11 turns in

**Captain Irish** · December 01, 2007, 04:58 PM

playing v5.1, VH/M as England. On my first turn, I decided to secure the Isles before any campaigns on the continent. After turn 3 the Irish siege Caernarvon and take it turn 5. Norway (Norway!) lands a small army at York and sieges it turn 3. I defeat the Norse with a loss of 13 men as they decided not to bring any ranged units or cavalry to an invasion of England, home of the longbow. Turn 10 a Spanish (Spanish!) stack of 4 light cavalry units sails up the Channel and sieges Exeter.

Is this what I can expect all game? I love the fact that the AI is proactive but the Norse invasion was iffy and the Spanish attack made zero sense. Add on top of that the crap composition of the armies and I'm thinking that the AI is still more or less vanilla.

Should this be my expectation?

Note: I still love the mod, though!

**Henry X** · December 01, 2007, 05:17 PM

Very hard makes the AI go backstabby, and very aggresive, though I'm sure that your starting of the fight had something to do with it.

**Madden** · December 01, 2007, 05:18 PM

the most fun campaign i've had was playing english...... i went to 10 different factions and allied with them, then went to war with all of them on the same turn.. then stuff like this happend to me, stacks upon stacks loaded up on both of those islands, it was just too much for being the 20th turn and I ended up losing and getting offered to be a vassal from 8 different factions lol

**Landwalker** · December 01, 2007, 05:20 PM

The AI gets around, and it doesn't always use small dinky armies. In my Byzantine campaign, I've been constantly fighting to keep Egypt off of Cyprus, and they always land with a stack of between 15-20 units. Those ain't any dinky raiding parties, they're there to capture and hold the place.

Cheers.

**Kyias** · December 01, 2007, 06:00 PM

I agree with landwalker, playing as Sicily, the Byzantines were renouned for landing full stacks outside Bari in an attempt to establish their presence in Italy (I play on M/M for the diplomatic game) so you can definately expect some serious armies in the future.

**Severloh** · December 01, 2007, 06:08 PM

Agreed

I'm playing as HRE and I'm on a true bloodshed against the milanese, denmark does not leave me alone and even the british are attacking Gronigen (!) with lots of units every single time.

**republic_bohemia** · December 01, 2007, 06:59 PM

Hi all,in my campaign this that the AL does not use affective armies with generals,happens a lot too.At least in my England campaign,the same thing that happen to you,happen to me too.

**Captain Irish** · December 01, 2007, 08:07 PM

Originally Posted by republic_bohemia

Hi all,in my campaign this that the AL does not use affective armies with generals,happens a lot too.At least in my England campaign,the same thing that happen to you,happen to me too.

At least I'm not alone. Twenty turns in the Irish are sending a half stack or so towards Nottingham every turn so that's a good sign that AI will get better as the game progresses.

Other than that, the Danish army has landed near London: the people are menaced by a single unit of spearmen. Woe is England!

**gholin** · December 03, 2007, 02:33 PM

Originally Posted by Captain Irish

At least I'm not alone. Twenty turns in the Irish are sending a half stack or so towards Nottingham every turn so that's a good sign that AI will get better as the game progresses.

Other than that, the Danish army has landed near London: the people are menaced by a single unit of spearmen. Woe is England!

You know, If I were scouting a potential target, I'd send one measly unit too. Get your quivers full and your armor strapped on tight, my friend, the Danes may be invading soon! I'd also be worried about Scotland if they are still around. If something happens and some guy named William Wallace starts whining about freedom, you will have quite a fight on your hands, especially with an upcoming invasion by the Danes on hand

Also, keep in mind that a small stack besieging your superiorly-defended cities may seem stupid, but by doing this, they are disrupting trade from that city. So, they are harming your economy for a relatively low price of 4 units. This may set you back for a few turns if you don't do something and this is a smart tactic, since it sets you up to be weaker when their large professional stacks come! Crush these little harrassing forces even if you lose some men in the process, because the economic damage could kill you when their knights, trebuchets, and professional footsoldiers come.

**Captain Irish** · December 03, 2007, 06:52 PM

@ Vasquez and gholin

Good points by both of you but I think the AI's actions are byproducts of it's own inherent limitations rather than brilliant stratgic thought

But when I thought about it for a minute, wouldn't it hurt you more if you sent a 4 unit "blockade force" to siege an enemy town? If you're sieging Venice or Constantinople you might deny the enemy significant trade income, but what happens when your small army is attacked and wiped out? You did spend money to train them after all.

I guess it depends on the situation!

**Vasquez** · December 02, 2007, 08:23 PM

Okay look keep in mind that four units of anything is a harassment force. Laying siege to one of your towns with such a force is a brilliant insurgency concept on the part of the AI. See if it happens often enough, you are going to be run ragged all over the Isles fighting off them off, and one day a real stack will land and you will be at sixes and sevens trying to fend them off... remember Hastings.
Personally I sink fleets carrying invasion forces at sea (if at war) , or crush them on the beaches if they make land and are neutral. As England, your Navy is everything in the early part of the game.

**Inhuman One** · December 04, 2007, 05:44 AM

I started an english campaign too not long ago.

The bad luck of the Irish worked in my favor, their king died quickly, not sure how but he did, and the next king died when trying to take Caernavorn and they lost their early army with this as well.

I took their castle quickly but in the meanwhile they trained soldiers in their last city, too many for me to take them yet. It took me a little while but I had them rather quickly and then went for Scotland. I first took their upper province, wallace emerged and caused a lot of damage in the coming years.
He killed three generals and most of their full stack armies before I managed to kill him.

I didnt get a fix though so I had to auto resolve the fights against wallace.

Scotland still lives though even while all of the british isles are mine. They took two provinces from Norway.

France expanded greatly though, they took all the spanish lands. I think they will be my next target since they are excommunicated. I had some difficulties with the pope for attacking scotland and Ireland, I am not excommunicated, but the relations are very poor and I only have one cross.