Why are AI operated units always better than mine?

[oculus1]

Chilly weekend, so I'm staying inside. Started a new campaign as Spanish, early/hard. After taking the rebel provinces, I invaded & conqured Corduba and Granada. Almohad's had a civil war, leaving Tunisia in rebel hands, garrisoned by 3 units, one Desert Cav (38 men), and 2 Nubian Spearmen (100 & 97 men). I invaded with 1 Jinette and 2 FMAA. The rebels killed al but 16 of my men, losing only a few men. So the next turn I invaded with 1 FK and 2 FS. Rebels won again, killing most of my men, losing less than half of theirs. I have played both Almohad and Egyptian campaigns, and the Desert Cav and Nubian spears were both weak units for me. But when the computer runs them, apparently they mytsteriously become master jedis. How can this be? I know that the AI gets an edge when you play on hard, but Desert Cav wiping out FKs? Shouldn't have happened. And when I played as the Almohads, the Jinerttes could always outrun my Desert Cav, whereas today, the AI's Desert Cav ran down my Jinettes wiping them out, losing only a couple men.

[Maeda Toshiie]

Look at the valour of individual units, as well as the rank of the general in command.

[caninelegion]

Yeah, similar things happened to me in Viking Invasions (VI). As the Vikings, I had become accustomed to wiping up the opposition with armies less then half the size of the enemy. Suddenly, the last Pict province beat my invading armies a half a dozen times while they were equal or outnumbered in strength (attrition finally won the day). The difference was, I believe, that the Pictish king was a good leader while the local levies and leaders I had (mainly zero valor and questionable leaders) made the difference. The terrain was also repellent for defense. As the master said, look to these elements and you'll likely find the answer.

[Nisemono]

Don't forget that equipment upgrades help as well.

Those units with leaders having the pride V&V gets -1 command +3 valour. That valour boost can make melee units beastly.

As for cavalry, IIRC, knightly units (and some others like AHC, Lancers and Katas) get +8 charge, so getting the charge right can make them devastating.

Nubians are equivalent to Feudal Sgts btw.

[oculus1]

As to command and valor, the rebels only had a slight edge, 2 stars and 2 valor versus my 2 star one valor Jinette, so that is not the reason they won.

As far as Nubians being equivalent to Feudal Sgts, I don't know the unit stats, but I thought that they were closer to vanilla spearmen, and that the Sarasen Infantry was the equivalent to FS's.

But my complaint is that whatever the unit, when I play that faction they are so-so fighters, but when the AI uses the same unit with similar command and valor, they are far superior to mine. An example: a few years back I was playing as the Byzzies, and the Hungarians invaded Serbia or Greece (forget which) with a smaller army than mine. I lined my men up on a hill, and when the Hungarian prince led his RKs out in front of the rest of his army, I charged downhill with my prince's unit of Kats, silver shield armor, 5 or 6 star general, all 40 men. I should have won, but the Hungarian RKs destroyed my Kats, sending my prince running home crying for his mommy. I had saved the game the previous turn, so I restarted the game, and using the -ian code I switched factions to the Hungarians. I took the same prince, gave him the same units that the computer had used, and I invaded Serbia (or Greece). The AI lined their troops up on the same hill that I had, and when I led the prince's RKs out in front of the army the AI charged down the hill with the Kats, who scattered my knights, killing my prince. Like I said, when I use them, Larry, Moe and/or Curly. When the AI uses them, Obi Wan.

[Maeda Toshiie]

Unit stats can be found here: http://www.totalwar.org/strategy/twug/index.html

Nubians are Feudal Sgt equals. Saracen are Chivalric Sgt equals (a serious coup for the Turks when dealing with the Byzzies in Early).

Anyway, with regards to the superiority of AI units, hard gives a very small advantage to the AI. I never had issues with AI units behaving beyond what is expected based on their stats and difficulty. Then again, I never make the fight fair by maximising terrain advantages and flanking the heck out of the AI whenever I can.

[chenshas]

im like toshie i always surrond and slaughter when i can

[caninelegion]

Which can get quite messy as the AI feeds in reserves to surround the surrounders who are then surrounded by supporting units. AI doesn't seem very capable of surrounding the enemy, though. Often, it'll make it easy by using siege equipment which (as long as you ignore the urge to destroy them) gives you the numerical advantage needed to surround them.

[Ptolomy]

Like canine said if you fighting on a low scale surrounding is good but when the have reinforcements you might aswell give up on that one because you'll surround them then they'll surround you then you'll surround them again with your reinforcement and it just keeps going untill one of you runs outta units and if your armies valour sucks it'll probably be you. all the weapons and armor advantages are useless if your armies valor is really low because when they get hit from behind they'll just run away freaking out.

[Nisemono]

Like canine said if you fighting on a low scale surrounding is good but when the have reinforcements you might aswell give up on that one because you'll surround them then they'll surround you then you'll surround them again with your reinforcement and it just keeps going untill one of you runs outta units and if your armies valour sucks it'll probably be you. all the weapons and armor advantages are useless if your armies valor is really low because when they get hit from behind they'll just run away freaking out.

That's why I always camp at my side of the map. The first full stack is always the toughest. After that, enemy reinforcements always attack piecemeal and just get hammered.