[AI][.912]AI Army Management

from Elemental Forums

I was just fighting a war with another faction.  My Sovereign is invading on his own.  The enemy has hordes of spearmen that they're sending at me. 

The first group was 3 spearmen, as was the second.  The next turn I start moving towards their capital and I run into solitary spearmen units, except that the AI has four such units standing in the same tile.  Instead of forming an army of four, which may actually damage my Sovereign, they're all alone, not grouped with each other, despite the fact that they're in the same square.  

I could see if it was behavior bringing spearmen in from different directions to eventually form a group, except they were already in the same square, and that square was within move/attack range of my invading force.  

Just thought I'd point it out, for whatever it's worth. 

Edit:  Unless this was some sort of clever delaying tactic by the enemy to give their Sovereign time to heal and defend the capital.  Then that's pretty cool.  

2,925 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top


Wouldn't that be cool if it was a delaying tactic - sadly, you can start as many fights as you want in one tile - BUT isn't that a cool thought ? *hint hint*

This has been an irritating issue for me for the whole beta - I just don't know why the ai isn't combing armis that well, or having so many units on one tile like that - it's a weird behaviour i can't explain. I wish the ai could tell me what it's trying to do.

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, like if one marches an army of cheap stuff to enemy territory and then explodes it into 9 smaller units to destroy all resource buildings.. *grins*

 

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Glowing_Ember, reply 1

Wouldn't that be cool if it was a delaying tactic - sadly, you can start as many fights as you want in one tile - BUT isn't that a cool thought ? *hint hint*

This has been an irritating issue for me for the whole beta - I just don't know why the ai isn't combing armis that well, or having so many units on one tile like that - it's a weird behaviour i can't explain. I wish the ai could tell me what it's trying to do.

 
End of Glowing_Ember's quote

As of .912 every battle uses up one move.  It actually took me a few turns of standing still fighting to clear them out. So it worked as a delaying tactic, whether intentional or not.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

It only works if they actually block some clever pathway, but that rarely happens. When I see this, I just walk right around them, let them attack me and waste their movement instead of mine.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Kalin, reply 4
It only works if they actually block some clever pathway, but that rarely happens. When I see this, I just walk right around them, let them attack me and waste their movement instead of mine.
End of Kalin's quote

In my particular situation, they were in route to take back a city I just conquered so if I'd gone around they'd have kept going, likely formed into an army somewhere down the line, and taken the city I'd just left. 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Very irritating.  I'd much rather fight 1 or 2 huge battles and 10 little ones -- and I've had that many in one spot in .912.  The new movement cost makes it a little worse.  And it also irritates me that when I left-click on the enemy stack repeatedly it only alternates between showing me 2 of the units instead of cycling thru all of them so I can see how many times I will have to fight.

I don't think it could be a planned delaying tactic because it is a carryover from older versions where combat didn't take a turn.

Happens to me late-game when my units all have troll-charm, so all the tedious small battles don't even weaken me.  Very pointless.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top


yeah, we were joking when we said it was a delaying tactic - that would be giving the ai too much credit :-"

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Lord, reply 6
Very irritating.  I'd much rather fight 1 or 2 huge battles and 10 little ones -- and I've had that many in one spot in .912.  The new movement cost makes it a little worse.  And it also irritates me that when I left-click on the enemy stack repeatedly it only alternates between showing me 2 of the units instead of cycling thru all of them so I can see how many times I will have to fight.

I don't think it could be a planned delaying tactic because it is a carryover from older versions where combat didn't take a turn.

Happens to me late-game when my units all have troll-charm, so all the tedious small battles don't even weaken me.  Very pointless.
End of Lord's quote

If I had to guess, I'd say it's actually a by-product of the AI's army management system that Frogboy has written about.  The AI has the ability to use way points and army groups to have various units show up at the same tile on the same turn to actually form into a larger army for an assault.  

It's just not fleshed out enough yet to handle a changing condition (like losing the city they were all head to) and so my Sovereign conquered the city, moved on, and encountered the various army groups on their way to forming a big powerful force.  The AI simply didn't expect to group them up until they reached the final way point.  

Admittedly, that's complete supposition on my part, but that's what the behavior resembles whenever I encounter it.  Units that are supposed to group up to form a larger army in the next few turns caught prematurely.  

I'm sure it will be ironed out, I just wanted to point it out to show that the AI wasn't adapting fasting enough.