Is Bohemia balanced?

**Caliburn** · February 24, 2009, 05:31 AM

version: 1.0
difficulty: H/VH
faction: Poland

After finishing campaign with Egypt, I wanted to play with some central European faction.
So I started as Poland... made an alliance with Bohemia and Hungary. In second turn Bohemia started a series of suicide attacks - literally, there is no other phrase to describe sending armies of two-three units against army of 10 units and leaving cities defended with only a family member.

End result, Bohemia cease to exist in the 4th turn, as Poland takes Oloumuc and Holy Roman Empire takes Praha.

I've restarted campaign to see if my alliance was the reason for Bohemias strange strategy. Same thing happened.
:hmmm:

version: 1.0
difficulty: H/VH
faction: Hungary

I decided to check out if the Bohemians are kamikaze or not.
As Hungary I make alliance with Poland and Bohemia. In the 2nd turn comes series of suicide raids of two-three units strong Bohemians armies. By the 5th turn Bohemia is no more. Hungary takes Olomouc and HRE takes Praha.

version: 1.0
difficulty: H/VH
faction: HRE

Well... HRE is already allied with Bohemia. This time I had to wait for Bohemian kamikaze... until 3rd turn... In the 5th turn Bohemia is no more. HRE takes Praha, and Poland takes Olomouc.

Can something be done to change AI for Bohemia so it wouldn't go ballistic whenever there is a human player in vicinity or just use slot for some other faction that had more impact on the history of the period?
I'm reluctant to start as England now... afraid that one day I could see Bohemian suicide fisher boats emerging from the fog over the Channel...

**CirdanDharix** · February 24, 2009, 09:56 AM

Bottom line is that the RTW AI is (AFAIK) hard-coded to hate the player. For a weak AI nation that shares a border with the player, this means death.

**Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze** · February 24, 2009, 10:52 AM

that gives advantages tough, today France wanted me to be her (La France

) protectorate...i COULD DEMAND THEM 3 CITIES THEY CAPTURED FROM ME AND STILL they would accept....not that i care, i know the AI long enough.

you can guess waht a French army did the next turn

**DaVinci** · February 24, 2009, 11:03 AM

We can try to influence this, i'll look for that, thanks.

But correct is that the AI is the more agressive vs. the human player the more borders you share, and the higher the camp difficulty is.
There are other parameters, and for those i'll look for to decrease the behaviour a bit.

**Caliburn** · February 25, 2009, 12:54 AM

version: 1.0
difficulty: H/VH
faction: Sicily Normans

Well, this time I had nothing to do with Bohemia... honestly, I haven't even glanced to the north... nevertheless, Bohemia attacked Poland in second turn.
OK, I was playing Bohemia I would attack Poland first, too, but as a computer controlled faction Bohemians seem just a little bit too much aggressive for their own good...
I'll send a diplomat there to check out what is going on, or simply play without the fog of war for a couple of years.
Maybe some scripting can do the trick to make the computer controlled Bohemia survive first 10 years... at least.

Has anyone else encountered same or similar behavior of Bohemia?

P.S. Perhaps my difficulty setting is to blame? Maybe some other setting would prove better balanced. Can anyone share their experience on this matter?

**DaVinci** · February 25, 2009, 01:32 AM

Of course i can: Bohemia makes it quite good as AI ... just until they will be attacked by the HRE AI. There is nothing to worry for them especially. The HRE AI has then just an interest to control them, because they in most cases suceed into Poland to a degree, by rule get at least one Polish home region. And it is balanced in a way that Bohemian AI attacks first the Sorbic independent settlement, and then, yes they will go for Poland. - Of course a bohemian AI has a problem if you as human player have Poland or Hungary or even HRE, that's clear for such a minor state like Bohemia. If Bohemia is not sharing borders with an agressive human player (who crushes them instantly in revenge for an attack) then they play quite well, i assure you.

I recommend, you should try H battle difficulty. As you can also read in the mod info, H/H is the best setting alternative M/H if the AI shall have less money, and not H/VH for the AI, even if you say they get more attack boni, the AI will behave better with H/H, in my experience. I'm even not sure, if the VH battle difficulty is not bugged as well, like the VH campaign difficulty is, as the community means to know in the meantime.

**Caliburn** · February 25, 2009, 01:43 AM

Has Hard battle difficulty any influence on the behavior of the AI on campaign map?
I will change difficulty to H/H then as you recommended.

**DaVinci** · February 25, 2009, 01:47 AM

You can't change in-campaign, must start anew.

Of course the AI will count its boni/chances for a battle also in the strategic mode. So if VH battle is bugged then it "thinks" it is better than it is in reality on the strat-map and on the battle-map. But i have no concrete idea, if VH battle can bug the AI, means if the VH battle is actually bugged. I played in earlier/starting RTW times (2005) mainly VH/VH, then we found out that VH camp is bad for the AI in several ways and perhaps there is something wrong with VH battle, too. However, it needed a long time, that the community found out that the difficulties are bugged somehow. So afaik generally valid for RTW, and in my personal experience for ChivTW, H/H is the best setting to have a quite proper game.

**Roman Warlord** · February 25, 2009, 09:40 AM

Hi I've just downloaded this excelent mod and must say im very impressed, it far better than any other mod ive played.

Playing the Danes on H/Vh

I don't share a land border (there are rebel provinces in between us) with Bohemia but they keep sending weakish stacks at me.

This didn't happen straight away like the others but after many turns, still it seems sort of linked to your problem.

**DaVinci** · February 25, 2009, 04:29 PM

Welcome

Well, in example Denmark has the significant advantage of recruiting Vikings and Huscarls in the first years of the campaign (and even later via mercs). So those Danish armies have kinda upperhand above other starting levy armies, until better units become available.

There is no special "created" issue with Bohemia. The thing is they are small, and surounded by powers - their goal is of course to maintain themselves. The same as ie. Armenia is doing in Near-East. Nothing strange actually. And as said, a human player nearby with shared borders to those rather "aggressive" factions is of course able to destroy such small realms if it shall be a goal or becomes a quasi necessarity. It is this though, why those little factions have some certain advantages (for example quite early semi-good units available), that they have a better chance to survive.