What do the AI controlled units do?

[White Knight2]

I haven't tried this function out but still wondering what is the significance of putting our troops under AI control? And if one does put his units under AI does the AI control them in the same fashion as other troops or follows some kind of a strategy?

[Darth Bane1]

I can say... Neeeever do this. Short: stupid things. The AI doesn't follow any strategy. It will sent all units to the enemy and fight. Never use AI reinforcements. I saw it often and I never do this... It was so painfull to watch how your friends get so stupid destroyed...

[Josura]

I can say... Neeeever do this. Short: stupid things. The AI doesn't follow any strategy. It will sent all units to the enemy and fight. Never use AI reinforcements. I saw it often and I never do this... It was so painfull to watch how your friends get so stupid destroyed...

Well, this is not entirely true.. You can use it with:
a) spartan army = spartan general is very strong and can survive against both cav and inf/phalanx..
b) pure horse archer army = AI can surprise you with quite skilled leading of HA armies :-)

You must simply build the army for using as AI led stack. So either HA or heavy inf (with some archer support). If you help them during the battle with your cav, you can win battles against much stronger enemies just by numbers :-)

[Darth Bane1]

I still would not advise to do this... When you control all units by yourself you can prevent much less casualties than the AI who sends mostly all his troops to the death...

[Brusilov]

I had this option set a long time ago when I was playing RS 1.5.

I had a 'balanced' Macedon/Greek army with phalangelists, spearmen, archers, cavalry and a general. The AI controlled archers ran across the battle field and launched themselves into the enemies phalanx - no even stopping once to shoot. The phalanx and spearmen did similar - it just took longer for them to get there. I don't recall what happened to the general or the cavalry but it can't have been good.

The only time I would ever considering doing this again is if I had a stack of heavy infantry with no general - even then I'd expect them to be run across the battlefield and engage the enemy while in an exhausted state (so they would be ineffective).

[DwailerY]

I used this effectively recently as Pontus against Armenia. I attacked with my full stack army, they also had a full stack as well with mean looking cavalry and 2 generals that I wanted dead and gone, although I was still winning in the battle balance thingy which meant the AI would retreat almost immediately......so knowing that I set the Reinforcement to AI so that they couldn't run away... , I took care to not bring anything that I would miss too much, and so they pretty much pinned them while I got my troops over there and that day Armenia an entire army which I wager had all of it's heavy cavalry and 2 general heads is always nice and me well I lost some naked fanatics here and there. So yea AI has it's uses mainly against retreating armies.

[Paladin247]

I have used AI armies extensively as Rome against the Armenians who habitually attack us with two full stack armies. Most Armenian infantry units are armed and armored similarly to Roman legionaries and their cavalry cataphracts are better than Roman alae, a lot better. Two Armenian armies equipped thusly can outnumber a legion by 7,000 to 2,800 using huge unit size. We've successfully defended against these numbers in bridge defenses, but in the open field you have a red hot chance of having a Little Big Horn level experience. Because the Armenian cavalry are so effective, the normal pin with infantry and attack rear and flanks with cavalry doesn't work so well against them; their cav will often blunt ours and not allow flanking maneuvers. At that point, their numbers will eventually tell.

When using AI armies I always remove the legate and any artillery units before committing them. Then I try to position the AI army as reinforcements to the main force's right or left rear to forestall the headlong advance cited above. In this case your own legion bears the brunt of the Armenian attack and bleeds them some with artillery then holds the line until the reinforcements come in on the enemy's flank. This has worked well. Placing the AI legion on the Armenian's rear or flank works less well altho it will cause them to split their forces enabling your legion to defend itself effectively and then hopefully come to the aid of the stressed AI legion. In these cases, casualties in the AI legion run high. Something which will hold these down is to command the less experienced legion yourself and let the legion with the higher combat quality cohorts go under the AI.

[White Knight2]

Thanks for sharing all your opinions. I have another question. Does the pattern in which you place your troops on battlefield affect the way AI handles those troops? Recently I tries out some battles with AI controlling my troops and I couldn't help but feel that the way we deploy our forces has an impact on the AI handling of our troops.

[Crymson]

Thanks for sharing all your opinions. I have another question. Does the pattern in which you place your troops on battlefield affect the way AI handles those troops? Recently I tries out some battles with AI controlling my troops and I couldn't help but feel that the way we deploy our forces has an impact on the AI handling of our troops.

The RTW AI is immensely stupid. Do not ever entrust to it any units or generals whose survival is of import to you.

[DwailerY]

Anything the AI can do in battle you could probably do 100X times better.