Lusteds latest Battle AI and Campaign AI

[Lusted]

As people are getting confused about versions of my AI's to use i thought i'd make a seperate thread with them in. The .zips contain the latest version of my battle and campaign AI. They should be improved over the battle AI found in SS 4.1, and the campaign AI posted in the first post in the campaign AI thread. This version of my battle AI features some changes to the formations so infantry deploy in deeper formations due to the use of RealCombat in SS.

Simply copy and paste the files from the .zips over to the stainless steel data folder.

With the campaign ai if you have not used my ai before, you need to find the descr_strat.txt in the data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign folder within the stainless steel folder. All you need to do with that file is find the ai_label lines for the mongols and timurids and change them to mongol.

[Drakkar]

Thanks man!

I'll test your new BAI (with deeper formations) very soon.

Thank you!

[UNHINGED_LOON]

Is it compatible with saved games?

[smitty]

Is it compatible with saved games?

I second that question...

[Drakken]

Wow... I am speechless.

Just had a potential huge battle against the Fatimids as the Templars, 1,900 Christians against 1,100 Infidels in the outskirts of Aleppo. Two seasoned commanders with several stars on each side.

The terrain was very accidented, with a high hill overseeing the angles in the prairie at my left flank. If I had occupied the high ground on the hill, the Fatimids would have certainly refused the battle. If not, the smaller path down the hill toward the Fatimid lines was a potential bottleneck and would have nullified my superiority in numbers. I wanted to avoid a potential crowd disaster if my men walked down without any space to arrange coordinated flank attacks. This would have allowed a sane, competent Fatimid general to block the passage with all his infantry units, force the battle either into a queued column formation or a totally disorganized massive infantry charge similar to Cannae, all the while the massive number of Javelinmen had all the latitude to harass my infantry from behind their lines or keep any single unit attempting a separated flank or rear attack in check. So, I took the gamble to deploy my men down on the prairie to force a showdown, conceding the higher ground in favour of wide space of movement.

I saw that he deployed and sent all his unprotected javelinmen on his right flank, climbing the high cliff towering over my left flank to take advantage of the steep terrain and shower my army with javelins from the skies, which is totally logical if the AI's aim is to inflict the highest level of casualty possible. So, to prevent them from exploiting the hill with their ranged units, I decided to use my heavy cavalry squadrons (1 x 80 + 1 x 42 mounted Hospitaliers), first to make a single smashing charge into the enemy spearmen in his center to disrupt it, then retreat a few paces forward before making a 90 degrees turn, and finally charge his javelinmen in cascade while evading the pursuing spearmen (thus breaking their center formation), all the while I order my whole army to advance on them.

However, my cavalry did not do a perfect charge, My lines were disrupted and had already taken some casualties from the javelin vanguards. After charging with rather limited effect, the Hospitaliers had a lot of difficulty disengaging from the center and switching to swords to run into the javelinmen. The enemy spearmen harassed the rearguard cavaliers while the masses of javelinmen threw their javelins from very short range, forcing me to order them to retreat further in front of their javelinmen to escape the spearmen, before turning yet again and fall on the javelinmen. My heavy cavalry took extremely harsh casualties (only 13 and 14 survived the spearmen and the javelins, all the rest died: Almost 5/6 casualties!), but it allowed a diversion while my light cavalry unit climbed the cliff and charged the mass of javelin throwers by surprise from even higher ground after reaching the summit. Meanwhile the rest of the army walked through the center of the battlefield totally unscattered, marching towards the enemy's main army to finish the job.

The result in the end: A clear victory, but with 100 losses only against 400 for the Muslims. Except the javelinmen being wiped out and the enemy spearmen having lost some men in the cavalry charge and the following repealing of heavy cavalry, there was no infantry pitched battle at all. What's really, really jaw-dropping impressive is that the Fatimid army, having lost his now-routing javelinmen and with them any chance to make a stand and win the battle with his infantry lines only, actually retreated the rest of its troops in good order and exited the battlefield. Not routed in disarray after having pitched everything in battle, but retreated! The AI did what any good commander would have done in that situation : retreat to regroup and fight another day.

Wow... just wow...

[Cowellini]

i have just copied the campaign ai we can dl from here to my SS and all i can say is SWEET! I did a custom battle and charged my infantry against another and they all wer fighting together not scattered all over. Great patch

[Lusted]

Is it compatible with saved games?

Yes and no. Yes it will work with save games fine, but if you want the specific mongol ai setting(i've made them more aggressive), the changes to the ai_label lines in descr_strat and a new campaign are needed.

And glad you are enjoying my ai Drakken and Cowellini.

[Black_Rider]

Is Lusted Battles last long?

Because I dont like quick battles.

[Caesar Clivus]

Is Lusted Battles last long?

Because I dont like quick battles.

Battles last longer in SS because it uses RealCombat stats.

[UNHINGED_LOON]

Yes and no. Yes it will work with save games fine, but if you want the specific mongol ai setting(i've made them more aggressive), the changes to the ai_label lines in descr_strat and a new campaign are needed.

And glad you are enjoying my ai Drakken and Cowellini.

Sorry, could you be more specific about the changes in descr_strat regarding the mongols?

[Grifman]

Sorry, could you be more specific about the changes in descr_strat regarding the mongols?

Open that file, then do a search for "ai_label". You'll find that a line like that for each faction. The keeping looking until you find that line for the Mongols and Timurids. I believe it will say "default". Change that to "mongol". That should do it.

At least that's what I did. Someone let me know if I was wrong

[Lusted]

Open that file, then do a search for "ai_label". You'll find that a line like that for each faction. The keeping looking until you find that line for the Mongols and Timurids. I believe it will say "default". Change that to "mongol". That should do it.

At least that's what I did. Someone let me know if I was wrong

Nope that's exactly what you are meant to do.

[UNHINGED_LOON]

I was previously using Ultimate AI, would I be ok just copying the files over?

[tc3]

cheers dude, shall try this out

[Chim]

Great Lusted, I will test this out as soon my game runs again!

[Henry X]

Lusted, you're God's gift to the Total War Community.

[Lusted]

Yes, but you will need to edit the descr_strat file. UAI has a lot more Ai profiles than my mod, so you would need to change the ai profiles for the Muslim and Orthodox factions to default, and then make the changes to the Mongols and Timurids Grifman posted earlier.

[Drakken]

Having continued my game with the Templars with Lusted's latest AI files, difficulty N/H, the AI's stacking worries me.

I seldom see the Fatimids concentrate their stacks before attacking me, they rather bring several smaller stacks moving around to be picked by my huge army, one by one. The stacks are big and contain a dozen units, but not enough to confront me in a level-headed battle. I have always have between 1.5:1 and 2:1 numerical advantage on them.

Now I see huge, worring stacks from European Kigdoms passing by, like the HRE marching on my territory to or from Jerusalem, but I seldom see this with the Muslim powers. Weird. :hmmm:

[Lusted]

An interesting thing i've discovered for those of you who want to help me improve my campaign ai. If you add this to your stainless steel preference file, it should provide a log of the information and decision the AI makes in the campaign, should help me improve it a lot:

[ai]
ltgd_logging = true

[log]
to = logs/system.log.txt
level = ai.ltgd trace

If you do this just send me the system.log.txt file after you've played through a campaign for a bit, this should help me narrow down where the garrisoning problems are coming from, and any other problems.

[akagi28]

The one thing i noticed is that the AI doesn't seem to march around with half stack and up. I've been seeing armies with just 3-5 units each. The one good thing i've noticed is that the rebel cities have at least half stack garrisons. Lost 2 seige battles to them. I'll put the above in to get some log output for you.

(maybe i installed thing incorrectly)