Large, Unrealistic AI Armies

[pluckcitizen]

I'm playing a game with BGR, and Portugal only has one province left: Seville.

My problem is that Portugal keeps getting units every turn, they're up to four fully stacked armies. I realize that this a poor excuse for 'increased difficulty' (I'm only playing on Medium/Medium by the way), but I find it to be extremely unrealistic and nonsensical.

Is there a way to limit the amount of AI army based on the number of provinces they have, or even better, the strength of their economy?

Thank you.

[JorisofHolland]

Depending on your version (which should be stated before anyone can ask for it), AI economy has effectively been disabled in SS, resulting is epic armies for one-settlement factions. There's little you can do about it, except learning to mod and nerf the scripts.

[pluckcitizen]

Depending on your version (which should be stated before anyone can ask for it), AI economy has effectively been disabled in SS, resulting is epic armies for one-settlement factions. There's little you can do about it, except learning to mod and nerf the scripts.

That's unfortunate. My version is 6.3, I figured that would be a given. No one else has a problem with unrivaled armies by a one province faction?

[Ichon]

It only becomes obvious when a faction is down to 1-2 regions left. Basically as long as a faction exists it gets some help which is not as proportionate to the regions it controls though it does matter a bit. Usually the AI has such large armies when it loses regions quickly as in sea invasions or multiple attacks by neighbors simultaneously.

You can try submod Carl- heard it works well for this sort of issue though I haven't tried it personally. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=396039

[pluckcitizen]

Thanks, I'll look at it. I figure it would make sense that a faction can hold an army relative to the strength of its economy. Especially on a difficulty like medium/medium, I'd rather have an easier, realistic game than a game with a blatantly cheating AI.

[Ichon]

Thanks, I'll look at it. I figure it would make sense that a faction can hold an army relative to the strength of its economy. Especially on a difficulty like medium/medium, I'd rather have an easier, realistic game than a game with a blatantly cheating AI.

Just consider it a faction down to the last line of defense arming its entire population rather then just letting the few professional soldiers defend alone. Also- if you look at the stacks lone settlements build- unless they formerly had larger empire almost always their stacks have mostly cheap, weak levy units.

[pluckcitizen]

Just consider it a faction down to the last line of defense arming its entire population rather then just letting the few professional soldiers defend alone.

Thank you, this will definitely help me cope with that situation. Yeah I wish they were cheap levy units, the Moors keep pumping out professional calvary. Maybe if I reduce them to an underdeveloped city it the units will be of lower quality.

[Hyaweh]

that's why you take their cities and fortresses/citadels first...

when i was french, I took most of their cities(using OST) and all i had to do was ride them down w/ lots of heavy cav... I had at least less than 10 men lost while they got full stack armies getting crushed(all they had was cav fodder, so it makes it alot easier) in 1 battle. levy spears don't really stand a chance against heavy cav so after taking their power house, it becomes easier...

for moors, take the cities on the Iberian plains, then move on south, then jump towards Tripoli, they'll have weaker units then by the time their ready for vassalage

[Byg]

I'm playing a game with BGR, and Portugal only has one province left: Seville.

My problem is that Portugal keeps getting units every turn, they're up to four fully stacked armies. I realize that this a poor excuse for 'increased difficulty' (I'm only playing on Medium/Medium by the way), but I find it to be extremely unrealistic and nonsensical.

Is there a way to limit the amount of AI army based on the number of provinces they have, or even better, the strength of their economy?

Thank you.

By the way it isn't a BGR feature, it's a 6.3 feature. The same would happen in the non-bgr version.

[pluckcitizen]

By the way it isn't a BGR feature, it's a 6.3 feature. The same would happen in the non-bgr version.

I figured this, thanks for the info. I really enjoy using your mod by the way.

[Liandro]

If it's totally absurd and you don't want to deal with it, I'd just teleport them all to the pope and take on the final army in the castle if that's the case, it's just stupid and annoying, and when you take the town they'll turn into rebel armies. You might even see in the next turn Pope is Dead... can't kill enough of them...

[pluckcitizen]

I'm bumping this because it's still a relevant problem to me, and I'm wondering if anyone has any other solutions. Thanks.

[Fred Putz]

I guess You are playing 6.3. Haven´t played that so far, but the AI shouldn´t recruit more units with that script. Don´t know how it works with mercenaries. Carl (as submod) is just for 6.2 RR/RC because the RR/RC script had some weaknesses - in my opinion.

There isn´t really that much You can do about it.
- You could restrict the AI Money, but that could hurt the AI too much. - tested
- You could restrict the recruitment even more, but that could hurt the AI too much. - my thinking
- You could kill those units by script, but that could hurt the AI too much. - obvious
- You could monitor everything, but that would be an endless script. - heard that´s possible
It´s hard to script something which works perfectly in all possible situations. At least for me.

It just happens or gets noticable if a Nation is really small (or is called england ). I´d propose that You either sit it out if You want to live in peace with Portugal (I´m sure they will move when the next crusade is called) or You try to get Seville. Perhaps having a good diplomat could help there too - just bribe one Stack and fight the rest. For me that´s much less annoying than having those fullstacks on Cyprus or Rhodes where You couldn´t get a foot on.

[rockman4417]

I'd say look at it from a point of necessity. If those small factions couldn't properly defend themselves from other AI kingdoms, they'd be gone before you even saw them in your game.

Every other turn you'd get Faction Destroyed, Faction Destroyed Until only the big players were left, which makes for a boring game in my experience. *cough*vanilla*cough*

[k/t]

Auto_win is also a last-ditch option.

[pluckcitizen]

Thank you for your responses.

It happeneds with every single nation, I just beat France down to two provinces, and suddenly they have 4 fully stacked armies. I have to throw everything I have at them because they get receive at least a half a stack a turn. Maybe I'm just not that good of a player. I've let Portugal live for probably 50 turns now, and they're loaded with over 10 fully stacked armies. Conquering them seems impossible now.

The only way I defeated the Moors was by rushing all their cities at once, so they didn't have time to get the super slingshot bonus.

[Fred Putz]

I've let Portugal live for probably 50 turns now, and they're loaded with over 10 fully stacked armies.

In my opinion this is unrealistic too - sorry for my advice to sit it out. Don´t know if they get bonusstacks or something like that....

The only way I defeated the Moors was by rushing all their cities at once, so they didn't have time to get the super slingshot bonus.

This is the way i fight all my wars. With bigger nations i like to have a short truce an split the nation in two or three parts. I usually go for the castles/Islands first.

[pluckcitizen]

In my opinion this is unrealistic too - sorry for my advice to sit it out. Don´t know if they get bonusstacks or something like that...

Right. Now I could understand if they get a large army when they are in dire need, but there is NO CAP on the help.

So if a nation had 6 provinces shrinks down to one, that province will get a quarter stack of units every turn for the rest of their existence. I wouldn't mind if there was a simple cap on it.

[scarybandit]

Thing is, most people playing SS 6.3 wished for a harder game, so the mod is coded with fanatics in mind. The vanilla game is, of course, getting old now, and the players are wanting fresh challenges.

In my experience a SS campaign can last weeks even playing almost every day, so perhaps as a more casual player another mod would be better suited to your time available to play?

[Scandinavian]

Wait so what good is sending merchants to disrupt enemy trade or blockading ports? If the enemy get money automatically then have my blockades of England been a complete and total loss? If so I think the realism of this mid has dropped severely.