Pacifist battle AI

**nein** · July 25, 2014, 08:53 AM

One of the things that irritates me about EB is the enemy faction AI... they attack you with pissy little stacks that do not stand a chance against your full army and then refuse to attack you during the battle. This is especially annoying in bridge battles where the AI will gladly just park it's arse on the other side of the bridge and refuse to budge.

**QuintusSertorius** · July 25, 2014, 09:36 AM

Worse when they retreat before you even get near them - even when it's a battle that the loser is supposedly going to die if they lose.

**nein** · July 25, 2014, 01:29 PM

That is not too bad, waiting for the battle timer to run out during a 'supposed' bridge battle (especially with lagphlanxes) is awful

**QuintusSertorius** · July 25, 2014, 02:16 PM

Originally Posted by nein

That is not too bad, waiting for the battle timer to run out during a 'supposed' bridge battle (especially with lagphlanxes) is awful

That's what the time-acceleration button is for.

**Boriak** · July 26, 2014, 05:29 AM

I tend to send my spies ahead to reconnoitre the number and rough disposition of the enemy forces before the engagement. If the enemy brings a limited number of units, I will rarely bring my whole contingent with me. Instead, I will leave extra units in a camp a few squares in the rear (properly fortified in case of surprise attacks in the next turn) and advance with only as many units as the enemy brings against me. This way I almost never outnumber the foe, making him willing to engage me.

The matter changes slightly if the foe brings phalanxes against me, particularly if he brings a lot of phalanxes. Going against phalanxes without phalanxes of my own is a bit of a gamble and can cause high casualties on my front. If my civilization has access to phalanxes, I will always bring them against a phalanx-bearing foe but I will limit the number of these units. 4 is the maximum number of phalanx units I ever brought on the battlefield; if I can't win with just these, then there's no point in playing.

Bottom line: don't go up against a weak foe with overwhelming force. Make the AI want to attack you.

**athanaric** · July 26, 2014, 08:11 AM

Originally Posted by Boriak

Bottom line: don't go up against a weak foe with overwhelming force. Make the AI want to attack you.

Unless you want to use the autoresolve function. Which admittedly is difficult (though very necessary) in this mod because it renders phalanxes so OP that it breaks the game.

**QuintusSertorius** · July 27, 2014, 07:33 AM

Originally Posted by Boriak

I tend to send my spies ahead to reconnoitre the number and rough disposition of the enemy forces before the engagement. If the enemy brings a limited number of units, I will rarely bring my whole contingent with me. Instead, I will leave extra units in a camp a few squares in the rear (properly fortified in case of surprise attacks in the next turn) and advance with only as many units as the enemy brings against me. This way I almost never outnumber the foe, making him willing to engage me.

The matter changes slightly if the foe brings phalanxes against me, particularly if he brings a lot of phalanxes. Going against phalanxes without phalanxes of my own is a bit of a gamble and can cause high casualties on my front. If my civilization has access to phalanxes, I will always bring them against a phalanx-bearing foe but I will limit the number of these units. 4 is the maximum number of phalanx units I ever brought on the battlefield; if I can't win with just these, then there's no point in playing.

Two is my limit in number of phalanx units, but I also have two hoplite units as well immediately outside them. That's regardless of the enemy, I use the same army for that region against whatever comes.

If I can't recruit them, and that's usually because I don't want to deplete my population early in the game, I just hire mercenary Pezhetairoi, who are pretty decent.

Originally Posted by Boriak

Bottom line: don't go up against a weak foe with overwhelming force. Make the AI want to attack you.

If only it were that simple; I always play on M/M which may have an impact on the AI's aggressiveness. I never use a stack of more than 14-15 units, I've still often had a full stack of AI troops run away, or abandon the fight once the battle had started (even though they shouldn't be able to).

**athanaric** · July 27, 2014, 08:04 AM

Originally Posted by QuintusSertorius

If I can't recruit them, and that's usually because I don't want to deplete my population early in the game, I just hire mercenary Pezhetairoi, who are pretty decent.

Especially for warding off those retarded two-phalanx-units-with-no-support "armies" the AI sends out to siege your cities.

**nein** · July 26, 2014, 07:13 AM

The speed time button only does so much... and it sucks if you have a couple of phalanx units lagging it up

**nein** · July 26, 2014, 01:47 PM

>Bottom line: don't go up against a weak foe with overwhelming force. Make the AI want to attack you.

Someone is lacking reading comprehension, the AI attacks YOUR army with tiny little joke stacks and then stands away playing with it's collective balls

**the man, the myth, the legend** · July 26, 2014, 07:26 PM

Someone is lacking verbal expression. What do you mean by "phalanx units lagging it up"? Do you mean that during battles phalanx units make your framerate drop or phalanx units marching slowly with their pikes down?

**nein** · July 27, 2014, 06:18 AM

Phalanx units cause a massive framerate drop when used in number, probably due to the pikes eating up resources... it's a problem with hayasdan as most of their other units are meh