Funny 'gameplay' logic

**PeonKing** · April 18, 2015, 03:32 PM

What sort of funny logic has the AI pulled on you that is more evidence of a gameplay mechanic than a logical strategy?

I'll give my own example that inspired me to make this post. I was playing as the ERE, I had recruited a half stack of what was basically just Lanciarii and a few Persian Scout mercs. I noticed the Lakhmids had a full stack that left their settlement unprotected to go for a stroll through the desert, and they had betrayed me when the Sassanids invariably declared war on me. So I was pretty pumped to take some vengance on them, I took my meagre, poorly balanced stack to go take their settlement while the stack was in the desert. I leave it up to auto-calc, which ends up giving me a lot of casualties. So, I have their settlement more or less intact under my control, with a half stack of mostly spears at half health. It comes their turn, they send in the stack against me, turns out they have some catapults and a lot of raiders. They commence the attack, and the first thing they do is start running raiders around, burning down their own home and using their onager to light me up, despite having a stronger force than me. I did end up winning the battle in the end when they charged their General straight at a group of spears.

Basically, take somebodies home town, in the process of getting it back, they start by trying to burn it down. I mean, I know what scorched earth is, but come on. It's like somebody stole your mug, so you smash the mug the second you get your hands on it to make sure they can't steal it.

**johnmck** · April 18, 2015, 04:09 PM

Haha i don't think thats as bad as taking a faction's home province one turn, then having them retake and raze it the next xP At least they've eradicated nationalism in the time of Attila the Hun. Or maybe they're punishing their wives and children for daring to be raped and pillaged.

**gyabo** · April 18, 2015, 04:12 PM

How about killing there general? I am gonna say its somewhat a good mechanic if i am quite overwhelm but it just quite hilarious seeing 4 full stacks running away. Also this tactics reminds me of the movie Mongols sending my suicide unit just to kill there general.

How about kiting the siege defender in any minor province? Seriously Battle Ai most of the time will abandon there defensive position instead of staying in there town center or create any kind of resistance. Making archer towers useless. Sadly the general and some units will stay in town center. At least i already killed most of there force but i still need to destroy those pesky archer tower just to destroy any remaining units.

**GussieFinkNottle** · April 18, 2015, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by gyabo

How about killing there general? I am gonna say its somewhat a good mechanic if i am quite overwhelm but it just quite hilarious seeing 4 full stacks running away. Also this tactics reminds me of the movie Mongols sending my suicide unit just to kill there general.

How about kiting the siege defender in any minor province? Seriously Battle Ai most of the time will abandon there defensive position instead of staying in there town center or create any kind of resistance. Making archer towers useless. Sadly the general and some units will stay in town center. At least i already killed most of there force but i still need to destroy those pesky archer tower just to destroy any remaining units.

*their (x5)

**Neige** · April 18, 2015, 07:19 PM

How about city towers collapsing instead of being captured? "Hey look, we just captured these expertly crafted defensive structures that can lend us a strategic advantage in the battle. Let's demolish them now!"

I know this has been talked over many times already but I still can't get over the fact they removed tower capturing, it was a cool, fun feature in my opinion.

**PeonKing** · April 19, 2015, 09:54 AM

Oh man, I totally forgot about the razing haha, apparently burning down your own home was super popular back then. Stable environments are for chumps I guess.

Yeah that auto tower destruction is pretty ridiculous. I figured they did it because unwalled settlement towers are so easy to take, the attacker could probably turn the defenses against the defender too easily. Not a great idea, but it's the most logical one I could think of. Another fun thing is when you take an enemy settlement, destroying a lot of it in the process, and then you get attacked in that settlement and you're troops are all of the sudden really sad that they destroyed half the settlement.

**Dekhatres** · April 20, 2015, 04:05 AM

Originally Posted by PeonKing

Oh man, I totally forgot about the razing haha, apparently burning down your own home was super popular back then. Stable environments are for chumps I guess.

Yeah that auto tower destruction is pretty ridiculous. I figured they did it because unwalled settlement towers are so easy to take, the attacker could probably turn the defenses against the defender too easily. Not a great idea, but it's the most logical one I could think of. Another fun thing is when you take an enemy settlement, destroying a lot of it in the process, and then you get attacked in that settlement and you're troops are all of the sudden really sad that they destroyed half the settlement.

imo the best solution is to not allow attacker to use the towers, only the defender being able to activate them, like in old TWs, or maybe have towers require a certain amount of time to capture before they can be used

**johnmck** · April 20, 2015, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by Dekhatres

imo the best solution is to not allow attacker to use the towers, only the defender being able to activate them, like in old TWs, or maybe have towers require a certain amount of time to capture before they can be used

We'll never know for sure but i bet you the auto collapse was a work around for fire arrows setting the whole city on fire once the attackers took them.

**nameless** · April 20, 2015, 03:44 PM

Originally Posted by Neige

How about city towers collapsing instead of being captured? "Hey look, we just captured these expertly crafted defensive structures that can lend us a strategic advantage in the battle. Let's demolish them now!"

I know this has been talked over many times already but I still can't get over the fact they removed tower capturing, it was a cool, fun feature in my opinion.

Well given how powerful towers are it's not really surprising.

Seriously forts are incredibly powerful and people use them to great effects. All you have to do is plug up the entrances and so long as you hold the line eventually the towers will wither the attackers to pieces.

Imagine turning that around against the defenders. I've seen cases where a bug pops up that instead of being destroyed the towers actually are captured and when they turn against you and you're forced to hole up it's quite devastating.