Not much talk about one of my most favorite new features: Cover!

**knoddy** · 03-06-2009, 08:21

cover is cool as is the defences u can build, the problem is that the ai reacts so poorly to it, ive seen my housemate slaughter armies which just stand there and do nothing cept die.

EDIT : i think they just need to adjust the AI's priorities

no 1. should be flank them
no 2. if they cant be flanked or a flanking attack is beaten off, try and draw them out, longer range infantry or even cannons or some form of horse gunner skirmishing (of course this depends on army makeup)
3. melee - no point having a shooting battle with someone sitting behind a wall. u will lose every time.

basically the ai just seems to get confused about which course of action to take when faced with units using cover.

**Ardri** · 03-06-2009, 09:06

I've noticed that one more than one occasion I've been behind a stone wall and only 1 troop in the unit will actually be firing. Other than the 1 the unit just sits there ducked behind the stone wall not firing. I haven't quite figured exactly why it behaves that way as of now.

**Necceh** · 03-06-2009, 14:58

Yeah, flank or get into melee asap if flanking is not an option.

**pevergreen** · 03-06-2009, 15:16

Originally Posted by Ardri

I've noticed that one more than one occasion I've been behind a stone wall and only 1 troop in the unit will actually be firing. Other than the 1 the unit just sits there ducked behind the stone wall not firing. I haven't quite figured exactly why it behaves that way as of now.

Have you researched advanced shooting drills?

If not, then even if they are standing up, only the front rank will fire.

**Ardri** · 03-06-2009, 19:57

Yeah I have fire by rank researched, but on stone walls not even my front row has been shooting. I've had to pull my troops out from behind the stone wall on more than one occasion because they simply were not firing. I'll look at it some more today to see if maybe I'm going up against troops with greater range. Maybe I have been on the downhill slope and the computer troops firing down at me have a greater range and I just can't reach them.

**GM1940** · 03-07-2009, 00:15

I'm very early into things but when I did some fighting in RTI I had big units inside native-constructed buildings and it seemed as though they did nothing at all in spite of there being apparent windows to shoot out of. I thought I was setting up an impressive strongpoint whereas I was apparently just taking one of my units out of action.

**Ardri** · 03-07-2009, 03:04

I think I've noticed that behind cover units fire more quickly when not using guard mode, but I have been playing on VH which makes the computer troops look dominant as far as accuracy and reload speed so it is hard to tell. However, I can attest that my units die less quickly behind cover!

**hoom** · 03-07-2009, 07:54

Yeah, the cover stuff is pretty damn cool.
Would be nice if they shot faster (having the guys behind doing reloading) or if you could drag them out thinner.

**Daevyll** · 03-22-2009, 11:34

Originally Posted by knoddy

cover is cool as is the defences u can build, the problem is that the ai reacts so poorly to it, ive seen my housemate slaughter armies which just stand there and do nothing cept die.

EDIT : i think they just need to adjust the AI's priorities

no 1. should be flank them
no 2. if they cant be flanked or a flanking attack is beaten off, try and draw them out, longer range infantry or even cannons or some form of horse gunner skirmishing (of course this depends on army makeup)
3. melee - no point having a shooting battle with someone sitting behind a wall. u will lose every time.

basically the ai just seems to get confused about which course of action to take when faced with units using cover.

In my games (VH/VH) the AI does 1 and 3 quite consistently, never saw it just stand there and die tbh.
As for 2, I dont ythink the AI has been in a position to do so yet; my armies are typically quite artillery heavy, so trying to outshoot me would be a bad choice. Which it didnt make.

**loony** · 03-23-2009, 09:24

The way I do it is position my units a little further behind cover, so that they shoot the enemy when they try to climb over those walls. I also always have some grenadiers to smoke out any enemy units trying to hide behind those walls :)

It works perfectly, as the eney is temporarily slowed when they climb over walls, I get at least 6 volleys (2 times all three ranks) before they return fire. I get at least 2 volleys if that is a cavalry unit comming.

All on VH/H

**massimorocca** · 03-23-2009, 10:02

Yes I found also my units ducked behind the wall without firing. For the cavalry charge I saw, instead, that fences are a more hard obstacle, with many, sometimes half, of the horses refusing the first jump. A line at twenty paces of a rail, holding fire till the Cavalry is jumping has a good chance to stop cold the charge