An example why MTW2 as a game, sometimes really holds back this mod.

[The Despondent Mind]

I just hate it when the AI in rtw and mtw2 does this, it creates these pointless mini-armies instead of uniting them into the strongest possible force.

[Lusitanio]

I just hate it when the AI in rtw and mtw2 does this, it creates these pointless mini-armies instead of uniting them into the strongest possible force.

What difficulty are you playing?

[nvm]

Had this happen to me too much on H and VH. AI being terrible at using generals is also a problem. You can somewhat control the amount of forces AI sends at you with how many soldiers you field yourself, as in general they will try to deploy a force that's comparable in size to yours - but naval/island invasions are an exception, which I found to be a very unpleasant surprise multiple times, AI can be actually good attacking them - but if they don't believe they can send a proper response army they may well not bother at all.

As far as I know their eagerness to attack you mostly depends on how defended your cities are. Keep a decent garrison on your frontiers if you want the enemy to come at you with somewhat decent armies when they do rather than attempting to snipe your cities. This won't stop them from making tiny stacks, but at least it will help them make proper attacks if they are capable.

[The Despondent Mind]

What difficulty are you playing?

I think, this is H, but it happens on N too, I see it in all mods and all difficulties with varying degrees.

[Lusitanio]

I think, this is H, but it happens on N too, I see it in all mods and all difficulties with varying degrees.

I always play in Very Hard and maybe because of that I can't remember a time when I saw the AI doing something like that. Maybe I'm just lucky

[Jurand of Cracow]

I just hate it when the AI in rtw and mtw2 does this, it creates these pointless mini-armies instead of uniting them into the strongest possible force.

Well, in the r2tw the AI behaves differently at times. This was 80-units strong (and no fun to play against...)

[Sar1n]

It seems weird, but that tactic actually makes sense. I'd rather face one army coming at me in one direction than four smaller with same total strength coming at me from four directions at once.

[The Despondent Mind]

It seems weird, but that tactic actually makes sense. I'd rather face one army coming at me in one direction than four smaller with same total strength coming at me from four directions at once.

But it's easier to just shred these small armies then facing one big army, I can also abuse night attack to destroy all those captain armies. It is just more tedious and less fun to play that.

[nvm]

It's just annoying. I end up destroying the first army before the other ones arrive then whittle them down as well. But it's incredibly annoying to turn my army to face them.

[Der Böse Wolf]

In the DLV BB mod, they somehow managed to have all reinforcing armies merge into one upon deployment on the battlefield.
I remember the BAI of this mod was the best I've seen.

Enemy archers deploy stakes POST ARMY DEPLOYMENT. This means that after deployment is finished and battle started (and all AI armies merged into one ie they appear together in the same spot) enemy archers will then plant stakes.

Also the Ai usually used terrain strategically, did flanking manoeuvers etc... The modder, Taiji, did an excellent job with this mod, which is, for me, one of the best M2TW mods for the Medieval era.

[Aneximanes]

Yea, DLV was/is a masterpiece (with some rough edges)

[AnthoniusII]

Depends in what phase you find AI controled armies.


Even i alpha beta in our mod AI gathers a lot of armies of varius sizes. Size is not always important though if AI has chosen to include in its armies ellite forces.
For the record AI combined the 2 smallest armies in to one and i called this battle "Battle of the 5 Armies".
From the thousands of warriors in both sides those hided in forest and survived:


In this point though I must emphasise in mods within a mod. I do not know what AI mod EBII uses but in our mod Germanicu5 RBAI mixing with XAI 4.1 create a nightmare even for expirient players.

[Jurand of Cracow]

I've played just a handful of battle in the DLV (due to its utmost strategical unhistoricallity) but I have similar memories of the BAI: it gave a real challenge and behaved reasonably. However, this was a very different type of battles as compared to the slow-paced EBII ones. Difficult to say how that BAI would work in a low-lethality environment.
I still cannot understand why it's so difficult for the CA programmers to make a decent BAI... In the Thrones of Britannia you still face those units moving here and there for no apparent reason or blobbing one behind another (though the UI and managing your troops is getting better, to be sure).

[Rad]

I really can't report this being an issue (VH CAI, H BAI).


Sure, there are smaller armies around, but the AI does a good job at lumping units into one big stack when ever possible - The Grey Freaking Death being the prime example in my campaign

[tentaku]

It seems weird, but that tactic actually makes sense. I'd rather face one army coming at me in one direction than four smaller with same total strength coming at me from four directions at once.

not only tactically, but logistically they also march armies in smaller groups across multiple parallel roads and reach destination faster instead of one single line.

[Lusitanio]

Karma hit me and after starting a Seleucid campaign VH difficulty, Hard battles, I saw this behaviour with the Ptolemai. They had 6 small stacks of troops dispersed and a big one coming (while my troops were besieging a city). In two turns all the stacks integrated into a single bigger army and would have attacked my army if I didn't attacked them