AI fighting superior units and winning against all odds

**Septentrionalis** · March 30, 2019, 05:25 PM

My long-term ally, Macedonia, is being invaded by Getae on a large scale. The Macedonians have had some significant victories against somewhat larger Getae stacks in terms of visible stack size (the banner and the color fillling), which I guess is easily explained in terms of superior unit quality of Hellenes.

Now, however, I witnessed the Macedonians doing what looked like a suicide attack, pitting a no-color stack against one with at least one third of full strength. The Macedonians won, and the Getae retreated with reduced numbers. There were other units of both factions around, so I had something to compare against. I am pretty sure that the Macedonian "stack" was nothing more than one or two units. Have you seen something like that? Are there some super units that can alone dispatch a much greater enemy force? I think I had full visibility of the area due to an agent of mine, and I find it unlikely that they were assisted by a second unit in an adjacent square.

**QuintusSertorius** · March 30, 2019, 06:14 PM

Autocalc sometimes produces weird results.

**Dooz** · March 30, 2019, 06:29 PM

A good general and experienced troops can make a big difference, or at least far as I think I've noticed. Don't know if either of those were at play here, along with maybe just relatively superior units like you said, but it's fun to think about what kind of crazy heroic scenario may have taken place to get such results. Maybe they set a trap for the numerically overwhelming foe, destroying many in one fell swoop. Or one or few among them went on some self sacrificial quest to distract and cause chaos allowing the rest to attack and find unlikely victory.

This usually doesn't happen the other way around, working out in favor of the player, especially when playing H or VH campaign. The only battles I've autoresolved on current campaign have been naval, cause you know. But I somehow had a Heroic Victory that came at a particularly crucial time and place changing the tide in a certain theater of war and boy it felt good. And I think it must have been due to an experienced admiral with an experienced fleet, even though numerically challenged.

**Sar1n** · March 31, 2019, 05:59 AM

Have you checked what units were actually involved? The banner "meter" shows numbers, not overall strength. A half depleted unit of Evocati cohort will show on banner less than two full units of Pantadopoi, but will make short work of those.

**Roma_Victrix** · March 31, 2019, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by Sar1n

Have you checked what units were actually involved? The banner "meter" shows numbers, not overall strength. A half depleted unit of Evocati cohort will show on banner less than two full units of Pantadopoi, but will make short work of those.

Seriously, though. Or another comparison: a unit of Hellenistic kataphractoi can pretty much wipe out five or even six units of sphendonetai, even if they attempt to surround the kataphracts from the flanks and rear, especially if it keeps escaping and charging them all.

**Septentrionalis** · March 31, 2019, 01:43 PM

Thank you all for your input. I think it may have indeed been a case of some seriously strong unit going against a stack consisting of some kind of hillbilly skirmishers alone. I like Dooz's way of coming up with story explanations for things in the game; I do it myself too!

QS's point about autocalc is a good thing to keep in mind. Here it is not only the result of the battle that caught my attention, though, but the fact that one AI decided to attack a seemingly far superior force. I have not seen that before, and maybe the AI had a good reason to believe it can win here too.

**tentaku** · April 01, 2019, 12:25 AM

The real question though, is was there a historic victory marker on the map, and if the Macedonian commander was promoted as Man of the Hour for his performance... I am afraid Macedonians were robbed of the fruit of a great victory.

**Septentrionalis** · April 08, 2019, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by tentaku

The real question though, is was there a historic victory marker on the map, and if the Macedonian commander was promoted as Man of the Hour for his performance... I am afraid Macedonians were robbed of the fruit of a great victory.

Haha. I was not sure if Man of the Hour existed in this mod. Then again, I probably would not know because I have picked my fights so carefully and have not faced many superior enemies nor lost family members. Just recently I had to fight a couple of desperate-looking fights and actually won, and I think there were some trait rewards that I have denied my commanders up until now because of my yellow-bellied strategies.