Defensive Campaign AI?
I got myself this mod, and the submods to increase construction times, research times, etc, and the mod which attempts to prevent Romans from being utterly useless when armed with a Gladius, however I have a few problems.
Mainly what I want to do is lay back, take my time in building, and go on well planned campaigns and allow myself to play slowly through the long build times and research times. However the AI isn't content to do the same. In the first 10 turns invariably at least 5 factions will be destroyed, and by 50 turns the map around Italy is generally split up into 4 giant empires. In one campaign I tried by turn 45 Syracuse owned every single settlement in Iberia, North Africa and Greece. In another all of the northern Barbarians formed into one giant supergroup. I really want the AI to set themselves up, defend themselves, and not go on these ridiculous empire building rampages. I'm not sure how many people really want to sit back and play a calculated campaign, but I think even if I were to blitz my way through a campaign, which I recently tried, pretty soon I'd be doomed to fighting a handful of giant empires which form in odd places.
Another problem is population growth. You can pretty much max out the buildings in every settlement right away because the population grows at extreme levels. It clashes with the 4 turns thing for sure to have it growing so fast. Maybe the requirements for opening up another building slot should be raised too.
Last real problem is battle survivability, especially for Romans armed with the gladius. It is pretty much not there. A unit of highly experienced, expensively equipped Roman legionaries can get wiped out by green barbarians with less than half of the attack and defense stats. The Longer Battles sub mod improves it a little by boosting deadliness and initiative, but it still leaves Roman troops massively underpowered even by their own stats. Too I think that survivability for front line troops is far too low anyway, especially for Romans also. The vast majority of people should escape the battlefield unless chased down in a rout. When it comes to Romans though one of the things that made them so scary and effective was their ability to kill people in the toe to toe and not just pick people out for 1 v 1 fights or pin them in place for other troops to kill.
I'm not sure if it is even doable though since the Rome 2 engine is so ridiculous. I almost cried first time I charged a block of infantry into the back of the enemy only to watch them wait to turn round so engage in duels. I know some mods have tried to address this insane 1v1 animation reliance, but I'm not sure if they have.
Well, rambling over; basics is I want AI who can defend their lands properly from invasions, and who find more profit in sacking a rival city than taking it. I want drastically lower population growth. And I want much better survivability for troops who are not being attacked in the back or routed.
Might not be for everyone though, so maybe campaign options for people who don't like to blitz through and create a 10 minute empire like Alexander.
Maybe there are submods for this all that I have missed though and I should feel silly.
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ed up compared to here! I think its really fine with DeI... animations could be better you're right, and it would be great if the AI had increased intelligence, but both those are out of the modders hands I believe.
