AI comparison to MTW RTW

[Batavian]

I've played all three games and it seems ETW has the weakest AI. Maybe that will be tweaked in future patches. Which game had the strongest AI? "Strong" may be a relative term here. Perhaps "best" or "most challenging" would be better. My feeling is:

1) MTW (most challenging)
2) RTW
3) ETW (least challenging)

What are your thoughts?

[Manoflooks]

I've played all three games and it seems ETW has the weakest AI. Maybe that will be tweaked in future patches. Which game had the strongest AI? "Strong" may be a relative term here. Perhaps "best" or "most challenging" would be better. My feeling is:

1) MTW (most challenging)
2) RTW
3) ETW (least challenging)

What are your thoughts?

Well I never played m1. but my thoughts are

Campaign.

ETW
RTW
MTW2

Battle
ETW/MTW2(tied)
RTW

[pdanders]

Well I never played m1. but my thoughts are

Campaign.

ETW
RTW
MTW2

Battle
ETW/MTW2(tied)
RTW

ETW is by far the worst campaign AI.. period.. in fact since it's broken (stated by CA) that should be obvious to everyone... I can not believe anyone in this thread is claiming that the broken ETW campaign AI is better than RTW or MTW (even version 1)... the AI in ETW DOES NOTHING... there is NO CHALLENGE AT ALL.....

The battle AI however is pretty good


I think we should wait until the campaign AI is fixed before evaluating it.. it doesn't even work right now (and I'm not just talking naval invasions)

[NONOPUST]

ETW has the best Battle AI out of the three. But its tied with the other three for campaign AI, as they all suck with no clear winner.

So ETW wins for me.

[Lionel-Richie]

ETW is by far the worst campaign AI.. period.. in fact since it's broken (stated by CA) that should be obvious to everyone... I can not believe anyone in this thread is claiming that the broken ETW campaign AI is better than RTW or MTW (even version 1)... the AI in ETW DOES NOTHING... there is NO CHALLENGE AT ALL.....

The battle AI however is pretty good


I think we should wait until the campaign AI is fixed before evaluating it.. it doesn't even work right now (and I'm not just talking naval invasions)

I don't remember RTW and M2TW's campaign AI doing anything either. Couldn't neither of them do naval invasions until a patch much later?

[pdanders]

I don't remember RTW and M2TW's campaign AI doing anything either. Couldn't neither of them do naval invasions until a patch much later?

Naval was bugged.. .but they would at least attack you... esp if you jacked up the difficulty.. I can win in ETW on VH without even trying... in RTW at least you had to blitz some

[PGeo36]

RTW and MTW2 campaign AI was really easy. They'd empty out their city garrisons and attack you with everything while leaving 1 or 2 units to guard their cities. So all you had to do was load an army on a fleet land behind all the AI full stacks and take their cities, then break their full stacks when they siege the cities you took.

[kerowhacko]

Comparing Campaign or Battle AI?

I still think the Battle AI in Empire is one of the best out of the box (compared to at least, Med 2). When I played RTW out of the box, I was usually really drunk so I can't comment. I never got to do too many battles in MTW as I didn't play it long. I would have, but my luck in TW games flat out sucks. I can't play MTW that long because I can't do anything without famines every.single.turn and it got old, fast.
(Seriously, I have friends who vouch for that)

[django333]

If we are talking about vanilla right our of the box, Empire has the best AI for campaign and battle. I'm not saying it's perfect but it's definately better.

In battles the AI actually tries to flank and has done it successfully to me several times. The battle seems to be going fine and then all of a sudden there a 3-4 units of cavalry destroying my artillary. Previous games the AI has never been able to flank effectively.

On the campaign map the AI is actually aggressive. Hell, even with Stainless Steel for M2TW the AI would almost never attack me. I had to go after him. In Empire however, the AI is constantly sending small raiding parties to hassle my infrastructure and sending full stacks to take towns. In my first campaign I had several cities changed hand several times. That almost never happend in previous games. The AI also seems to honor alliances better than in prevous titles. Once again though, it's far from perfect.

I think modders will be able to do a lot with the AI. Dare i say people will actually be complaining that the game is too hard!

[Homeros]

Best battle AI - STW & MTW(1) no doubt. It seems CA used similar AI tactics in ETW, especially flanking. When CA manage to finalize ETW it could be the best AI experience so far. Unfortunately we'll have to be patient. Lets hope CA releases the editor asap so the community can play with the game (engine).

ETW is a very good game, but it could (and will) be a fantastic game!

[Mikhail Tomasovic]

Best battle AI - STW & MTW(1) no doubt. It seems CA used similar AI tactics in ETW, especially flanking. When CA manage to finalize ETW it could be the best AI experience so far. Unfortunately we'll have to be patient. Lets hope CA releases the editor asap so the community can play with the game (engine).

ETW is a very good game, but it could (and will) be a fantastic game!

stw? i agree with you completely on mtw (one of course) but stw was not that great. mtw on the other hand was very nice and provided me with a challenge more than a few times. empire's ai is not bad, nor is it necessarily passive.... it is almost TOO realistic... i know you are thinking 'what is this old man blabbing on about?' but think about it. what stops the ai from attacking you 9/10 times? the fact that you are stronger than them, right? the ai knows they have no chance against me and my allies if all commit to battle. once engaged, however, the ai works wonderful. i think people want the ai to be over aggressive and unrealistic... arcadish... that's all fine and dandy... but keep that on a diffferent setting for me.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

The Battle AI is much better than M2TW and Rome, especially since M2 had the passive AI bug. Once the naval invasions are fixed, I'd say the campaign map will be far more challenging too, but right now its kinda easy.

[upsettingshorts]

The AI does at least one thing in ETW I never saw in previous games:

When I get complacent and pull a garrison from a region, I lost track of the number of times the enemy then chose to immediately pounce on the newly vulnerable territory. I shudder to think of how much this will keep me on my toes once naval invasions are fixed.

[ColdFire]

ETW by far, even beats MTW and STW, which in my opinion are romantasied by many of you, and you forget how they truly were.

[Radiso-FIN]

ETW battle AI is enough challenging for me.
At least cavalry is flanking and the AI general doesn't make suicide attacks.

[kesmai]

anyone played the sengoku jidai campaign with shogun + mongol invasion on highest difficulty (both campaign and battle) ?

if you did, you know what i´m missing with etw.

[aeoleron9]

ETW, hands down.

I can still clearly remember the erratic AI in RTW and M2TW, declaring war because they like to blockade your port with one ship. As for MTW, that AI only had to handle a risk map so comparing them isn't really fair.

[Slaists]

I've played all three games and it seems ETW has the weakest AI. Maybe that will be tweaked in future patches. Which game had the strongest AI? "Strong" may be a relative term here. Perhaps "best" or "most challenging" would be better. My feeling is:

1) MTW (most challenging)
2) RTW
3) ETW (least challenging)

What are your thoughts?

Well, to be honest, MTW2 battle AI is just plain awful... By far, the worst of all the preceding TW games.

I cannot play ETW yet (my new rig is due to arrive tomorrow), but, as far as the previous TW battle AI's go:

1) MTW1 (the most reasonable; not really challenging though)
2) RTW
3) MTW2: absolute worst...

As to strategic AI: they all are quite crappy out of the box. However, for MTW2, modders seem to be able to do some really nice stuff.

[NATOguns]

I personaly find the Med2 AI better, well atleast with Darths AI.
But the AI in Empire is way to passive, and that flanking. Only with cavalary and one at a time. And yes the General no longers does sucide missions instead he is a sitting duck for your arty.

[Lionel-Richie]

I personaly find the Med2 AI better, well atleast with Darths AI.
But the AI in Empire is way to passive, and that flanking. Only with cavalary and one at a time. And yes the General no longers does sucide missions instead he is a sitting duck for your arty.

You hardly can compare a vanilla, out of the box AI to a modded AI that came later.