What is with the AI soldiers?

**lacrossepl9** · January 18, 2009, 07:52 PM

I was fighting a battle as France defending Barcelona from an Aragonese stack led by their king. They had around 3000 soldiers over half being almughuvars and javelinmen, 2 units of mercenary macemen, 2 units of archers, and 2 units of mailed knights and of course the king. I had around 2000 troops, all were some of my best soldiers armoured seargeants, light men at arms, professional sargeant spearmen, and a general. So during the battle I realised how suped up AI soldiers are its ridiculous I lost 70% of my soldiers (all defending the town square) while the AI lost only 30% that wouldn't upset me if they had some sort of tactical advantage or better soldiers but these were javelinmen making mince meat of armoured sargeants I mean come on. Then my general was protecting the side road to ensure they didn't flank me. He charged into a unit of mailed knights and practically lost, in a battle where general's bodyguard should simply dominate they were decimated losing around 20 bodyguard out of 30 against mailed knights. Then the AI king came slaughtered the remaining bodyguard I sent two units of Armoured sargeants at them catching them before they charged, and what happens they slaughter 200+ armoured sargeants without receiving their charge bonus before they were finally killed, come on if I can't have super hero cavalry the AI should not get it what is up with this anyone have a fix for REALISTIC battles, I care more for realism then difficulty.

**Point Blank** · January 18, 2009, 07:57 PM

LOL you will find twice as many complaining of the opposite. The AI are not 'souped up', aside from maybe a +1 morale/+1 exp bonus at higher difficulty.

**Caesar Clivus** · January 18, 2009, 07:57 PM

What difficulty level were you playing on? Do you have any submods installed?

**Sisyphus0** · January 18, 2009, 10:43 PM

How was your troop moral? If your general has some severe negative traits which drops the moral you can have big disasters like that.

**Cleitanious** · January 18, 2009, 11:58 PM

Also, Javelin throwers hurt like

. Don't underestimate them.

**Iscariott** · January 19, 2009, 12:34 AM

You sound much like a french general with a bunch of heavy spearmen might after facing 1500 argoneese skirmishers. Javelins are no joke.

**Cleitanious** · January 19, 2009, 12:36 AM

Javelins are no joke. Javelins on your flank, or behind you spells doom for any unit.

**magraev** · January 19, 2009, 01:33 AM

And spears get a penalty against infantry - so sword-armed inf get a bonus. 200 armoured sergeants should kill a king though - maybe he had high valour/dread?

Cavalry in the cities is always a bit hit and miss for me - sometimes they thunder down the street and destroy the opposition, and sometimes they get caught on something and sashay sideways into melee.

**Cleitanious** · January 19, 2009, 01:43 AM

Not sure which units you were using exactly, but not all spearmen are anti-cavalry. Only unit's with longspears have bonuses against cavalry. Check the unit card for the bonus listing.

**lacrossepl9** · January 19, 2009, 12:37 PM

Thanks for the quick responses, I have tons of submods lol, but I found my problem, my general was a noob general

he had like 1 star and horrible traits, my army although they had taken Barcelona was still inexperienced and even though they were higher tier the force sent against me (I just found out) may have been weaker units but they were battle hardened, as for their general it was the king of Aragon with 9 stars and 55 bodyguard, my bodyguard also got stuck instead of charging full speed down the street into the knights they made a b-line for the gate opened it got stuck then at the last second charged into the knights. So now that I look back everything went the way it should have spears suck against swords (javelinmen) so in the long run I just made a few horrible maneuvers.

You see I sent half my army (all of my sargeant spearmen) at the gate and put them in a semi circle as many of you do as well to box in the invaders. But when they charged in and starting just destroying my forces I decided to pull my men back in a covered retreat to the town center. The fatal mistake was sending my right flank out first, once they left the flanks caved in and the rest of my gate force was destroyed leaving only those 2 sargeant spearmen that escaped, and the armoured sargeants and light men at arms. So they just charged into my 600 man defense, I think my force should have killed alot more of them but now that I look at it it was my poor strategy that lost me the battle, thank you again I didn't think clearly on the situation since I never have lost a battle as badly as I did then lol damn AI having to be so smart

**Iscariott** · January 19, 2009, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by lacrossepl9

Thanks for the quick responses, I have tons of submods lol, but I found my problem, my general was a noob general

he had like 1 star and horrible traits, my army although they had taken Barcelona was still inexperienced and even though they were higher tier the force sent against me (I just found out) may have been weaker units but they were battle hardened, as for their general it was the king of Aragon with 9 stars and 55 bodyguard, my bodyguard also got stuck instead of charging full speed down the street into the knights they made a b-line for the gate opened it got stuck then at the last second charged into the knights. So now that I look back everything went the way it should have spears suck against swords (javelinmen) so in the long run I just made a few horrible maneuvers.

You see I sent half my army (all of my sargeant spearmen) at the gate and put them in a semi circle as many of you do as well to box in the invaders. But when they charged in and starting just destroying my forces I decided to pull my men back in a covered retreat to the town center. The fatal mistake was sending my right flank out first, once they left the flanks caved in and the rest of my gate force was destroyed leaving only those 2 sargeant spearmen that escaped, and the armoured sargeants and light men at arms. So they just charged into my 600 man defense, I think my force should have killed alot more of them but now that I look at it it was my poor strategy that lost me the battle, thank you again I didn't think clearly on the situation since I never have lost a battle as badly as I did then lol damn AI having to be so smart

Dont feel bad, I had a polish garrison of about 600-800 men, 2 spearmen(pros) 2 axemen(militia) 2 of those polish crossbow cav, and maybe a unit or two of peasants. A bunch(1800ish) lithuanians stormed into the city of theirs i'd taken. I defended in the square, with the shooters taking position on the sides of the gates(to pepper bolts while they rammed the door).

After they broke in they went headlong at my town square, spears up front, axes behind, shooters behind them. The battle lasted about 6 minutes after the infantry clashed. My men didnt break, even killed the general sent after them(w/ crossbows). Routed a large section of their army, but were eventually whittled down and lost. Thing was, I was pretty sure i'd ravaged their army, given how many units broke and how long it had taken. But grand totals I lost about 200 more than the enemy.

**Tacitursa** · January 19, 2009, 02:17 PM

I dont understand why you were fighting spear chuckers while clogged up in the city center?

You should setup a trap at your gate , i use a good setup that works great and burning oil kills alot of men you just setup a box formation exactly on the gate with 1 unit actually stood against the gate on guard mode so that when they try breach they stop right under the oil.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
------------eeeee ------------------------
******** eeeee ***********
aaaaaaaaa eeeee aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
-----------====-------------------------
****cccc\\**** // cccc ****

==== Gate
**** Spearmen/pikes/halberd/HA
\ & / Flankers/2hand units/AP unit etc
cccc Cavalry
aaaa archers
eeee enemy
----- wall

Archers should be firing flame arrows aslong as possible , pul them back behind cavalry or city square once seige ladders or towers hit the walls and replace with spare infantry thats behind cavalry

Once gate is breached the top **** spear unit should try to hold as long as possible allowing towers and oil and archers to get even more kills. Once they breach this line make sure your second **** is engaged first and charge both your \ & / flankers onto the sides. This is ussualy an instant win but if your \ & / flanks die proceed to do a full charge with your cavalry(cccc) on each side into the pack.

This works so well you can even win when greatly outnumbered and it works incredibly well vs william wallace at edinburgh because 90% of the army trys to enter via the gate and 70% is burned ussualy including wallace himself.

Edit: bah my ascii pic keeps reseting to the left of the screen :/