The AI and skirmishing units

[Jambo]

Right, this has been an issue for longer than I can remember for TW games, and it's still not great in Med II.

The issue is that for certain skirmishing units - those with a short missile range - the AI just cannot use them properly. It moves them into range to engage with their missiles, but the range is too short and they skirmish. The net result is they don't actually throw anything and instead engage in their perpetual seesawing motion. This doesn't affect mounted skirmishing units simply because they can throw use their missiles whilst on the move. For infantry skirmishers it's another matter altogether - here's a list of the obvious offenders that I can think of (AI does sometimes use javelin units ok):

• All infantry javelin units
• Handgunners
• Naffatun

The last two are just downright awful in the hands of the AI. There is some new code at the start of the battle_config file but it's not overly clear how changing this code for skirmishers would impact on the game as a whole and it's probably a rather arduous task to find out. For instance they might have ramifications on other aspects .... However, there are some steps we can take to somewhat alleviate this problem for the AI:

1. Increase the range of their missiles so the range they skirmish at isn't as close to the max range of their missiles. This should stop the seesawing action but the AI will probably still use them poorly.

2. Add "start_not_skirmish" on the unit's attribute line. Most of these short range missile units have ok melee stats anyway and this option definitely allows the AI to use them. Only sticking point is human player's cavalry, but I guess that just depends on how the AI uses them...

I currently use option 2. Anyone any other suggestions?