AI's weakest spot.

**Oxberger** · September 04, 2006, 11:58 PM

Tired of fighting battles against large armies, or want a quick way to destroy one? Get 2 scorpions and a few phalanx units and set up on a bridge near an enemy stack. Let them attack you and set your scorpions near the waters edge. Fire into the middle units of their line which will force them to charge from the barrage. There should be a cluster at the end of the bridge they are charging from in which your scorpions can bombard them. Your phalanxes will form around the exit to the bridge so they can make a wall of pikes once the enemy crossees the bridge.

Results:

**Crymson** · September 05, 2006, 02:02 AM

The AI has more than one "weakest spot."

**JoeyJubb** · September 05, 2006, 02:16 AM

Rofl, all those kills and no experience gained! Unlucky

Also, if the AI did that to me I think I'd have to retreat because I wouldn't know what to do.. unless there was a ford.. still.. I hate fighting artillery.

**Zuwxiv** · September 05, 2006, 02:37 AM

In one battle, my one unit of elephants took out half of the enemy stack in less than 10 seconds. Didn't get any XP. Do'h.

**LegionairosMatt** · September 05, 2006, 03:01 AM

I thought RTR got rid of Scorpions, Onagers ect...

But a great tactic none-the-less.

I hate bridges...

**Titus Marcellus Scato** · September 05, 2006, 04:11 AM

Onagers are out, but Scorpions are still in I believe.

**svean** · September 05, 2006, 07:08 AM

And this is the weakest spot of AI?? I know that AI normally is very rarery (randomly) using bridges, but this kind of battle has to be hard to the attacker. Also many times you won't have phalangites (Rome/barbarians) or even scorpion, so for me this is a kind of trick like "stand under vulcano and wait to be attacked and maybe vulcano explode and kill them"...

With good selection of units and quite good tactic you can smash any fraction witout problem on any battlefield. AI has lots of weak pits but tactic itself is the weakest...

**King_Azzole** · September 05, 2006, 10:09 AM

Why not just edit your unit files and give your hoplites a 50 attack? Same idea different method.

**Eird-Way** · September 05, 2006, 10:29 AM

The team needs to tweak mass better, in that case. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work in DarthMod. A phalanx should be stout, but not 100% immovable. Does RTR give heavy infantry more mass than light? Skirmishers should definitely bounce off like this, but heavy infantry should be able to penetrate eventually.

Also, tell me the enemy didn't have any cavalry. The weight of horses should have been able to disorganize the phalanx just enough to let the infantry make contact.

**Oxberger** · September 05, 2006, 01:20 PM

You know what's really wierd though. Eventually the army will route, but instead of running back across the bridge to escape they try to run through my walls of pikes! Basically a bridge battle is a slaughter on 2 scales. 1 scale is the artillery damage, and the other is the AI trying to run through my pikes.

Normally I try to avoid the AI weakspots, but the crappy diplomatic AI just makes me want to seek revenge.

**The Walrus** · September 05, 2006, 03:03 PM

Did you do this using the BI exe or the RTW exe?

**Oxberger** · September 05, 2006, 03:05 PM

RTW..Im using 6.0 gold still

**The Walrus** · September 05, 2006, 03:06 PM

Which means the hoplitia don't form phalanx or shieldwall(phalanx as in the special tactic button)

**MrT785479** · September 05, 2006, 03:48 PM

A better, and probably cheaper tactic for non-bridge battles is to line up your phalanxes with the scorpians infront of your men, but behind the spears like so:

^^^^^^^_____Spear points

[] [] []______Scorpians
XXXXXXXXX_____Men in phalanx

This way you can move your scorpians into firing range and force the enemy to charge you so that even when attacking, you are on the defense with your phalanxes, plus when the enemy gets to the spears your scorpians start firing at them from about 10 ft away and they can't do anything about it

**Oxberger** · September 05, 2006, 04:11 PM

I usually have my scorpions defended by elite units on the flanks of my line

* - elite unit
^ - normal pike
= - scorpions

= __^^^^^^^^^_ =
*_________________*

The AI(if you are attacking) will try to send small units after your scorpions. When the enemy gets close I tell my scorpions to stop and I step up my elite pikes. I don't like putting my scorpion men in danger - most the time I am far away from a place where I can retrain them lol

**The Walrus** · September 05, 2006, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by Oxberger

I usually have my scorpions defended by elite units on the flanks of my line

* - elite unit
^ - normal pike
= - scorpions

= __^^^^^^^^^_ =
*_________________*

The AI(if you are attacking) will try to send small units after your scorpions. When the enemy gets close I tell my scorpions to stop and I step up my elite pikes. I don't like putting my scorpion men in danger - most the time I am far away from a place where I can retrain them lol

That makes sense. The only artillery I always used was scorpions because there light and accurate.