Auto-resolve weirdness

**RInger** · March 29, 2013, 07:45 PM

I know the conventional wisdom is that you should fight every battle yourself because the auto-resolve will give you much worse results, but that's not what I've been experiencing in the Dwarf campaign that I'm currently playing (TATW 3.2 with MOS 1.41). I had Gloin and one unit of Axemen of Erebor sitting in Pitkaranta, and the Orcs of Gundabad had an army with three units of Snaga Stalkers approaching. Just to see what would happen, I sent out the Axemen to fight the orcs, auto-resolved, and got a clear victory. The Axemen killed something like 55% of the orc army, and only lost three of their own guys. I tried doing the battle again, and this time fought it manually, and all the Axemen died. They took out around 48% of the orcs, but they got themselves slaughtered in the process.

Similar things have happened in other battles, where I have auto-resolved first just to see what would happen, and then reloaded the game and fought the battle, and got worse results than I would have by auto-resolving. Given that Axemen of Erebor have such better stats than Snaga Stalkers (Snagas' attack level is only 2, for God's sake), I would think they should cut through them like butter. Why is it that dwarves seem to be so much better in auto-resolving than they are on the actual battlefield?

**knight of meh** · March 29, 2013, 07:55 PM

it's because of there high armour values mostly , and because the auto resolve doesn't take into account if you are playing 1 v 3 you will get surrounded ... not even sure if the auto resolve takes into account tiredness or morale drops which also account for the dwarf losses here.

Edit : and most players who have played through a couple of games won't tell you not to play AS because you will loss more they will ether tell you

1) part of the fun in this game is the battles
2)the AS is just broken .. the Dwarfs rock while Rohan and Eriador suck

**knicolas2** · March 30, 2013, 02:37 PM

the same it is with the orcs. if you auto resolve against the elves, depends on the difficulty, you lose less like if you play the battle.

**Elensul** · March 30, 2013, 02:44 PM

It is (was when i last played) strongly recommended to use auto-resolve against mumakils.
Without auto-res vs. mumaks you loose MUCH MORE (if you survive them).

**Ngugi** · March 30, 2013, 02:52 PM

Just bring in the catapults with fire or ballistas and you'll have Mûmakil Well Done or Mûmak On A Stick often enough

**The Forgotten** · March 30, 2013, 02:59 PM

Also units with armor piercing helps a lot. From what I have seen Arnor and Eriador have almost zero AP units and so they are at a disadvantage. On the ither hand almost all of the Dwarf units have AP.

in a similar instance an invasion was called on Edoras while I was playing the dwarfs. Due to the counter invasion stack I got I was able to kill almost any enemy army that came near the place. ARing the battles saved a lot of men and eventually every unit in the stack got gold chevrons.

When I tried it with Arnor I lost the first battle and lost 75% percent of my army.

**RInger** · March 31, 2013, 01:15 PM

What does the armor piercing trait actually do? Does it reduce the enemy's total defense rating, or just their armor rating?

**knight of meh** · March 31, 2013, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by RInger

What does the armor piercing trait actually do? Does it reduce the enemy's total defense rating, or just their armor rating?

essentially the same thing the armour counts towards the defense ratin when the unit is fighting iirc... they do more damage to armored opponents basically

can't recall how the computer factors this though... they might even increase the attack of AP units when they face armored units although that sounds to complicated for the poor med2 engine

**Wizad** · March 31, 2013, 02:35 PM

Unit has 6 armor. Vs Armor Piercing weapons, the unit has 3 armor.
AP halves enemy armor.

**Mikail Mengsk** · April 02, 2013, 05:52 AM

Auto-resolve values most:

- multiple HP units
- units' numbers
- armor value

So, cavalry and archers sucks, because they usually have low numbers (cavalry) or low armor (archers) and they can't "use" their most valuable ability (attack from far away for archers, speed and agility for cavalry). Infantry perform pretty good, and heavy infantry perform best.

So, yes, Dwarves are OP in autoresolve (anyway, i don't think the autoresolve system takes into much account their AP skills). Gondor too, probably, when it starts producing plate infantry. Rhun's "dragon" units should do well too.

**Mikail Mengsk** · April 02, 2013, 05:53 AM

Auto-resolve values most:

- multiple HP units
- units' numbers
- armor value

So, cavalry and archers sucks, because they usually have low numbers (cavalry) or low armor (archers) and they can't "use" their most valuable ability (attack from far away for archers, speed and agility for cavalry). Infantry perform pretty good, and heavy infantry perform best.

So, yes, Dwarves are OP in autoresolve (anyway, i don't think the autoresolve system takes into much account their AP skills). Gondor too, probably, when it starts producing plate infantry. Rhun's "dragon" units should do well too.