Proof that the AI *does* retrain units in BI.exe

[FriendlyFire]

It seems to be common forum wisdom that one reason to run EB under Alex.exe is that the Alexander AI can retrain units. I run under BI.exe, and although I have sometimes seen suspiciously-healthy AI armies in the midst of a campaign, I always figured that they must be fresh units, and not due to AI retraining.

Then in my latest KH campaign, I was planning a seaborne assault on the Makedonian town of Mytilene. The enemy garrison had worn itself out attacking rebel Pergamon - here it is in the winter of 263 BC.



Eager for an easy victory, in the spring of 262 BC I loaded my troops onto ships in Chalkis, and then made one last check with my spy in Mytilene. Big shock - not only has the BI.exe AI recruited a fresh phalangite unit, it has also retrained all seven depleted units!



I was so shocked that I reloaded the previous season and took screenshots, just to convince myself that I wasn't seeing things :)

[Burebista]

Tnx for sharing. 1 question though..this is a rare occurence or it's pretty standard?

[Blxz]

Tnx for sharing. 1 question though..this is a rare occurence or it's pretty standard?

Well its the only documented case of BI.exe retraining units. But that doesn't mean its not ging on in the background. Especially since its common wisdom that it doesn't retrain so most people probably assume that its always fresh units. Hard to prove. need more evidence. But its very convincing that we have been ignoring this before.

[Captain Trek]

Niiiice... The best part of that is how all the units retain their previous experience levels, making them that much tougher when you ultimately do have to fight them... :)

You'll notice the town's population has also dropped like a stone... I suppose the AI must not get the special script-given population boosts it gets upon recruiting new units when it instead retrains old ones...

[Cute Wolf]

yeah... BI.exe did retrains, but not everyone believe it until this was screen-shooted
and they will retrain if the army was on the rest and not moving

more reason to ditch Alex-EB because Alex had somewhat passive campaign AI as well... that's why they retrain because they rarely moves at all

[FriendlyFire]

You'll notice the town's population has also dropped like a stone... I suppose the AI must not get the special script-given population boosts it gets upon recruiting new units when it instead retrains old ones...

Good catch, I hadn't seen that population drop! Your explanation makes sense to me.

I only noticed the retraining because I was watching those garrison unit strengths in order to time my attack. It helps that I'm in a campaign where I'm using lots of spies - so they can "persuade" other cities to throw off their overlords and return to their Hellenic roots :) Now that I've seen retraining happen once I'll look for it again.

[Zarax]

Yet another good thing to add to BI.exe almost limit-less potential...

[Mediolanicus]

Tnx for sharing. 1 question though..this is a rare occurence or it's pretty standard?

Standard, at least in all my campaigns.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Niiiice... The best part of that is how all the units retain their previous experience levels, making them that much tougher when you ultimately do have to fight them... :)

You'll notice the town's population has also dropped like a stone... I suppose the AI must not get the special script-given population boosts it gets upon recruiting new units when it instead retrains old ones...

What campaign difficulty level were you running here? VH?

[seienchin]

Doesnt that mean Rome.exe has this feature too?
I mean the last patch of BI and Vanilla came at the same time right? Only the features of units like swimming should be different?

[FriendlyFire]

What campaign difficulty level were you running here? VH?

No, this is a basic M/M campaign

[Rahl]

Doesnt that mean Rome.exe has this feature too?
I mean the last patch of BI and Vanilla came at the same time right? Only the features of units like swimming should be different?

Vanilla-AI does retrain also. I have no screenshots to proof that but I see it sometimes.

[jirisys]

I have seen Vanilla AI sea invasions (the spaniards invaded my island in the south of spain, can´t remember the name), and in EB too, using RTW only

~Jirisys (To the ships!)

[seienchin]

One proof more that the EXE has not much influence on the KI. ^^

[vollorix]

Amphibian landings depended on the activated "prefer naval invasions" for a faction. IIRC no matter wich exe. Well, i never bothered with taking screenshots for retraining, but perhaps it´s kind of another preference for BI and ALX exe. for the AI to retrain it´s units more often.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

The problem tends to be that the AI tends to never ends turns with units in its settlements. It won't specifically seek to retrain them, only if they happen to end up back in town which usually happens after a defeat on the campaign map and the hasty retreat back to town.