Command & Control in Seiges

**Quintus sertorious** · July 03, 2007, 07:30 AM

I had a nasty experience twice in one night! I had a Roman general in a town defending against a Macedonian storming. Meanwhile I had a huge relief force under another general (AI control?) poised to hit the besiegers in the rear. The action began and the relief force did not budge from the edge of the field whilst my small unit of defenders fought valiantly against the Macedonians but slowly gave ground. Only with the final collapse of the defense, did the relief force begin to move.

The same thing happened a little later. I have had similar situations fighting in the open field with two generals and the AI general has rushed to my relief and between us the enemy has been destroyed!

I am playing RTR Platinum V1.9. Is this a software glitch or have I been stupid enough to miss something obvious.

Help - Roman with a sore ass!!!

**D.B. Cooper** · July 03, 2007, 12:59 PM

Are you saying that you slowly lost to the Macedonians? If so, why would the AI send more men into the fight if they could subdue you with only one army? Makes sense to me, or maybe I'm missing something.

**Gerin** · July 03, 2007, 07:13 PM

There is a box in the rienforcment colum if that is marked then the rienforcments will be under AI control. And the opposite also applies.

**_TubbZ_** · July 04, 2007, 05:43 AM

Just attack with the larger force instead of the small force, also if you have a good general and don't want the AI to kill him for you in the smaller army maybe set it from AI control to reforcements (or watever the box says).

**][Xyphos][ - Lee** · July 04, 2007, 02:17 PM

Yeah id attack with your reinforcement army, then atleast you have a bigger army under control and you dont have to worry about your other army not attacking the enemy.

**DICY** · July 04, 2007, 03:06 PM

You guys are misreading his post. He was defending a city with a small force, but had a larger army of reinforcements coming from outside of the city, which was under AI control. When the battle started, the AI reinforcements came in but didn't help in the battle at all, they just waited until he was losing the battle.

If I've got it right, then I've had it happen to me before. I notice that in a lot of cases AI reinforcements will wait for the main force to be completely destroyed before they start to engage. It's annoying when it happens to you, but handy when it happens to the enemy. Your best solution would probably be to not let the AI control your reinforcements. I think it's a glitch in Vanilla RTW.

**Quintus sertorious** · September 12, 2007, 10:57 AM

Thanks Dicey. The plan was a classic 'trap' in which my Ai force had a crucial role but wouldn't budge! I suspect you are correct about the glitch. I am now very circumspect of such strategies.
Cheers
Q

**NobleNick** · September 12, 2007, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by DICY

I notice that in a lot of cases AI reinforcements will wait for the main force to be completely destroyed before they start to engage. It's annoying when it happens to you, but handy when it happens to the enemy. Your best solution would probably be to not let the AI control your reinforcements. I think it's a glitch in Vanilla RTW.

I have played vanilla 1.5 RTW, and have seen the AI do a lot of crazy stuff; but I don' think I have ever seen this. I would blame a pre-battle setting or possibly RTR before I blamed RTW 1.5 vanilla.

Oh, wait. My apologies, DICY. I think I remember hearing about a possible bug in the pre-battle screen. It may (or may not) have had something to do with reinforcements. If it were me, I would check, uncheck, and then recheck the box which says AI controlled reinforcements, in the pre-battle screen.

I hope this helps.

**Severous** · September 12, 2007, 01:10 PM

Ive seen this frequently. In BI and Alexander in particular when there were big battles involving multiple stacks. I suspect RTW Vanilla may also have this situation when you take on multiple SPQR stacks in the battle for Rome. I presume huge scale setting players see this more often.

The game will prevent too many men on the battlefield. It will delay reinforcements, to either side, if it thinks this hidden limit is breached. Thats why they engaged late battle when your defenders were nearly beaten. The losses had created headroom for the reinforcements to enter.

Multiplayer gamers will see the game say 'game limits' reached as many players add troops to their armies. They can choose to ignore the warning. My bet is in solo campaign mode the computer is observing this rule by delaying reinforcements.

Sev

**Domitius** · September 12, 2007, 11:25 AM

Yea that looks like a good explenation. Never let the AI control your armies! I've had battles where the AI rushed into the battle with my general and got him killed. They've never heard of the word careful. They also loose a lot of men by just rushing into the enemy. As many say: Stupid AI.

**Rasui Runihura** · September 12, 2007, 03:07 PM

NEVER let the AI control ANYTHING you do if you can help it, especially reinforcements.

**gummybear00** · September 14, 2007, 06:25 AM

I love the AI's logic in these situations. Defending a siege against the AI is so easy. They'd charge with all their infantry, even the ranged units. Then after those all die. They'd send all their cavalry. After those all die, they'd charge with their lone remaining general unit.

**larry_lalonde** · September 14, 2007, 05:35 PM

Indeed. Long ago when I was playing as the Brutii and defending a town against a macedonian siege, and I still easily won, even though i'm not a great commander by any means.