AI agents kill the game

[tungri_centurio]

who thinks AI agents are way to overpowered?i started a new campaign after seeing some vids on .☠. oOIYvYIOo his channel.i think diplomacy is like it shoud be now,your allies are helping like the shoud,its just playable you think(exept for arcade battles,not enough building slots,squalor for all you build) and than your enemys start bringing in agent after agent,and oh boy they can ruine your lands,they killed all my generals,most of my agents,all my hellenic regions have been converted to nomadic or eastern,all regions have 60/80 negative public order.even with 3 temples that give hellenic convercion. realy stupid if you ask me,and trying to kill them is no option,all actions against them have around 20% chance even with a 5 star agent.

[GussieFinkNottle]

They make it harder, and enemy agents have been wreaking havok in some areas of my campaign, but I have found it just about manageable. The main problem for me is that when I attack them, they are wounded not killed, so it just puts off the problem, not solving it.

The single most annoying experience I have had with agents is having a very experienced legion that could easily overwhelm the enemy get stuck for 4 turns -4 years!- outside the German Confederation capital of Budorgis, unable to attack it, because every time I ended turn, enemy agents removed all my movement points, and killed a few men

[Sarissofoi]

Yeah it is just ridicolous.
What is funny that if you fight against few nations they can easly flood you with agents.
Anyone get mod which remove all agents?

[craziii]

What is funny that if you fight against few nations they can easly flood you with agents.

that is actually a very very annoying problem atm. I remember playing as carthage and getting swamp by 9+ agents when those north african factions declared war. my agents can't seem to do anything but the ai succeeds every turn

[Dave Scarface]

who thinks AI agents are way to overpowered?i started a new campaign after seeing some vids on .☠. oOIYvYIOo his channel.i think diplomacy is like it shoud be now,your allies are helping like the shoud,its just playable you think(exept for arcade battles,not enough building slots,squalor for all you build) and than your enemys start bringing in agent after agent,and oh boy they can ruine your lands,they killed all my generals,most of my agents,all my hellenic regions have been converted to nomadic or eastern,all regions have 60/80 negative public order.even with 3 temples that give hellenic convercion. realy stupid if you ask me,and trying to kill them is no option,all actions against them have around 20% chance even with a 5 star agent.

May I ask is this thread based off playing just one campaign? or are you experiencing this in multiple campaign's? In my very first R2TW campaign I got harassed every single turn by enemy agents and it seemed like there was nothing I could do to stop them. But you know what? it was my fault because I allowed the AI agents get too powerful. Once they get too far ahead its difficult to stop them with raw recruits. The only way to stop AI agents spoiling your game is to have better agents dealing out more damage, its really as simple as that.

I don't agree with you that they are too powerful. Agent actions are quite expensive and they are not always sure to work. Quite often I get the news of an AI agent failing to strike or getting killed in action. If this was not that case then your complaint would be valid. But I think you need to give the game more time possibly before passing judgement.

[RedGuard]

hes probably using a mod that increases the unit cap. on radious the agents are a problem, because even the one region nations can field 3 agents of each catergory, but in vanilla i believe it is only one each. IF not using Radious i apologize in advance but something tells me you are.

as a counter, attach a champion to each army of a territory you are about to invade. get all your agents assembled near that territory then swarm them with agents like they do you. Its in my experience when thier region has hostile forces in it they focus on them instead of wrecking havoc all over your empire. easiest way to avoid agents is to end the war as quickly as possible so dont jump the gun. do this and you will never have a problem.

[tungri_centurio]

I dont play with mods yet.its myfirst campaign that i realy play for a long run,the first was with Rome without patches,this one is with ptolomai. I trained my agents their was 3 with 5 stads and3 fresh recruited.non of them strong for counter their actions.
I dont mind the challenge but if not possible to do something back is dull.gonna try to move my agents to their land and see if IT helps.

[baptistus]

No problem with me.
Upgrade your agents (by giving them order to protect/collect ) and after a few turns, you have an agent with 3 or 4 stars. After that let them attack every enemy agents every time you see them. Now I have 3 agents with 8-9 stars and they do their jobs very well !
But it is the same with EVERY total war I play (I don't remeber for medieval 1, but for sure it is the same with rome 1 ).
And take a look at the detail of % = even if you don't kill a agent, you can stop him ect...., and your agent will uprade quickly. So even if it write "20%", you should have 50% or more to stop the enemy agent ect....

But if you want, there is a mod with "zero agent" limit. So every faction begin with one spy, and after they all die, there is no more agents.

[Dago Red]

Yep, they are terribly untested. PRE-ALPHA.

Only way the game is playable is to turn down difficulty. Unless you call playable, having 3-4 generals knocked off very turn and the inability to move your armies once you're engaged in war with more than 3 factions at a time.

[baptistus]

Yep, they are terribly untested. PRE-ALPHA.

Only way the game is playable is to turn down difficulty. Unless you call playable, having 3-4 generals knocked off very turn and the inability to move your armies once you're engaged in war with more than 3 factions at a time.

so why I have more than 7 province at very high difficulty ?
I understand you don't like a lot of new "features" from Rome 2, I know AI is very poor and buggy at this time, but come on ! to say it is too difficult because of agents and army limit ? lol
And in EVERY total war the enemy agents create big problems if you don't take care of them, EVERY total war.

[karamazovmm]

its very simple, train your agents, because recruits don't cut it.

to be able to successfully assassinate someone now, you need an agent with at least 5 lvls, and no its not even hard to achieve that with agents

after they are trained spread them over and focus on regions that have many enemy agents.

enemy agents are only a bother on the east

[carbide]

I haven't been overwhelmed with them when playing VH campaign with radious mod. Champions are your tools for killing other agents, its rather easy even if new Champions.

[RedGuard]

I haven't been overwhelmed with them when playing VH campaign with radious mod. Champions are your tools for killing other agents, its rather easy even if new Champions.

exactly. ive had a champion in every attacking army with radious. i watch as the witchs try to put a spell on my army and my general stabs them in the chest or rather the bosom.

[carbide]

They don't even have to be embedded with the army to defend against agents. Just send them to assassinate using the slaughter option I believe it is... even if showing a low % for outcome they usually get the job done.

[Downtown1]

Agents are useless, they are just there to annoy the player. I tried for over 50 turns (as Rome on Legendary) with 6 agents total to incite a rebellion in Aegyptus so that I could sneak in and take the city back from the rebels.

NADA. When the rebels spawn they either disappear on the next turn or immediately attack the city and lose . WTF? Why not wait to build up a 20 man stack army...?

This is seriously broken, and I can't attack Egypt directly since they are military allies with my military allies and I don't want to ruin our friendship.

The only good thing agents are for is supporting your main armies (training, stopping enemy armies in their track, assassinating armies, etc). Their role outside of army support is literally useless if inciting rebellions doesn't actually do it.

[craziii]

Agents are useless, they are just there to annoy the player. I tried for over 50 turns (as Rome on Legendary) with 6 agents total to incite a rebellion in Aegyptus so that I could sneak in and take the city back from the rebels.

NADA. When the rebels spawn they either disappear on the next turn or immediately attack the city and lose . WTF? Why not wait to build up a 20 man stack army...?

This is seriously broken, and I can't attack Egypt directly since they are military allies with my military allies and I don't want to ruin our friendship.

The only good thing agents are for is supporting your main armies (training, stopping enemy armies in their track, assassinating armies, etc). Their role outside of army support is literally useless if inciting rebellions doesn't actually do it.

they aren't useless. I love their new abilities, especially the deployable ones. they just need some balancing atm. champions are special even among the agents. their ability to disrupt and kill is the best atm. use them on AI cities and watch it bleed money.

[priam11]

they aren't useless. I love their new abilities, especially the deployable ones. they just need some balancing atm. champions are special even among the agents. their ability to disrupt and kill is the best atm. use them on AI cities and watch it bleed money.

Yes who ever said they are useless doesn't know what they are talking about. They are annoying, they do slow down the turn time with that faction you are at war with but they do serve a purpose and I have seen the AI use them effectively against me. They have taken out my general which you therefore lose that unit type or put me in a spot where I could not back out of a fight that I was completely outnumbered, all in the same turn.

I play the 2 turns per year mod and it is worse. You get 8-10 star agents after you.

Agents: Never go to war without em.

Anyone now an good anti agent methods? Does have a spy etc embedded in your army do anything to protect your general. Does having a high star general making it harder to take out? Does having you spy set up a network in the province effect the outcome of an attack? If so is it effectively immediately or the next turn? What roll does cunning play in this?

[Langer Kerl]

Anyone now an good anti agent methods? Does have a spy etc embedded in your army do anything to protect your general. Does having a high star general making it harder to take out? Does having you spy set up a network in the province effect the outcome of an attack? If so is it effectively immediately or the next turn? What roll does cunning play in this?

I dont have detailed answers for you, but some general tips: There are defensive mechanisms for each type of agent action: Every agent can pull of authority, zeal and cunning attacks and some personalities or cities are more vulnerable to one than the other. It is possible to defend against certain kinds of attack or all kinds at once: For example, Temple of Ares adds +defence to Zeal attacks, and Temple of Zeus upps defense against all enemy attacks. The *inspire military zeal* ability of champions upps the defense of a region as well, at least against one kind, possibly against all. The spy ability gives you a greater chance of spotting hidden agents, but I cannot tell if they also increase the chance of actually stopping them. Finally, you can assign certain followers to generals or agents that decrease their chance of getting killed if you are lucky enough to have them.

If you simply get swarmed with agents at a certain place - more than you can kill each turn with your own agents - I would simply advise you to up the local agent defenses with the according buildings (some types of religious buildings and some kinds of water supply buildings), use at least one champions´ and one spies´ (I think they stack) area-of-effect ability there and then watch the enemy agents getting killed or wounded trying to sabotage your city. Use the rest of your agents for assassinations as you did before and train them in the according skills while you train your defensive agents in their according skills (note: agents not doing anything besides using their area-of-effect ability also gain experience and level up, just not quite as fast).


If you are campaigning in foreign territory and keep getting sabotaged... well, good look. I tried bringing agents with my army to use their a.o.e. ability for protection but since each agents ability works differently in enemy territory I have no idea if this actually works.

[Slaists]

I dont have detailed answers for you, but some general tips: There are defensive mechanisms for each type of agent action: Every agent can pull of authority, zeal and cunning attacks and some personalities or cities are more vulnerable to one than the other. It is possible to defend against certain kinds of attack or all kinds at once: For example, Temple of Ares adds +defence to Zeal attacks, and Temple of Zeus upps defense against all enemy attacks. The *inspire military zeal* ability of Champions upps the defense of a region as well, at least against one kind, possibly against all. The spy ability gives you a greater chance of spotting hidden agents, but I cannot tell if they also increase the chance of actually stopping them. Finally, you can assign certain followers to generals or agents that decrease their chance of getting killed if you are lucky enough to have them.

If you simply get swarmed with agents at a certain place - more than you can kill each turn with your own agents - I would simply advise you to up the local agent defenses with the according buildings (some types of religious buildings some kinds of water supply buildings), put use at least one champions´ and one spies´ (I think they stack) area-of-effect ability there and then watch the enemy agents getting killed or wounded trying to sabotage your city. Use the rest of your agents for assassinations as you did before and train them in the according skills while you train your defensive agents in their according skills (note: agents not doing anything besides using their area-of-effect ability also gain experience and level up, just not quite as fast).


If you are campaigning in foreign territory and keep getting sabotaged... well, good look. I tried bringing agents with my army to use their a.o.e. ability for protection but since each agents ability works differently in enemy territory I have no idea if this actually works.

Killing AI agents does not work as well as converting them. With killing you have a low chance to kill; a medium-low chance to wound. With converting you have a low-medium-low chance to convert and a medium-high chance to "confuse". If you confuse, the target cannot harm you the next turn. If you luck out and convert; the next turn you have 2 agents rather than 1 to throw at the AI. And you can go considerably higher than your own agent limit this way. At some points I have had 20/3 agents in all categories. No AI stands a chance against that... 100% conversion guaranteed just by the law of large numbers.

[BSGfan]

YeAgents: Never go to war without em.

Anyone now an good anti agent methods? Does have a spy etc embedded in your army do anything to protect your general. Does having a high star general making it harder to take out? Does having you spy set up a network in the province effect the outcome of an attack? If so is it effectively immediately or the next turn? What roll does cunning play in this?

depending on what agent you have embedded and how you are skilling them up
a spy let you show information about enemy stacks and give some protection against agents
a veteran protects your general and give combat bonus to your units and a diplomat reduces the up keep cost significant , my experince
setting up networks in your own regions seems to work similair , spies give more intell about enemy stacks or make enemy agents visible , veterans protect against enemy agents actions and diplomats give a tax and culture bonus but agzents tend to raise up slower when not embedded in a army

I usually embed a new agent in a fleet or army that is in garrison or building for a 5pr 6 turns till they got some skill o also t(ry to specialize my agents in certain skills , you need to take note which agent is in training and what they are training for
that is my experince with agents any way
best agent i ever had was a rank 8 veteran with a 70 % chance of assasinting enemy characters and a 50 % chance of wounding attacking enemy agents he died of natural causes at the tender age of 72