BAI still impressing me. I really enjoy battles now.

[Humble Warrior]

Well must say this BAi is as good as MTW2 and possibly the original Shogun.

1. Had a huge battle with about 2000 troops either side. I had no General and he had one. I attacked him, but he came after me. To cut a long story short we battled it out until we had only a few units left. He had about 400 archers and 400 Samurai and all my people ran except for one group of around 150 archers I had. His archers took on my archers.

Strangely, I noticed the AI start retreating his 400 samurai back somewhere while leaving his archers to deal with my archers. Strange, where was he going? Were they withdrawing? And come to think of it, where was his General? I hadn`t seen him the whole battle.

Then I remembered I had some reinforcements of two groups of warrior monks. maybe I could yet win this. I marched them towards the battle area.

My archers meanwhile managed to win the battle of nerves. I looked for the enemy. The Samurai had returned to a hill and reformed with their General who I noticed for the 1st time( no floating banner) in good defensive position and were now waiting.

This was disheartening for me, but a great move by the AI. If the enemy had stayed separated and all over I knew I`d win, but now I had to make an attack all over again. It was like a new battle within a battle. So I marched up with my warrior monks and what remained of my archers- and just by the skin of my teeth, I won.

But I was most impressed by the way the AI appraised the situation and reconstituted its forces togther on the defense for the new threat of my warrior monks. I also like it how sometimes the BAI will attack even if you started the battle if it thinks it has a good chance to win or maybe to counter artillery. I`m also impressed at how well the General stays out of danger. He will sacrifice other Generals if he has them, but the prime General has a healthy dose of common sense.

2. Bridge battle. I was beginning to think that the BAI never used the alternate shallow river crossing (just like in Empire). Well he does- as I discovered when he sent his cavalry round to attack my mangonels at the back! Excellent!


Nice work on the bAI CA and especially the BAI coder- You certainly know your stuff better.

p.s. You just need to add a little more improvements and really have the BAI hold back in a siege if it has cannons\siege weapons. Let the cannons do the work first before sending troops.

[SupAll]

2. Bridge battle. I was beginning to think that the BAI never used the alternate shallow river crossing (just like in Empire). Well he does- as I discovered when he sent his cavalry round to attack my mangonels at the back! Excellent!

On my first Bridge battle as Date on N/N, I was very surprised to find the AI had actually outflanked me with 2 light cavalry & 1 Bow Samurai. I didn't think the that the AI was going to do that on the Normal difficulty at least. Lesson learned. Now I never commit my forces to just the bridge head (I also learned to fight on the bridge and not just at the end of it).

[Abe86]

Yeah, the AI is still exploitable but sometimes it'll throw a nice surprise at you. I think it's much improved from the previous games.

So all this talk of "I didnt think the AI would do this or that at normal difficulty", are you sure the AI gets smarter on higher difficulties ? I thought it just received some bonuses to its units.

[teafanatic]

The AI is definitely smarter on higher levels -- they outflank me more, at least. It also knows if you've got a vulnerable wing and will head towards that if they see it.

I kinda like how the units no longer move out of the range deliberately as soon as you target them like they did in Empire. That was a real mood killer.

[Humble Warrior]

I kinda like how the units no longer move out of the range deliberately as soon as you target them like they did in Empire. That was a real mood killer.

Absolutely right! I hated that. It`s a small sign to just how much better and thought out the BAI is.

although i also think it applies to the CAI as well. the AI won't suicide in sieges and starve me out instead. it will sit away from my stack on the bridge until it has a huge advantage, and ambushes... it will let my main army pass, but when my reinforcement stack creeps up, bam! ambush

True the CAI is also a lot more improved.

[priam11]

People complain about not having a bonus for archers on high ground. Yesterday I was glad they did not.

Playing the Horo and attacking some bloody minor clan whose names I am still trying to discern, started moving their entire force of to one large hill covered in thick forrest. Great, they have cover and I don't. I took much more casualties than I normally do and often lost track of their units as well as mine in the trees.

One of the things that make the BAI better is that the AI does not always go to the attack. In ETW, NTW, MTW2 regardless of whether you attacked or defended in the campaign screen, the AI would always be the attacker in the battle. Problem with that is that being the attacker is much more difficult (provided that the armies are somewhat equal).

To think what would have been with Empire and NTW, if the AI used that tactic in the age of cannon.

[Humble Warrior]

To think what would have been with Empire and NTW, if the AI used that tactic in the age of cannon.

Indeed. Imagine marching your loyal troops in the face of pounding artillery fire from an AI that`s quite happy to stand and watch while your forces are decimated. Battles would have been tough but glorious. thumbsup2

It`s just one reason why I can`t play Empire when I see it leave all its defences and cannons to attack.:

[lsm]

i find on legendary i get thrown more surprises so i'm inclined to say it uses better tactics. now that can easily be attributed to the fact that i can't see the red dots on the radar (no radar on that difficulty) but there's been a lot of times where the AI just comes out of nowhere and surprises me. hattori seems to do this the best maybe because it can sneak so well

although i also think it applies to the CAI as well. the AI won't suicide in sieges and starve me out instead. it will sit away from my stack on the bridge until it has a huge advantage, and ambushes... it will let my main army pass, but when my reinforcement stack creeps up, bam! ambush

there's still problems, but all in all it's great stuff

[SupAll]

I definitely feel the AI is better tactically the higher the difficulty. On Normal, the AI will generally just send in its lone general pretty early in the battle. However, on higher difficulties, that General is (generally) kept out of harm's way.

[Abe86]

i find on legendary i get thrown more surprises so i'm inclined to say it uses better tactics. now that can easily be attributed to the fact that i can't see the red dots on the radar (no radar on that difficulty) but there's been a lot of times where the AI just comes out of nowhere and surprises me. hattori seems to do this the best maybe because it can sneak so well

although i also think it applies to the CAI as well. the AI won't suicide in sieges and starve me out instead. it will sit away from my stack on the bridge until it has a huge advantage, and ambushes... it will let my main army pass, but when my reinforcement stack creeps up, bam! ambush

Thanks for the reply !
Could a developer from CA comment on this ? I'd like to be sure.

[Rolling Thunder]

Got to say, coming from you Humble, this means a lot - I am definitely going to be buying Shogun after all.

[Humble Warrior]

Got to say, coming from you Humble, this means a lot - I am definitely going to be buying Shogun after all.

What? I actually made a sale for CA? Heaven forbid!

But seriously, I will say when something is deserved.

[Dubh the dark]

Arghh.. I just lost a General and 2,500 men

There's something about this game that makes it a pleasure to get defeated.

Time now to send 5,000 troops West on a punitive campaign in response

[underworld965]

BAI in this game is the best I've ever seen. Cudos to CA on that.