Have you witnessed AI armies character variance?

[DARTH VADER]

Since this was a very new thing for me trying only now...in the end of DarthMod...can you please tell me if you have anticipated eventually?

To be more specific...I managed to control AI of factions (Through priorities and other things) so as to make them more defensive,attacking,mobile, multi-role etc.

For instance:

RTW_DarthMod
Greek_cities :over defensive
Epigonus: Balanced
Macedon:thunderous cavalry mobilization
Asians: Skirmishers
Romans:...perfect
Barbarians: super attackers
Scythians:ambushers
Carthaginians:overFlankers


BI_DarthMod
WRE: Balanced and mobile
ERE: Cautious
Barbarians:Over attacking
Arabs: Ambushers
Huns:Encirclers
Asians:Skirmishers

I know sometimes becomes too generic for someone to distinquish but since it was meant to become as a.m .pls tell me if you have anticipated these special tactics as a character and not generally the same to all.

[jw1089]

well, im playing as macedon in DM 8.0, and the greeks betrayed me by seiging Chalcis oh say 15 turns into the game. they always betray... im playing on h/h dacia took bylazora about 9 turns into the game, and thrace has attacked as well, striking at my capital. greece was last to attack. for the record, i am playing with 0 turn recruitment, that will change things. whats the epigonus culture?

[DARTH VADER]

I am referring only to battles not campaigns

[daud.fr]

I've played some battles so far against seleucid, and the only thing i've noticed is that their armies are massive and are 90% composed of combinations of different phalanx types (Like silver shield+levy+militia). During battles they launch a massive attack in the center, at the same time trying to encircle me on the flanks. The best part is that when our phalanxes meet (i'm playing as Ptolemy) Seleucid actually manages to break through, and they keep on counter-attacking, and blocking my units...

AI has improved drastically, that's for sure). Good job.

By the way what does files in presets folder do?

[DARTH VADER]

They are balanced=They attack in straightforward coordination flanks+center simultanuesly and progressively....do not maneuver much.

the presets are some default army compositions I used to test my formations and wanted to share them with you. 25000 denarii usage mostly

[raijin]

im playing bi darthmod with the sasanid empire on h/h
so far ive only fought against the ere and yes i would call them cautious (however since i never played unmodded bi i cant tell how ere behaved normally)

one fight:
they had 2k soldiers, mostly composed of those garrison spear troops with 2 units of comitante 2 archers and 2 hippo toxati
i had 3k soldiers, mostly levy spearmen, 2 archers, 2 slingers, 2 calbinari, 1 camel rider and 2 peltasts

they were the defender and chose the best defensive position on a hill
their troops held the position while the archers slowly approached me ( i divided my troops into 1 smaller and 1 lartger group), since they had the range advantage i decided to use my immense amount of missile troops to wear their archers down
i spread my slingers into loose formation and attacked the archers while the calibari (those cataphract like horsemen with shortbows) tried to charge the archers
ere countered nicely, their archers were heavily armored so my slingers didnt do much damage the cavalry charged into the archers but was repelled due to a pila salvo from the spearmen behin the archers, i decided to retreat the expensive calibari while the losses were still low and continued with the slingers, this time approaching the hippo-txati (basically armored horsemen archers)
the main line io the ere troops still didnt move and i knew charging uphill with my punny levy spearmen would be suicide

the slingers took heavy casaulties while decimating one unit of horse archers to about 30 men, meanwhile my archers (who i didnt want to lose so i deployed the mcarefully) approachedthe enemy archers from the flank and indeed inflicted some nice dmg
this time, finally the overcautious ere sent 2 untis of spearmen to counter the archers, exactly what i was waiting for, the archers fell back immidiately and the ere spearmen got into the trap i prepared for them, 2 levy spearmen cut off their retreat path while my calbinari i posted nearby before used their short range bows to inflict some damage from flanking positions (the dmg was still very low, the ere troops marched in shield wall formation)

well that was the point where the ere troops got into some disorder, the 2 spearmen units split again, 1 i caught with my levies, the other made i back and most of the troops on the hill approached my main line
my archers were almost out of ammo, my slingers, 1 unti routed the other at 50% strength but the enemy archers were below 20 units each, the onyl effective ranged until the ere had was the 2nd horse artcher unit, which was still on the hill and shooting at my slingers, as itsposition was (finally) a little isolated i cahrged them with my camels i psoted far away in the rear of the enemy before, 1 unit of spearmen countered my charge but before i retreated with minimal losses i managed to cut down the horsemen to half
now, before the romans got into pila range i threw my small group (2 levy 1 peltast) to catch 2 enemy spearmen unit while the main group engaged th others
well, now i had a trerrible revelation (actually i assumed this before, just not to such an extent) that my spearmen can barely scratch the comitante and merely hold the line against the ere spearmen, however i had a general, while the enemy captain was already dead (he died during the camel rider attack) in the beginning it looked very bad for me, heavy losses everywhere, 1st levy unit routed at 50% strength but the rest held the line
i brought in the skirmishers, which finally managed to inflict some damage on one of the comitante and charged the other on with my heavy cavalry from the exposed rear... this did the trick, the ere units started to rout one after the other and soon i only had to fight 2 units of spearmen while my camels and calbinari slaughtered fleeing romans like pigs

the ere troops were very defensive, they used their elevated position very well, since i couldnt charge due to the poor quality of my melee troops, (i feared a mass rout, even 1k more men wont help u then) but heir final offensiev was badly executed, the units too far away from each other, so i could pick the targets with my heavy cavalry at will

the outcome was very clear, i lost 600 soldiers, mostly cheap slingers and levies while about 90% of the romans died (i let some escape so they would report about the price you have to pay for invading sassanid territory), since i mostly played modded rtw, not bi, the behaviour during a fight was quite different from what i know, normally the archers would charge in melee in front of their other troops and terribly perish

the ai didnt play a perfect game... far from it... they had the quality advantage after all... but we all know how "smart" ca programmed their ai but it was definitely a fun game where i didnt know the outcome in advance... i am finally able to use missile troops... normally i dont use any since the ai cant coutner them at all
in addition they didnt have any melee cavalry... which basically gave me total control over the battle field... uhhh what was that quote "mere infantry.... poor beggars"?

i was however dissapointed after the battle, my general had a doctor with him and this guy miraculously healed 50% of the casaulties, where can i modify the healing rate of these ancilliaries (i know in rtr they didnt heal to such an immensive extent)

[DARTH VADER]

Yes ..the very defensive stance was intentional. I believe that I have put my finger in it. Bcs I made many tests with many formations variations (For someone who does not know my formations are not simply a deploy of troops at the start but a complete set of roles with many swappings which utilize the internal hard coded command roles of CA. Every formation set has internally 5 sub-formation roles which cover all the battelfield needs of AI)

[Also from the composure of your army I see that you had complete advantage (Numerically and quality). The clibinarii are super elites. When AI has no cavalry and you have....Try winning an ERE with heavy cataphract cavalry and balanced army....]

So there are certain tricks to do that.
For what I have heard of you...it is very good.
Keep in mind that 1.6 patch has deteriorated the AI foot missile defense.
For better results to test my modifications is to see when AI attacks you or in custom battles double confrontation.