Fixed AI Custom Battle - 100% Unscripted

[xIceFirex]

Thanks mitch! rly appreciate your work!
The very first game i've lost. but afterwards i could win 3 matches on VH.
i made a vid to honour your work!

[KozCDVI]

I tried Normal first, and close victory. Then I beefed up to face hard, I played exactly the same tactic, and so did the AI :s

It was closer, because my arrows were literally bouncing straight off Tokugawa. Five volleys to bring him down. At close range.

^ This delayed my victory and doubtlessly cost me a few lives I could have spared if my archers had packed the right arrows.

[DyerWolf]

Nice. Played 2 games, both on Hard. Won the first one, lost the second. AI impressed me, in that it kept its units & formation together (even slowing down / halting some units while others had to go around buildings - allowing them to catch up & get back in formation).

Learned that yari cavalry owns katana cav.

Also, the AI is swifter at re-tasking units (i.e. stop pursuing broken units & attack nearby units, and tasking its units to attack appropriate targets; after wiping out one exposed unit of katana samuri with a combo of yari and katana samuri, the AI charged another melee - directing its remainin yari against my cav and its katana against my yari... pretty encouraging to see). AI also reacted quickly (much more so than in previous games) to my maneuver. It even used its archers to target my general when I moved him up to give moral support - forcing him to reposition in the woods).

I'd say that if the AI can do this well in the actuall game - it might be more challenging (read: fun) than I'd thought. (I'm one of those guys who'se played every previous game, but skipped on Napoleon based upon my disappointment with Empire),

[bangell99]

Just won a heroic victory on hard difficulty with less than 600 casualties. The AI just goes for the straightforward charge... I can't say I'm impressed.

[-=PHX=-Hades]

Just won a heroic victory on hard difficulty with less than 600 casualties. The AI just goes for the straightforward charge... I can't say I'm impressed.

I had the same experience unfortunately.

[wolfbane751]

kudos you actually made it challenge me and i liked how it formed into formations instead of just chargeing me =)

[Baleurion]

Guess it could just have been a random fluke. :/

[Szu]

Can't believe my eyes :o Thanks for this, it got me hyped again, I played Napoleon for last 2 days and now this pure win thing just bought me completely.

What actually happened, is that AI crushed me on VH. His flanking tactics really amazed me, and his ability to see my weak spot in my lines was brilliant. He beat me I'm gonna play more! Btw, the S2 AI is superior to Napoleon... and that's a fact!

[Alkarin]

Just won a heroic victory on hard difficulty with less than 600 casualties. The AI just goes for the straightforward charge... I can't say I'm impressed.

same here 643 losses, 1931 kills.

they even had 2 bow ashigaru far behind their front trying to catch up

my battle went as the following: (was playing on hard)

Set my troops up with bow ashigaru up front with shields set up, 2nd rank was 4 katana with 2 yari ashigaru (who took the flanks of the main line) with the general behind them in stand and fight mode with a reserve unit of katanas behind him. while i had 1 yari samurai reserved on each flank, one flank had 1 katana cav other had the other too. After my archers gave their first volley i had them switch positions with my melee line, moved quickly and my melee troops were already bracing before the enemy hit my line. enemy sent one yari cav to each flank to hit my katana cav, simply pulled my katana cav back and towards the center a bit to have the yari samurai engage first, then simply turned my cav around to flank their already engaged cav, had minimal losses, although i was taking some decent losses on the melee line and had 1 unit rout. but i sent in my reserve katana inf and had my yari samurai flank the melee units while my cav dealth with the 2 bow ashigaru who were fiddling around in the back doing nothing then sending them in for the final blow.

oh and almost forgot, he was excited enough to throw his general straight into the melee clash in the very beginning of the battle, and staying their till the end of the battle.

[Aklis]

I played on hard earlier. While I won on my first try, it was a "costly victory." For some reason, it all evolved into a large brawl in the middle, with my infantry surrounding theirs. They rout all of my melee (except cavalry), and my archers rout the rest as Mitsunari deals with Ieyasu. Then, when I think I've won, I see 200 yari samurai beginning to march against me. I line up my archers and place my general behind them. Should also be noted that three of my four archer units are ou of arrows, and the fourth has only arrows for a few volleys. I begin to march against them, shuddering at the thought of the fight to come.

Then, out of nowhere: "VICTORY". For some reason the 200 yari samurai who would definitely win against my 400 archers and a group of cavalry, ran.

[Reigner]

Hate to say it, I really do, but my first battle was a Decisive Victory. My second battle I stopped trying so much and just tested a few game mechanics, Average Victory. My third battle I put Yari in front in a line, katanas behind them in a line, and archers behind them, general in the back in Stand and Fight mode. I just watched the battle play out and gave maybe 5 orders for units to charge throughout the entire fight, and just spent most of my time marveling at the Insert button's awesomeness .. "Costly Victory".. All fights were on Hard.

Mitch I really appreciate the improvements you've made, and my respect is all yours.. but I basically won by just setting up a typical formation and leaving it at that.. My hopes are that the AI will be alot smarter than sending in masses of infantry and flanking with cavalry.

Keep on working at it, and thankyou for what you've already done.

[The Juggernaut]

I guess my formations must utterly suck, because if I leave myself at a static defense, even with field fortifications to limit their movement, I get owned. First thing I did was Empire test, leave everyone in a line, don't move. Got routed with minimal losses to the enemy.

[pointwolf]

I guess my formations must utterly suck, because if I leave myself at a static defense, even with field fortifications to limit their movement, I get owned. First thing I did was Empire test, leave everyone in a line, don't move. Got routed with minimal losses to the enemy.

Try archers in front spears on the flanks katana in the middle. Cavalry wherever you want whn they come send your katanas to meet their line archers keep firing. Spears will take care of his cavalry then send them in the fight too. Leave a unit or two in reserve and use your general abilities. Rally and if a unit starts wavering inspire them. If you see a unit is getting low on morale pull them back from the fight to rest.

[Zipzopdippidybopbop]

Try archers in front spears on the flanks katana in the middle. Cavalry wherever you want whn they come send your katanas to meet their line archers keep firing. Spears will take care of his cavalry then send them in the fight too. Leave a unit or two in reserve and use your general abilities. Rally and if a unit starts wavering inspire them. If you see a unit is getting low on morale pull them back from the fight to rest.

Pretty much aye =P

[Yatsumoto]

I allways put my archers in front, let them set up there defenses. then some yari ashigaru in between them with there spears in front. On the flanks i put my elite unite (when possible Yari Samurai). Behin the first line i put my Katana Samurai to backup the yari ashigaru. My Cav i set up a bit away from the line on both flanks. At last, my general; i always let him sit behind the Katan Samurai, and i have never used one of his abilitys except the ability where he sits down, so his influence radius is bigger. With this defensive strategy i won all battles, even with the "new" improved AI... On very hard too. I know, some will maybe say, that this is a strategy for cowards, but i´m more one of the defensive generals But i must commit that the new AI is much more better then the "normal" Demo AI, or any previous TW AI. It´s much more fun, and challanging So, good Job Mitch. Thanks to all of ya, who made this Demo almost a full game Thanks A lot.

Greetings


PS: sorry for my bad english. Not my mother Language...

[Aykis16]

I had to log in and say thank you for this tool Mitch, you've almost done as much to sell me on this game as CA has

I am very impressed by the improvement I've seen from the AI. I made a lopsided custom battle using your tool where I simply had a couple of Katana Heroes, couple of Bow Heroes and my general, and gave the enemy 20 Yari Ashigaru. The AI saw it had the massive advantage in numbers so while it approached me, it had some of its army come at me in the front, while two OTHER parts of the army split off and went for my flanks. The AI was trying to encircle me, and it did! I was soundly routed (not before my heroes did some bigtime damage though, heroes are awesome) and can't wait to try out other combinations as well. Great tool and just enough of the fix I need while I wait for the full game to come out.

One bug I have found though: When I clicked End Battle, wanting to see my results, I got a crash to desktop with a "Shogun 2: Total War Demo has stopped working" error. I've only played the one battle though so I don't know if it is a one time thing or not. I'll let you know if it keeps doing it.

[leviath]

Awesome, I'll immediatly try it !

[osheamat]

I dont know, I played 3 battles on hard and I won each easily, they enemy advanced in columns with no disticnt shape into my stationary defense. No charge, just a march into a spear wall. All that ensued was a melee in the center and no attempt to break out or flank. I even held back and gave up obvious weaknesses. So I deleted, restarted, re installed the modification and re tried, 3 more battles with the same result. I was playing on Hard.

Any Ideas anyone?

[Lucius Aemilius Scaurus]

Im not dissappointed, but not really impressed either. While the AI is obviously better than in other games, I cant seem to find those epic strategies it used against you guys. I won my first battle on hard, decisive victory. I used a simple formation I always use. Yari in the middle, Katana on the flanks and Archers in a long line behind the battle line. Then my katana cavalries also on the flanks. The AI did attack my katana cavalry and bow ashigaru with their Yari cavalry, flanking me. Problem was, I could easily just turn 1 of the melee units around and own them But after that happened, the AI charged his general into the back of those melee units Sadly for him, I still had a group of cavalry in reserve, charged him, and killed the general, which was followed by a mass enemy rout, with the 1000 remaining men So maybe thats the cause I couldnt see the awesome AI, cause Im suspecting that, if the general hadnt died, my main line wouldve been broken en my archers slaughtered, and I wouldve died.
Oh and thank you Mitch for the awesome mods!

[EgyptianNecrophiliac]

Isn't this pretty much the same behavior that we saw in Empire? Obviously the AI sends his cavalry around on the flank and try to go for soft units like archers. Is that supposed to be impressive?
And then you have the standard line vs line melee until the end.