Siege AI won't leave & passive AI in sieges

[Tate]

I do like how in 6.3 the AI will bring siege equipment (cats, trebs) to a siege. One thing that is both frustrating and time consuming is that the AI's artillery will run out of ammo, I will break the siege, and every AI unit will flee the field except for the artillery crew. I won't get the victory notification unless I sally a few units out and drive the remaining catapult or trebuchet crew off of their equipment. They never withdraw on their own even though the rest of their army routs.


I have also noticed that passive AI in siege battles is back. They batter down the gates and I will repel their ladder/tower assault but the rest of the army will just stand there. Usually they will stand within range of my towers so I will compress the time to 6x and they will stand there and take casualties. Eventually they will come through the gate and I'll rout them, but sometimes it takes forever for them to come through the gates. I don't know what the trigger is that gets them to come through is either. It seems totally random and usually takes a long time. Anyone else noticing this happening? This wasn't an issue in 6.1.

[Siddyus]

Haven't happened to me so far. But, in one of my battles just now, a Trebs team came up to of my walls to get themselves slaughtered. Then, they just pulled back with their remaining men and the siege finally began.

[hpsauce13]

Haven't happened to me so far. But, in one of my battles just now, a Trebs team came up to of my walls to get themselves slaughtered. Then, they just pulled back with their remaining men and the siege finally began.

same with me, except it was a balista, but other than that no problems to report, wait scratch that, in the same siege the enemy had 2 catapults and 3 balistas but only used 1 balista to fire at the walls.

[RabidSheepLegion]

same with me, except it was a balista, but other than that no problems to report, wait scratch that, in the same siege the enemy had 2 catapults and 3 balistas but only used 1 balista to fire at the walls.

i thought balistas couldn't fire at walls?

[RollingWave]

i thought balistas couldn't fire at walls?

They can, just won't do much usually. except maybe to gates.

I've usually have the problem the OP describe when I end up burning the rams before the gates go down, if they break the gate they will at least try to massive super charge of doooooom through the game.

Right now a few issue is ...

1. AI generally build too few siege equipment, usually just 1 ram 1 tower maybe 1-2 ladders, almost any skilled commander can beat back armies 3 times their strength if they only have that many siege equipment (As long as they have the ideal defensive unit mix for defense anyway.) given that the AI still have problems sending multiple units up the ladder wouldn't it be easier to just program them to wait a extra turn or two and build more ladders? when I do tough siege assaults I will almost always build as many tower / ladders as I have infantry.

2. the massive charge of dooooom: seriously, unless the difference in unit quality is extreme, this tactic can almost always be foiled with a stake + 4 decent spear unit + a javelin unit or two and maybe some decently positioned archers / x bows.


3. if things don't go well the AI never give up : this is probably the most unrealistic aspect of all, even in the field they sometimes know when to retreat, but never in siege, when retreating is usually easier.

4. they risk their general way too much.

[Tate]

3. if things don't go well the AI never give up : this is probably the most unrealistic aspect of all, even in the field they sometimes know when to retreat, but never in siege, when retreating is usually easier.

Right here is another big one that really drags out a siege battle. After an army is broken a few units will rally and slowly walk back towards your settlement for some more punishment. Sometimes this process repeats three or four times. It's a lot faster to run them down and chase them off with cavalry, but since I rarely garrison with cavalry I usually don't have this option.

[Clackdor]

Had one recently where I sallied out a cavalry to kill the catapult crew. After I retreated, they sent a ram which just sat in front of the door while the army absorbed my ballista towers and archers. 6x to time ran out.

[Tate]

Had one recently where I sallied out a cavalry to kill the catapult crew. After I retreated, they sent a ram which just sat in front of the door while the army absorbed my ballista towers and archers. 6x to time ran out.

The battle time limit would sure help out in these situations. I never play with the time limit enabled though because it always screws me over when I'm the one assaulting a large settlement/fortress.

[nhinhonhinho]

I have the problem too. The Mongol just fire they trebutchet until they ran out of ammo. After that they move in. If i use time limit i probably win the battle

[Siddyus]

Well, lets hope these weaknesses will be fixed in the upcoming version of battleAI. For now, lets try not to exploit them. But, yeah... its still annoying at times.