Battle AI not so dumb afterall!!!

[Faridus]

hello Patricians and Plebeians,

i've recently started a new campaign and been fighting more battles manually.

i'm usually a defensive player, not so much of an offensive one. i usually play most of the defensive battles and autoresolve when i'm on the attack. but this time, in this campaign, i decided to try more offensive battles. i can say, it's quite interesting and different.

during my first few battles, i was very cautious, maneuvering as much as possible to try to outflank or encircle the enemy. each time, the AI would deploy its units accordingly. it tends to avoid being trapped. it plays it safe just like i did.

i'm not one for an all out charge, i hate taking a lot of casualties, so my offensive battles last quite a long time, mainly frontline skirmishes, i send a unit to taunt the enmy, an enemy unit comes after it and when it's far from its main line i send couple units to take it out...and so forth, after some time, the enemy army loses it's troops and at about 1/3 or 1/2 casualty rate, i hear "Run for the hills" and the enemy army retreats in bulk...most of the time i can't really catch up with it and they just exit the battlefield except the one or two units i catch with my cavalry units.

so now, i thought..."whenever i hear run for the hills i know the enemy is leaving the battlefiled!".

my next battle, i attcked a full enemy stack with my full strength legion. start with my usual cautious maneuvering, outflanking movements..etc. skirmishes, took out a few enemy units and i hear the "run for the hills"...so i decided to go all out and charge the enemy that turned its back on me. SUDDENLY!!! when i was almost upon them, they turned around and counter-charged me...yes, they did!

to be honest, i was quite stunned. i did win, because of my superior numbers, they had already lost several units during the skirmish operations, so i had a few extra units i used to outflank them.

so, as far as battle AI is concerned, it's not that dumb at all.

[EternalSlayer]

I've noticed that happen several times. I don't know why this happens, it might be because the AI's retreating action is overridden by nearby enemies. I had a retreat in which my cavalry were pila'd by nearby armoured warriors while they rode down the retreating archers. So it's probably just the AI knowing you're setting a waypoint close to their current position that makes them turn.

Or something....

[Athkara]

Yeah, that happened to me recently against the Iberians. The moment the battle started I heard them say that and start running; I figured I may as well watch, so I had my army slowly march after the cowards. Instead the Iberians got onto a hill in a corner of the map, stopped fleeing and waited for my men to reach them. It was pretty fun to see the AI retreat to advantageous terrain.

[dvk901]

I have played a lot of mods, and I honestly have to say that the AI in RS is the probably one of the best..if not the best it can get in RTW. And the sad thing...I have no clear reason for it. I suspect that the high morale and the fact that many units have the 'command' attribute has something to do with it, because the AI in RS behaves the weirdest I've ever seen in any mod I've played.

For example, 'running for the hills' was something I rarely experienced in other mods. The enemy armies seemed to always stand and fight...even when it was stupid (in my view) for them to do it. I believe a good reason for this happening more in RS is because of units having the 'command' attribute, which effectively makes that unit a 'general' unit whose captain is a 'general' of sorts. The AI tends (in mods without this) to have a LOT of armies that have no general.....therefore, no leader to assess that the situation is hopeless, and running would be prudent. But in RS, there may be several of these units to command nearby troops and cause all kinds of odd things to happen.

I've seen whole sections of AI armies break off the main army...following command units (of this I'm sure)...to attack my army in a skirmish-like manner....only to break and run back to the main force after unleashing javelins or whatnot (or getting hammered by Roman pila!)

I've also seen hundreds of times where units got demoralized and ran, only to pass a command unit and return to the fight. This back and forth manuvering is very neat, and best of all, erratic...so the AI isn't near as predictable as it was. Also, the AI in RS seems to have a penchant for trying to outflank my armies....I credit Sinuhet for that, whose battle AI formations we use.

I sincerely hope we can preserve this behavior in RS2.

[Redolegna]

I certainly hope so. I have seen RS armies seeking shelter on a high ground and forcing me to take the hills before them. And when I was finally there, the AI wouldn't make a rash move and try to storm my positions. It would wait for me to come closer and have a pile of javelins thrown at my men. I try to taunt them by having my general hitting at them and running but it only worked for a few units and they would often turn back if it was too obvious I was leading them to my lines. It was infuriating but great at the same time, because it was clear that tactics would won the day and not sheer numbers.

[Ojf]

Yea for the first time the Ai in Rome almost flanked me because i never guarded them since the other AI sucks, this one is very good

[El Crumb]

The A.I. is a crafty beastie i tell ye. Especially when it supports it's flanking horsemen with spear-armed units. I've had many a horsemen skewered while trying to turn back these flank attacks.

All adds to your generalling experience though!

[Forsworn]

I've been outflanked before by the AI with their light cavalry. Once while engageing an even-numbered foe they waited for my cavalry to engage theirs. While that was happening they slipped one unit of light cavalry behind my infantry and throughly beat my archers senseless. It was a sad day for me.

[EternalSlayer]

That is why you should always keep your general back behind your infantry.

[Forsworn]

Well, my General try'd chargeing a phalanx. I stopped him in time but I couldn't resist not killing their range support units. Too bad my better ones were left open aswell. Tactical error on my part.