Why is Auto-Resolve Better Than Me?

[Bringer Of Storms]

All in the title. When ever I auto-resolve a large battle cause I'm tired and I have an extremely large advantage, my army will only lose like 189 people while defeating a 1500 troop army. Auto-resolve is consistent, why can't I do that consistently?

[PrestigeX]

I think auto-resolve has its uses, but I typically find it yields poor results.

I normally use it for the Siege Assaults, because I cannot be bothered.. but field battles I find casualties generally too high, and some times 'crushing defeats' when I know if I fought it myself I'd probably get a Heroic victory.

I don't know if i'm even that good at this game, the few times I played online I lost -- but thats because I'd pick say... Portugal or Hungary and almost always the opponents would pick England, Mongols, Timiruds, etc -- any of the super factions

[Bringer Of Storms]

I consider myself a good player as well, but sometimes Auto resolve somehow manages to rout a 1000 troop army and only kill 200 while losing 100. Just baffles me.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Because you need to remember that in certain difficulties, the AI gains battle bonuses, extra morale, extra stamina, stuff like that, that changes the rate of casualties and routing - So if you're playing H/H or VH/VH, you're on an uneven ground, a disadvantage even. When the AI squares off against the AI, it's a completely even match and the sheer quality of the troops triumph.

[kevindrosario]

Because you need to remember that in certain difficulties, the AI gains battle bonuses, extra morale, extra stamina, stuff like that, that changes the rate of casualties and routing - So if you're playing H/H or VH/VH, you're on an uneven ground, a disadvantage even. When the AI squares off against the AI, it's a completely even match and the sheer quality of the troops triumph.

I'm pretty sure the campaign difficulty impacts the results of auto-resolve. By that I mean that you're only on even ground for auto-resolve if you're playing at medium campaign difficulty. On higher levels, the enemy has an advantage for auto-resolve just like how they have an advantage in a battle you actually play out.

[Nazgûl Killer]

I'm pretty sure the campaign difficulty impacts the results of auto-resolve. By that I mean that you're only on even ground for auto-resolve if you're playing at medium campaign difficulty. On higher levels, the enemy has an advantage for auto-resolve just like how they have an advantage in a battle you actually play out.

To be honest I haven't studied the subject too much, I just always figured that when it comes to AI vs. AI, they will have exactly the same bonuses due to battle difficulty, I find it hard to believe that campaign difficulty influences auto resolve.

To prove that point, I would ask - If the campaign difficulty would be easy or medium, then that would mean that you should get out of that auto resolve with minimal casualties, but Tudor here already said that in his campaigns in medium, he gets quite a bit of casualties through auto resolve rather than minimal, which doesn't make sense - However, from my experience play VH/VH, whenever I do win auto resolved battles, they tend to be with a rather high casualty difference ratio, with like maybe 200 casualties whilst the other side has around 1000.

So, basically I think both our theories are somewhat wrong, I have absolutely no idea what ultimately affects it. It might just be a random numbers generator.

[tudor93]

well ... on M/M autoresolve sucks (except when you siege a settlement) because you get lots of casualties; for example I have an army of 1500 and the AI has an army of 1400, If I fight the battle myself I get a little over 200 casualties while if I autoresolve I get a massive amount of casualties (like maybe 500-600-700)

[Diamond]

I can't be bothered with sieges... Waste of time to me...
Field battles, however, end in your AI mangled, and them destroyed... but it's a waste of troops trying to auto land battles

[In3x]

The higher the campaign difficulty the more likely it is you will lose auto resolve battles, I don't think it makes any difference to the casualties taken if you win or lose however.

I personally find that autoresolve only really works in siege assaults, all other times it is super ineffective. Sometimes the autoresolve does receive less casualties than myself, however I usually destroy the entire enemy army so the casualties to enemy casualties ratio is always superior when I control the troops myself.

[tudor93]

oh yes, I forgot, I also wanted to say this:

Sometimes the autoresolve does receive less casualties than myself, however I usually destroy the entire enemy army so the casualties to enemy casualties ratio is always superior when I control the troops myself.

oh, and I think the campaign difficulty affects the autoresolve; I think it's the same thing like in RTW where on VH/VH is freaking hard to win naval battles

[Nazgûl Killer]

oh yes, I forgot, I also wanted to say this:



oh, and I think the campaign difficulty affects the autoresolve; I think it's the same thing like in RTW where on VH/VH is freaking hard to win naval battles

Good call on that, I'll test some naval battles on different difficulties to see what happens.

[Bringer Of Storms]

I doubt its a random number generator, reason being, if I'm sieging, say with 10 units, and I have 4 units of reinforcements adjacent to them. If I auto-resolve, majority of the time, those reinforcements don't score any kills at all. The game must have some formula for knowing how far away the AI reinforcements are and is able to finish the battle before they arrive. What I'm trying to get at, is that there must be some brain behind it. Later I may test auto resolve on different difficulties, see what happens.

[Saint Nicholas]

You have to remember the results of auto resolving are very dependant on the unit types you have in your army. I believe the more ranged units you have, the lower your casualties, logic dictates your ranged units simply destroy the enemy before they can reach you, hence you lose less men. Quality of troops is also an important factor too, Peasant Archers aren't going to have the same impact as Retinue Longbowman or Pavise Crossbowmen on the auto resolve.

[Nazgûl Killer]

I was kidding about the random numbers generator

I'd really like to know the formula to that, to be honest. It could have about a dozen factors now that I think about it. Troops quality and classification, campaign difficulty, battle difficulty, leadership, morale, stamina... But I refuse to believe it does a gigantic calculation because when I autoresolve I get the result of the battle in half a second or even less, I doubt a battle of 4000~ soldiers can be so easily and quickly calculated. But who knows.

[Aeratus]

I think there are only 4 external factors
(1) campaign difficulty
(2) general's command stars
(3) the balance of unit stats, i.e. the red/blue bar you see in the battle (approximately (attack + defense) * unit count * HP per soldier).
(4) settlement defense factor (which appears to be constant regardless of wall or settlement type. The settlement defense advantage is minimal in Vanilla, higher in Kingdoms 1.5, even higher in mods)

[In3x]

Also, melee infantry are the best for auto resolve as they have large unit sizes and good stats. Archers and HAs are almost a complete waste in autoresolve. Siege weaponry is also very powerful in autocalc.

[Kelvinator]

I don't think autoresolve takes account of high ground advantages? IIRC I had a battle on M/M where the enemy is defending on the mountain top with some archers. I won the battle but with quite a high casualty. I decided to reload and auto resolve to see if it's any better and the casualty was much less.

[Aeratus]

The high ground vs. low ground difference for sure has no effect on autoresolve. I believe autoresolve is only affected by those four factors I listed. In practice. the most important factor you need to consider is the campaign difficulty.

[kevindrosario]

Here is a test I ran just for anyone who's skeptical of campaign difficulty's effect on auto-resolve. It was a battle between an HRE army of 701 vs. a Rebel army of 421. The first 10 trials I did on E Campaign/VH Battle. Then I did 10 more trials on VH Campaign/VH Battle. I recorded the men lost on each side for each battle. Here are my results.



The mean for number of men HRE lost in the second test is several standard deviations away from the mean in the first test.

[Saint Nicholas]

+rep for some conclusive evidence there. I wonder, do the same test but put the battle difficulty on easy this time. See what effect that has.