Why is the auto-resolve always wrong?

[saeedonweb]

I have played a few campaigns now with Rome, Mecadon and the last one I started with is Carthage. I used to always auto-resolve. To win those battles I would make sure I had multiple armies, better units or numbers advantage over the AI. This meant more time to prepare and money. I saw some gameplay videos on YouTube. People like heir of Carthage, Cosmic Contrarian, Legend of Total War always fought their battles on the battle map and won every time, well...almost. I thought I am just a bad player and I can never beat the AI on the battle map. In my recent campaign I have started fighting my battles and I am surprised that even I can beat the AI. To get back to my question, why does the auto-resolve give you such a bad result? Even if you win the numbers lost are so high?

[LCPA224]

Incentive to start actually playing the game?

[saeedonweb]

Incentive to start actually playing the game?

I guess you are right!

[Brewskii]

Another thing to pay attention to would be the rank of your generals. The auto-resolve will give you fewer losses if your general is at a higher rank.(Provided that your aren't horribly outnumbered.)

[RedGuard]

I seem to remember upon release the auto resolve was actually very accurate in my experience at least. subsequent patchs that 'balanced units' screwed it up again.

[krisslanza]

I seem to remember upon release the auto resolve was actually very accurate in my experience at least. subsequent patchs that 'balanced units' screwed it up again.

Not for Rome, at least, in early patches. It would often say my army would get utterly crushed, and by fighting the battle, I lost maybe a dozen guys. They've seemingly fixed this massive imbalance for Rome though, since I'm no longer just steamrolling factions as Rome anymore. It was kind of a neccessary fix.

But generally, any battle you fight yourself, will have a potential to be a victory. Unless it's just utterly hopeless anyway.

[RedGuard]

Not for Rome, at least, in early patches. It would often say my army would get utterly crushed, and by fighting the battle, I lost maybe a dozen guys. They've seemingly fixed this massive imbalance for Rome though, since I'm no longer just steamrolling factions as Rome anymore. It was kind of a neccessary fix.

But generally, any battle you fight yourself, will have a potential to be a victory. Unless it's just utterly hopeless anyway.

interesting it was actually Rome i was speaking of, who were way overpowered when the game first came out even in autoresolve for me. however yes fighting has always been better on rome 2 as far as casulties concerned, dont think i've ever lost more than 400 guys in a outnumbered battle
they subsequently nerfed Rome in later patches but seem to have made the guals stronger in the process. any army of oathsworn will beat any other army in autoresolve, also lots of javelin units

[krisslanza]

interesting it was actually Rome i was speaking of, who were way overpowered when the game first came out even in autoresolve for me. however yes fighting has always been better on rome 2 as far as casulties concerned, dont think i've ever lost more than 400 guys in a outnumbered battle
they subsequently nerfed Rome in later patches but seem to have made the guals stronger in the process. any army of oathsworn will beat any other army in autoresolve, also lots of javelin units

For the Gauls, it's just the Oathsworn are monsters. They'll pretty much handle any single infantry without problem, and will go through levy units like a hot knife through butter. But given they're a general unit, and not recruitable as a normal unit for a while it's... less of an issue.

Unlike the earlier patches, were a single hastati can handle a half dozen leves easy, and then also take on Short Swords and such without a problem. Oathsworn still destroy them though, those guys have always been consistently monsters.

Javelins units do seem to get weighted more in autoresolve, but this also reflects fairly well in a normal battle anyway. Not even Roman infantry can weather a storm of javelins for long.

[Zwirbaum]

Testudo now increase survivability of your roman infantry by a lot (As long you are being shot from front and/or left)

[Hoplite of Ilis]

To get back to my question, why does the auto-resolve give you such a bad result? Even if you win the numbers lost are so high?

It happens so that you are forced to enjoy and appreciate the "hard" work of those who made it. I's like being in the army. You've been locked up for so long, and when you take a leave and see an old hag in the street, you wonder if she looks good (with an inclination to YES) .