CAI runs seven armies on a single settlement

[The Dude]

Took a screenshot as proof:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Look at the minimap. This is the last ERE settlement, to their east starts the faction of Egypt. I don't really know what else to say. CA, this is absurd.

Edit: No, I do know one more thing. Look at the sheer volume of desolation in Europe. I effectively only have the Alamans and the Marcomans to contend with, and neither have more than four settlements. Stop the razing.

[Aenima]

Took a screenshot as proof:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Look at the minimap. This is the last ERE settlement, to their east starts the faction of Egypt. I don't really know what else to say. CA, this is absurd.

Edit: No, I do know one more thing. Look at the sheer volume of desolation in Europe. I effectively only have the Alamans and the Marcomans to contend with, and neither have more than four settlements. Stop the razing.

Exactly. The barbarian invasions are no fun if the barbarians don't actually invade and expand.

[Darios]

Took a screenshot as proof:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Look at the minimap. This is the last ERE settlement, to their east starts the faction of Egypt. I don't really know what else to say. CA, this is absurd.

Seeing the CAI throw endless stacks like that at me makes me quit out of frustration. The problem isn't that I cannot win - I am fully confident of camping in the center of my settlements with a handful of units and inflicting crazy heroic defeats upon such forces, but having to do it every other turn becomes extremely tedious.

Edit: No, I do know one more thing. Look at the sheer volume of desolation in Europe. I effectively only have the Alamans and the Marcomans to contend with, and neither have more than four settlements. Stop the razing.

I honestly don't mind the desolation. There are many cities in Eastern Europe (Dacia, Scythia Minor, Pannonia, Black Sea Coast) that really did get razed to the ground by the Goths, Huns, and Slavs and were not rebuilt until centuries later once the region stabilized a bit.

[Aenima]

I honestly don't mind the desolation. There are many cities in Eastern Europe (Dacia, Scythia Minor, Pannonia, Black Sea Coast) that really did get razed to the ground by the Goths, Huns, and Slavs and were not rebuilt until centuries later once the region stabilized a bit.

True, but there were many, many more cities in the empire than we have on the campaign map. The barbarians absolutely pillaged and razed cities and towns, but there were still others left in the regions, so the continent didn't dissolve into a wasteland of nothingness. In Attila that's not the case. Like with many other things the limitations of this being a game shine through here, unfortunately.

[RGA]

Seeing the CAI throw endless stacks like that at me makes me quit out of frustration. The problem isn't that I cannot win - I am fully confident of camping in the center of my settlements with a handful of units and inflicting crazy heroic defeats upon such forces, but having to do it every other turn becomes extremely tedious.

I also hate having to deal with multiple stacks converging against me, but to be fair, if AI doesn't do it, people will complain that stupid AI only attacks piecemeal.

I believe the reason why AI is so inclined to throw everything it has at you is the large movement range, especially in forced march stance. Most of the times, AI will send all of its stacks in force march mod against you, except the solely one which it uses to initiate attack (a way to cheat the limitation of forced march that could not initiate battle). As it has been proved in Rome 2, removing forced march and further reduce movement range of army would significantly improve CAI's behaviors.

[Darios]

I also hate having to deal with multiple stacks converging against me, but to be fair, if AI doesn't do it, people will complain that stupid AI only attacks piecemeal.

I don't overly mind the AI converging a few stacks against me, but I hate having to deal with it every few turns. I have inflicted the kind of crushing defeats upon their armies that should easily descend their empires into chaos, but unfortunately before I can recover and go on the offensive, they (or their vassals/allies) are already throwing even more stacks against me.

The game is unplayable because the AI gets massive buffs/bonuses and has been programmed to treat the presence of a human player on the campaign map as a virus that must be destroyed. Even factions that start off as allies look at the player the same way and take the first opportunity to revolt and join in wars against you. It doesn't feel sandbox, dynamic, and alive, but rather scripted to artificially create a challenge.

[Zipzopdippidybopbop]

The AI is thick; ergo, CA give the computer massive bonuses to everything to remain a challenge to the player.

[Riekopo]

I think the two main causes of this are the fact that Imperium levels seem bugged. They're way too high currently. And the big income bonuses the AI gets.

[Humble Warrior]

I think the two main causes of this are the fact that Imperium levels seem bugged. They're way too high currently. And the big income bonuses the AI gets.

The Sassanids are making a waste of the East. Then an ally of theirs made it to my Egyptian area and took one of my cities there. Then they razed it. They moved to another Egyptian city and razed that. So now the whole Eastern area down to Egypt is wiped out. I switched off and did something else as this is just Madness BS.

Razing needs restricting hard and not just restricting, but also made to be more logical when it does. guess we`re beta-testers again.

[Riekopo]

The Sassanids are making a waste of the East. Then an ally of theirs made it to my Egyptian area and took one of my cities there. Then they razed it. They moved to another Egyptian city and razed that. So now the whole Eastern area down to Egypt is wiped out. I switched off and did something else as this is just Madness BS.

Razing needs restricting hard and not just restricting, but also made to be more logical when it does. guess we`re beta-testers again.

Oh we're definitely beta testers. I've reported probably 40 bugs already just by myself.

[Cope]

The Sassanids are making a waste of the East. Then an ally of theirs made it to my Egyptian area and took one of my cities there. Then they razed it. They moved to another Egyptian city and razed that. So now the whole Eastern area down to Egypt is wiped out. I switched off and did something else as this is just Madness BS.

Razing needs restricting hard and not just restricting, but also made to be more logical when it does. guess we`re beta-testers again.

All they have to do is allow factions to respawn from desolate regions - so if they desolated Egypt, then the emergent Egypt factions can spawn there after 20 turns or so. That way you could raze, but civs would come back to the region.

[Lugotorix]

Sheer level of devastation you say? I had to rebuild, from this.



You'd be amazed how much is still being razed, since the Huns disappeared.

[Fredrin]

Sheer level of devastation you say? I had to rebuild, from this.

Dat shiz cray. Has anyone spotted any pattern in when the AI chooses to raze and when to sack/occupy?

[Keyser]

Dat shiz cray. Has anyone spotted any pattern in when the AI chooses to raze and when to sack/occupy?

They sack when it brings money, when it doesn't anymore because too many people sacked it at too few turns of interval, they raze.

They occasionnaly raze from the go, but it is alot less frequent (and i think it's mostly horde who do that).

Then in northern europe, it's often when settled germans decide to migrate that the razing occurs.

However i would be curious to know when a faction decide to occupe rather than sack, i think as someone pointed out that it has to do with how many money they have and how many it would cost to convert the buildings...

All they have to do is allow factions to respawn from desolate regions - so if they desolated Egypt, then the emergent Egypt factions can spawn there after 20 turns or so. That way you could raze, but civs would come back to the region.

That would be great indeed.

[M2TWRocks]

Like many of the other flaws in the CAI, there appears to be just too many variables and complexity for the CAI to contend with. It seems as though whatever option is available is chosen at random, whether it will be advantageous to the CAI or not. There doesn't seem to be any hint of long term planning or capital growth. Just blow through settlements selecting random courses of action.

[nameless]

Like many of the other flaws in the CAI, there appears to be just too many variables and complexity for the CAI to contend with. It seems as though whatever option is available is chosen at random, whether it will be advantageous to the CAI or not. There doesn't seem to be any hint of long term planning or capital growth. Just blow through settlements selecting random courses of action.

No I think it has to do with the conversation costs.

As the Saxons it costs about $7000 to convert a settlement to the point that at the beginning of the game you're better off sacking and raiding while conquering the other barbarian states which doesn't require you to pay to convert that much.

Saxons have a 50% reduction in the costs which means it probably costs $14,000 to convert generally speaking.

So yeah if you're not the same faction why would the AI bother to convert when it's so expensive to begin with?

On that matter how the heck did you guys get the AI to raze so much?

As Saxons on VH only the center of the map was razed. Playing as the ERE on VH now I only see a few desolate regions but nothing out of the ordinary which makes me wonder what's encouraging the AI to do what.

[RexJayden]

I am looking forward to less cash bonuses to AI armies. I cannot contend with so many armies whilst being restricted by a "normal" economy. Really takes away from the immersion knowing this is going on.

[Cope]

I am looking forward to less cash bonuses to AI armies. I cannot contend with so many armies whilst being restricted by a "normal" economy. Really takes away from the immersion knowing this is going on.

The easiest way to deal with this would be to give the AI bigger cash bonuses based on the size of the Empire - say an extra 500 for every province they own (up to a certain point of course). Using a sliding scale like this instead of a flat default rate would stop certain AI factions from spamming out many more armies than they can reasonably be expected to be able to afford.

[RexJayden]

The easiest way to deal with this would be to give the AI bigger cash bonuses based on the size of the Empire - say an extra 500 for every province they own (up to a certain point of course). Using a sliding scale like this instead of a flat default rate would stop certain AI factions from spamming out many more armies than they can reasonably be expected to be able to afford.

I like this idea Leving.

[Marcus 123]

The smaller the fcation - the stronger it gets.
But hey - you get 8$ DLC!