coming to weaken the byzantines even more! In the same campaign Byzantium then landed a scout-size army on Crete where I had control over Iraklion. Needless to say, my medium-sized garrison had no problem mopping up... It's a very welcome addition to the game!

[dismal]

1) When a faction goes off and launches a Naval Invasion, they usually leave no garrisons back home, this makes it too easy to strike behind their backs.

The AI has been known to have this problem on land invasions too.

I would say maybe the campaign map AI's single biggest weakness is its surprising lack of interest in defending its border cities.

[Zenicetus]

On the other hand, when my own seaborne forces turned up at Cagliari and Ajaccio they were only held by rebels; within a couple of turns of my conquering them, both the French and the Papacy turned up with angry full stacks wanting to conquer them. This seemed a bit off for two reasons - firstly, if they had the troops and boats available to attempt to conquer those provinces from my fairly heavy garrison, they surely could've pwned the rebels and bagged themselves a couple of lucrative bases, and secondly, how did they *know* I'd suddenly come into possession? Although the latter could just be my underestimating the computer's perfectly legitimate intelligence gathering, rather than a sneaky trick.

I had the same thing happen. I held Tunis (playing as Spain), and noticed nearby Cagliari was still a rebel province. I had a few troops to spare and a fleet nearby, so I hopped over with just a small captain-led stack and took it, as a target of opportunity. Two turns later, after I had taken the settlement, Sicily showed up with a large stack and began a siege. We hadn't been at war before this, and our relations were neutral. It surprised the heck out of me. I had to scramble and send a relief army from Tripoli, and just barely managed to wipe out the attacking Sicilians. Now I'm wondering whether to sit tight and continue my offensive against the Egyptians, or delay that and go on the offensive against Sicily because they'll probably be back. I hadn't really planned on a war with any of the Italian factions this soon.

Anyway, I had the same thought you did... if they had a big army stack on a boat, why didn't they take Cagliari from the rebels sooner? Why did they show up right after I got there, and declare war? It wasn't that early in the game either; I think around turn 72. I was surprised the islands were still held by rebels.

I'm wondering if maybe they didn't consider the rebel province an immediate priority, but an attack was triggered because they didn't want a powerful faction showing up adjacent to their territory? Although that's giving a lot of credit to the campaign AI. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

All in all I'm very happy with it, niggles aside.

Me too. The game sure feels different with more aggressive invasions by sea. Makes me glad I invested in a big navy too.

[angelviper]

I'm not sure if this was enhanced by the patch or not, but after patching I've noticed the AI is actually conducting seaborne invasions!!

Venice invaded Rhodes (an island) by sea when I was Byzantium

Sicily attacked a couple of African provinces when I was playing the Moors by sea.

In general, it seemed like the AI in strategy computer games have been pretty poor in the past at moving armies by sea.

This is the kind of progress I love to see

what a impressive progress~! huh? i will take it totally cynical joke if u play more and experience the SEA-invasion up to reach the last impression that it's just another suck. good luck

should seal it off, waiting for THE REAL PATCH to fix bugs.

[John Johnston]

I'm wondering if maybe they didn't consider the rebel province an immediate priority, but an attack was triggered because they didn't want a powerful faction showing up adjacent to their territory? Although that's giving a lot of credit to the campaign AI. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Yah, in retrospect, I can see why the Pope might be a little perturbed if the infidel followers of false Mahound suddenly turned up for a beach picnic on an island within spitting distance of the Vatican. Objection provisionally withdrawn!

Still on the same Moorish VH/VH campaign, and Spain are just about managing to hang in there... sending out their amphibious invaders from their new capital (and only province), Dublin. I'm having a real struggle trying to conquer Europe, it's brilliant.

I have seen a couple of questionable invasions (out of many sensible ones); the English crown prince landed with a huge army in northern Spain, and then sat there... and sat there... ..until he became King, at which point I was instructed to assassinate the poor beggar. And several Papal armies landed south of Tunis and sat around for years, until a swift course of javelins to the head purged them from Africa.

I have a suspicion that the Moors have, in Timbuktoo and Arguin, the new equivalent of the pre-patch British Isles - a very lucrative, remote, well-nigh unassailable region - especially as you'll see any attack coming from five or six or more years away! - at least, that is, until those zany folks discover the roundness of the world. It'll be interesting to see how the computer handles amphibious invasions in the late stages of the campaign, with the more capable ships.

[Tuidjy]

In my campaign, I've seen a number of well executed seaborn invasions by
Sicily, the Moors, and Bisantium, but all the invasions from England follow
the same pattern - land and wait, and then wait, and they wait some more.

I am playing as France, and right now I have three English full stacks sitting
near Burges, all led by 8+ star night fighters... waiting for me to assemble
a stack that can deal with them. It is unlikely that the three stacks
could take my citadel in Burges, but the computer has assaulted against
much higher odds. There is somethign wrong with that assault.