AI Control of Groups

**Rhedd** · 05-22-2007, 13:36

I play my battles in the General Camera view (insane, I know, but fun), and big armies can obviously get hard to babysit in that mode, so I've been experimenting with placing groups under AI control.

I've had, let's say... mixed, results.

So what do you all think about the AI control? What exactly does it do, in your experience?

I know everyone's just going to say, "I control all my troops myself and would never give control to the AI", but for those who have used it, what do you know about it?

**crpcarrot** · 05-22-2007, 13:59

well the other day i was faced off by a mongol stack and i had a reinforcement army consisting mainly of archers. against my bettr judgement i thought the etra missles would help maybe kill lots of advencing mongols or at least give thema morale penalty so i put them under Ai control

well the reinforcments came into the map some was to my left and had only a 2-4 mongol horse arches near the who they coupld ahve easily shot to death. which they did for a couple of minutes then starngely they all decided to come join the main battle where i was doing ok. it would have been a good idea if they had kept their distance and kept shooting the mongols but they tried to walk right through them with all the ai archers getting into melee and losing and ultimately routing before they even reached the main battle.

in retrespect i should have had them undermy control. at least i would have made more kills before they got overrun.

**Rhedd** · 05-22-2007, 14:10

Yep, but I'm actually not talking about letting the AI control reinforcements. I mean putting individual battlefield groups under AI control (with the little blue button.)

**Ciaran** · 05-22-2007, 14:15

I haven´t tried it in M2TW, but in RTW, I´ve got best (a relative term...) results when making up groups in a style of a miniature army, i.e. the had missiles, cavalry and infantry. Somehow the AI seemed to do best with such a group rather than using groups of one single unit type (only spears, only missiles, etc).

**crpcarrot** · 05-22-2007, 17:26

wouldnt it be the same AI even if it as a group or a whole army?

or do u mean letting the AI have control for a short while?

i dont really know as i ahvnt used this option really, how doesit function?

**RickooClan** · 05-22-2007, 23:38

I did fight a very fun battle with 20+20 vs 20+20 troops post 1.02.

In the battle i was hungary and have to fight 2 full stack of milan armies. I have an reinforcement of 20 units and i decide to let the AI taking control of them so we can fight together.

The battle begin and end up with my force holding ground on a slope counter firing with the milan main troops. Their reinforcement force in and start to charging uphill altogether which my melee troops simply cant cope with at the same time.

Out of my expect my AI reinforcement do smartly round to their back instead of teaming up with my force up front. 40 Milan troops are now sandwich by us and the battle end up as heroic victory!

It was one of the greatest battle experience i ever had in TW series.

**Rhedd** · 05-23-2007, 01:55

Originally Posted by crpcarrot

wouldnt it be the same AI even if it as a group or a whole army?

Well, I would've thought so, but that's why I wanted to hear about other people's experiences.

I originally thought that putting a group under AI control would make them act just like a collection of units being played by the enemy AI, or by the AI when it controls reinforcements.

What I've found, however, is that this doesn't seem to be the case, and frankly, it's too random for me to determine what's going on without more input.

This is easy to demonstrate... Make a custom battle of two identical armies. During setup, group your entire army, and hit the AI control button for the whole thing.

Now watch the battle. If the group AI control was working as I expected, the battle should play out as if you were observing an AI vs AI battle.

Let's just say it doesn't. ^_^

**Doug-Thompson** · 05-23-2007, 02:40

What units are safest for the AI to control?

I've toyed with the idea of having a full stack of cheap units tag along on campaign and having the AI control it. Units like religious fanatics are "fire and forget" anyway. So why not let the AI control a big stack of them?

===============

I've done no testing, but my impression is that the AI moves at the rate its slowest unit.

Generals no longer rush do their deaths, but cavalry doesn't get in a hurry, either.

**phonicsmonkey** · 05-23-2007, 03:45

I have found that giving the AI a big stack of (eg) Italian Militia can be quite useful against the Mongols.

If you manage to separate a single Mongol stack from the herd, you can gang up on them and force them to split their fire between the two of your stacks, giving you the time to outshoot them.

Sometimes they will also break off some of their lancers to charge the AI reinforcements, allowing you the opportunity to surround and kill what's left of the force facing your superior, mixed stack.

When facing two or more Mongol stacks, your AI reinforcements can tie up one while you attempt to deal with the other.

Just don't expect them to survive...

**Rhedd** · 05-23-2007, 05:43

I don't mean to sound impatient, or like a broken record, but I seem to need to state one more time that I am not talking about AI-controlled reinforcements.

I'm talking about giving the AI control of individual groups of units on the battlefield by selecting the units, grouping them, and then hitting the little blue AI control button in the lower right corner of the interface (or between the open formation and fire-at-will buttons in the minimal HUD.)

Is it just that nobody even knew that was possible?

Again, NOT TALKING ABOUT REINFORCEMENTS, here.

**phonicsmonkey** · 05-23-2007, 07:19

erm sorry Rhedd, didn't mean to hijack your thread...

to make up for it I'm going to go away and try out AI-controlled groups on the battlefield and report back.

I think I'll start with a siege where I can let an AI-controlled group assault a side entrance while I go in through the front door...

**Magraev** · 05-23-2007, 07:39

My experience is that those groups are mostly useless.

I havent tried using it for an entire battle, but sometimes when things get disorganized I try grouping some (mostly infantry) in a group.

They seem to act like on a drill, hurrying to get in a single line and then marching around sedately.

**Ciaran** · 05-23-2007, 11:00

Originally Posted by Rhedd

Well, I would've thought so, but that's why I wanted to hear about other people's experiences.

I originally thought that putting a group under AI control would make them act just like a collection of units being played by the enemy AI, or by the AI when it controls reinforcements.

What I've found, however, is that this doesn't seem to be the case, and frankly, it's too random for me to determine what's going on without more input.

This is easy to demonstrate... Make a custom battle of two identical armies. During setup, group your entire army, and hit the AI control button for the whole thing.

Now watch the battle. If the group AI control was working as I expected, the battle should play out as if you were observing an AI vs AI battle.

Let's just say it doesn't. ^_^

As I´ve said, I haven´t tested it in M2TW, but in RTW, if you group the whole army under AI control, they perform much like a "normal" AI controlled stack, with the only difference that you can give rough orders to the group. Maybe you chose a formation different from default (i.e. the automatic battle deployment)? Or just grouped units without stating a certain formation?