Frustratingly poor BAI

[Death's Deputy]

I love DM, but the BAI still seems hopeless. Here is an especially annoying example I had early in the Peninsular campaign. I was France, defending the city of Badajoz from the British (VH campaign, N battle, 2x units size).

I had - 6 x Fusiliers, 5 x Musket armed citizens, 1 x Militia, 1 x 6-lb cannons, 1 x Chassuers, 1 x Chassuers a Cheval (generals unit).

AI had - 8 x Line Infantry (4 British foot, 4 Portugese foot), 2 x Light Foot, 1 x Portugese Cazadores, 2 x 6lb cannons, 1 x howitzer, 2 x Light Dragoons, 2 x Portugese Cavalry, 1 x Dragoons, 1 x Arthur Wellsley.

I had about 5500 men to their 4500, but that included 3000 citizens and militia.

The town of Badajoz was on my left flank, so I garrisoned three of my Citizens in the houses there and had the other two and my militia stand at the back of the village behind some walls, so they could fire between the houses at any enemy units who got near my garrisoned buildings. I then drew my six fusiliers up in a line with Badajoz guarding my left flank. I placed them "reverse slope" on the right side of the line (it wasn't possible to do so on the left) and put my cannons and Chasseurs on the top on the ridge. My chasseurs chavel I left as a floating unit to launch counter charges wherever needed.

I really didn't think I would win this battle, I just planned to try and inflict as many casualties on my enemy as possible. This really should have been a fairly easy AI win - all the British needed to do was use their artillery to bombard me and force me out of the buildings, then use a coordinated infantry and cavalry attack and I would be routed no problem.

Instead Wellington made a complete hash of it. He sent his light dragoons to try and drive me out of the town, but they were unsupported and were driven back no problem. Then the British artillery moved up and opened fire, but instead of targeting my troops they fired at a random spot in the town way infront of my garrisoned units. Not a single shell hit one of my units all battle.

Wellington then drew up his infantry line, but left all the rest of his cavalry in reserve behind his cannons. Instead of matching my line (or even better ignoring my garrisoned units and focusing on destroying my regular army units), the infantry formed into two clumps with no discernable formation.

They then advanced. The one on the left (1 cazadores, 2 light foot, 1 portugese foot, 1 British foot) got caught up in Badajoz and was wiped out by my citizen units who took very few casualties. Instead of bayonet charging my garrison units, which would surely have routed them, the enemy instead tried to return fire whilst in dense columns all mixed in together. Carnage.

On the right the rest of the British infantry sat in a poor formation right in front of my cannons and Chasseurs for about 5 minutes, allowing me to rake them with grapeshot and musket fire, inflicting about 600 casualties. WTF.

They did finally attack, overwhelming my cannons and Chasseurs and even briefly routing some of my fusiliers, but they were ultimately driven off with very heavy losses. Wellington led the attack (although he did not engage in combat) but ran back to his cannons when he realised the attack was failing!

The battle was now effectively over, since although the British still had 3 cavalry units plus Wellington left they had no hope of routing my infantry (now in squares) or my garrisoned units, especially since the British cannons were still firing at absolutely nothing

That didn't stop Wellington suiciding two more units of cavalry against my garrisoned citizens units. Result - 240 dead cavalry, 12 dead citizens. With the AI now dormant I just fast forwarded the remaining 10 minutes of the battle to claim a time out victory.

Is there any explanation for this repeatedly awful behaviour by the AI? I mean seriously - letting cavalry attack fortified positions unsupported, attacking in ugly columns that get torn to bits by my muskets, leaving units right in front of my grapeshot firing cannons and having your powerful artillery units fire at a random space on the map?

I love DM and I thought it had sorted the worst of the AI behaviour, but obviously not

[FiestaSolara]

Yea I noticed complete failures of the BAI when it comes to houses. They NEVER attack garrisoned buildings with melee or musketfire for that matter.

When there are buildings on the map you can get into you can easily exploitwin the map.

[CrayonVonCaesar]

Don't exploit obvious flaws in the bai.

I have modded my game massively and get solid bai behaviour in open battle but there are still problems, therefore to make it fair I never use exploits like holding buildings after the battle is obviously lost. Either attempt to retreat them away or quit out.

I also don't pursue and slaughter routing units beyond the "victory" box appearing on screen, as the AI never gets the chance to do that either.

[FiestaSolara]

Don't exploit obvious flaws in the bai.

I have modded my game massively and get solid bai behaviour in open battle but there are still problems, therefore to make it fair I never use exploits like holding buildings after the battle is obviously lost. Either attempt to retreat them away or quit out.

I also don't pursue and slaughter routing units beyond the "victory" box appearing on screen, as the AI never gets the chance to do that either.

I also do that. Otherwise it wouldnt be fun.
But I'm telling it since it can always be better, no matter what frankly.

[Death's Deputy]

I didn't realise this was a flaw and I certainly didn't set out to exploit my way to victory - I only placed my citizen units in the buildings so that they wouldn't be vulnerable to cavalry charges.

This also still doesn't explain the behaviour of the AI's artillary, the erratic infantry formations or the failure to use cavalry in combination with the infantry. If the BAI had done any one of those 3 things properly, I would probably have lost.

[Hockeywarrior]

Many of the issues you report regarding the AI not knowing how to position or line up their troops are issues I see all of the time.

That said, I never garrison my units in buildings as the enemy almost always instantly targets them win cannons and wipes them out. So that certainly is different.

In general, my campaign battles as Prussia versus France have been brutal ... in the last battle I fought (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsq5t...1&feature=plcp) the French did a pretty poor job of lining up to meet my defense, but did a very good job of sending their cavalry to attack my weak flank rather than immediately charging suicidally into my main line. They did do a bit of that later, but at least the had infantry engaging.

The BAI is just so erratic. Sometimes it's a to fight and other times a total joke.

[BrodY]

The AI i ETW and NTW has always handled barricaded situations poorly. I don't think it has anything to do with the mod itself.

[Bendit]

It sounds like DD saw the absolute worst of the AI in that battle. In my experience it is very rare to see the BAI bungle a battle so badly. Wellington too. lol

I also appreciate the house rules posted above.

[Bcman]

well i was once playing as france and the prussians lik poured into a little postion and my Artillery pounded them and i st my men up in a massive V and destroyed there intire army by using carbiners to fill the V.