AI laying stakes

[kooz123]

i just fought a battle as mordor against gondor. they had about 5 units of archers so i sent my 2 units of Numenorians at them and as soon as i got there they laid stakes right in front of my cavalry and killed one of my best generls. why can the AI lay stakes in the middle of a battle?

[Myshkin]

!?

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Maddening ain't it!!!!! ... Happens to me ALL the time...

[kooz123]

yeah, thats what i thought. but it happened. luckily i saved the game before i went into the battle so i reloaded, but i still almost got my general killed again when they laid the stakes right in front of them.

[Jean=A=Luc]

I'm guessing you're using Germanicu5's AI or some sub-mod that incorporates (DaC maybe?) it since, iirc, it specifically enables the AI to deploy stakes during combat.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

I'm guessing you're using Germanicu5's AI or some sub-mod that incorporates it since, iirc, it specifically enables the AI to deploy stakes during combat.

Just the official patch 1.1.....{no subMods}

[IShingenI]

It is a bit ridiculous but it compensates for the stupidity of AI, and makes u a bit more cautious when charging.

It's fine by me.

[kooz123]

me too. only the patch.

[Bloodzen]

Just played a battle a while ago Rhun against Dale
Dale had about 6 units of Dale archers and they began placing stakes randomly across the battlefield
The strangest one was when they went very close to a group of my units and than placed the stakes facing in the opposite direction facing away from my men :p

[kooz123]

yeah, i had that happen too. the AI's trying to be smart and lay stakes during the middle of a battle, yet they put them the wrong way

[Olifantenstaart]

Indeed, it's terrible.

[Lord_William_III]

Hah, imagine than... your generals unit flees, your general survived the massacre, you cheer! But then, you see him heading towards... and you can't do a thing except waiting... waiting for that moment where a piece of lumber pierces your 8star-general. If someone can show me a screen where that happened, he gets a virtual cookie from me!

[Prometheus214]

I have had this happen as well, with only the 1.1 patch installed and no submods. However, I like the challenge it presents. Usually, I try to hit enemy archers or missile units with cavalry before the battle starts in earnest. The stakes make me think twice about charging the enemy. Also, historically archers were known to sometimes carry around stakes and place them before cavalry charged (such as at the Battle of Agincourt). Again it is annoying, but perhaps an interesting strategic challenge that mixes things up a bit.

[Momus]

so it isnt just me then but still *spits in disgust* blooming snagas! I had destoryed the entire of one full stack from OotMM and their reinforcements (one group of snaga archers) came on, i was chasing them with my cavalry and whilst they were running they deployed stakes to i lost all but 2 of my swan knights from one unit!!!! WTF?!?!?!??!!!! On top of that they had survived so many battles and were on 2 gold cevrons......I was absolutely livid!!!


so I got out my Holy Hand Grenade of dismounted swan knights (3 gold chevies) and massacred the snaga scum with no loses to them but I was furious about my mounted swans tho......that reli needs to be changed. It is shocking and stupid.

[kooz123]

i havent had it that bad, but i had never had the AI deploy stakes before i fought this battle. i had just fought about 3 or 4 battles right before this exactly the same way. i charged the Witch King and his heir (both 8 star generals) into their archers to minimize losses to my main army. it worked brilliantly up until i fought the last one. my numenorians were charging and then all the sudden, BAM, stakes right in front of them. killed my heir. i was so pissed that i reloaded my save and massacred them without a second thought. ....stupid computer....

[johannlo]

It wouldn't be so bad if your cavalry was 'smart' enough to go 'er are you sure' or something like that. Instead they run all over stakes happily.

Its even worse when you haven't told them specifically to go over the stakes but they do so automatically e.g. chasing a routing enemy. I've lost count of the number of cav units I've lost when they're merrily mopping up survivors and then whoopsies just didn't see that row of stakes. Its friggin stupid

[kooz123]

the worst is when u run over ur own stakes. cuz then u got no one to blame but yourself. ive had it happen when i charged my cavalry at the enemy and then pulled them back, only to have them run over my stakes.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

At Momus....

Please remember the save before EVERY battle. That way the trajedies you described can be suffered {finish the battle}, but will not adversely affect you..{you can relaod}.

Don't make frinds with this guy...

[eugenioso]

now thats something ive never seen before. they usually deploy stakes but then mobilize right off the bat in my games.

other than that, i loved how the enemy pulled a WW on u*

*WW: William Wallace. get the reference? if not check spoiler

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

ahahaha pwnd

[DoktorJ]

the worst is when u run over ur own stakes. cuz then u got no one to blame but yourself. ive had it happen when i charged my cavalry at the enemy and then pulled them back, only to have them run over my stakes.

Haha yeah, unfortunately, I've done this before in ETW. The best part is that my cavalry went out of their way to run over them. They were supposed to be pulling back to my flank and the stakes were in front of my line infantry, so instead of following the straight path to back to the flank, they go out of their way to run over my own stakes. That's what always get me riled up. Your units do exactly as they are told, except when you really need them to pull through and follow orders exactly, that's when they do something completely unexpected and get themselves killed.