Useless AI

[Owain Glyndŵr]

Situation one.

I'm playing as France, and I'm fighting a bridge battle against the Holy Roman Empire. I have two units of spearmen and two of crossbows. He has two of armoured sergeants, two of knights, and his heir's bodyguard.

First, he doesn't move across the bridge to attack me. Therefore, I move a unit of spearmen a little more than halfway across and form a schiltrom. No response. Finally, I put my crossbowmen right behind the spearmen and open fire, moving down 70% of his troops(including most of the Bodyguard) in a few minutes. Once I ran out of ammo, I charged a cross the bridge, finally waking the AI up, but it was far too late; I trampled the rest of his infantry and captured his prince.

Situation two.
I'm playing as Egypt vs. Kingdom of Jerusalem, besieging their capital with a full stack. On the opposite side of me is another stack, also mine and controlled by the AI. My army and the reinforcements both have two towers and a battering ram... but instead of swarming the walls on the west side with their own equipment like they should have, my reinforcements decided it was a better idea to slowly creep around the edge of the city while being slaughtered by enemy towers... only half were left by the time they made it around and started stuffing themselves into the breach my ram had made, completely neglecting my troops on the wall who were in desperate need of reinforcement.


Am I missing something here? Maybe there's some mod I should install?

[eisenkopf]

Am I missing something here? Maybe there's some mod I should install?

Exactly

The situations you described are typical ones, I've encoutered similar situations while playing vanilla.

If you want a campaign similar to vanilla but with improved AI, go get Lands To Conquer, or the Retrofit Mod with Xeryx's AI, or Ultimate AI. If you don't mind installing a mod that changes the game more radically, there's plenty of them around...

[Hungary Horace]

Clouds across europe is a good mod that makes the AI a bit more clever, They actually fomed a Schiltron in one game and I was like finally you have done something clever!!

[PawtucketPat]

I cannot speak to all of the mods available. In fact I am not much of a poster, but I do love this game and I have played the "Lands to Conquer" mod quite a bit. The AI are improved in that particular mod. They do seem to have a method to their madness and its not just a simple case of lining up your men and going about the business of slaughtering the enemy.

The AI will also do things like counter your moves with moves of its own. What do I mean?

1. They'll charge with one unit of cavalry (take your pick on the type) while holding back the general's bodyguard etc.

2. You (maybe you are maybe you aren't caught off guard) counter by charging the oncoming cavalry with one or two units of your own cavalry.

3. The AI now counters your charge by sending in the general's bodyguard. They will try and hit you hard in the flank or bust straight through your cavalry screen and go after your missile troops etc.

The point is that "Lands to Conquer" and other mods like it provide a much improved battle experience. You will find yourself thinking about terrain, troop compositions, strength levels etc.

Just my two cents worth.