Problem: Benny Hill Armies

Itharus#3127

So... while the TWWH solved this problem by making it so that armies do not always perfectly know everyone elses movement points and can outrun you forever....

Rome 2 (and Attila) still suffer from this problem badly.

Please make it so that the AI are not masters of campaign movement all the bloody time because it's really annoying when EVERY battle you have is at a settlement because it's the ONLY way you will ever bring the AI to battle.

LESAMA#5456

Fully agree with this! Ca please fix this.

TheShiroOfDalton

Itharus said:

So... while the TWWH solved this problem by making it so that armies do not always perfectly know everyone elses movement points and can outrun you forever....

Rome 2 (and Attila) still suffer from this problem badly.

Please make it so that the AI are not masters of campaign movement all the bloody time because it's really annoying when EVERY battle you have is at a settlement because it's the ONLY way you will ever bring the AI to battle.

I actually found that not to be a problem here. In the campaigns I started the AI did not back away from every fight, attacked my stacks and left armies within attacking range of mine.
What I find is a problem is more that AI army compositions are stuck at low tier.

CA_Grimfeld

We haven't had the chance to completely fix many cases of campaign AI behaviour. We will surely have these in mind, thank you.

happycompy

I actually sort of like that the AI can calculate your movement points. I mean, we can too just by clicking on enemy armies/agents. I just worry about artificially making the AI even worse at the game, even if it can be annoying.

That being said, if it works in TWW and doesn't reduce the difficulty then I'm all for it.

Migz

I actually approve of the AI's ability to stay just out of range, because it forces us to use agents and additional armies to pin them (think Hannibal avoiding big battles until he'd set a trap that guaranteed his victory). Take this recent example from an Empire Divided campaign I completed today using the beta patch:

Palmyra's Zenobia occupied two of my full-stack armies for 6 or 7 turns by avoiding pitched battles against both of my armies while threatening two of my towns. She would let me attack with just one army (I had weak early-game Sassanid forces made mostly of light infantry against her much more powerful force) but wouldn't let me get the second army in.

She continued that trick until a 2nd Palmyran army joined the local theater. At that point, she split her forces and threatened both towns at the same time. I had an army protecting each town then too. My options, from what the AI could see, were to fight one on one in two battles or risk one town by taking an army out of it to help with the other (where that Palmyran army was likely to get away).

It would have worked had I not also had time to bring in another army of my own that same turn. With that third army, I was able to attack Palmyra's reinforcing army with two of mine, wiping it out, even though it tried to retreat. Then, because Zenobia's army was close to the other town now, I was able to use the army from the first town to reinforce the other town, but she retreated and escaped. Due only to fortunate timing, I was able to claim the theater firmly as my own.

Note: As the campaign was in its very early stage, my agents were unable to do anything to Palmyra's army. The agent changes in this patch are game changing.

Itharus#3127

happycompy said:

I actually sort of like that the AI can calculate your movement points. I mean, we can too just by clicking on enemy armies/agents. I just worry about artificially making the AI even worse at the game, even if it can be annoying.

That being said, if it works in TWW and doesn't reduce the difficulty then I'm all for it.

It does not reduce the difficulty in TWWH.

The map in R2 is pretty wide open... it might help if more areas either a) caused attrition or b) cost additonal movement points... because right now it's really easy to avoid battle all day long for both the players and the AI. The AI is just... perfect at it, when it wants to be. It's particularly annoying in Egypt when defending from the West.

Zones of Control could also stand to be quite a lot larger, IMO.

ZoC needs a close look, period, really. There's something that hasn't been right about it since Empire.

Heinzu#5956

AI's perfect calculation is not very good in Rome 2. There are too many big regions without any major obstacles. It can take two armies and 10 turns to destroy AI's one small raiding army. Not many people know that AI can calculate retreat distances and probably your future marching distances as well. This was balanced by overpowered agents but they will be reworked. Sieging settlement can be used as some kind of exploit and AI knows it. I surrounded one small army with my 3 armies. AI attacked the nearest city and it instantly retreated. AI gained extra movement and it was able to run away. This can be used by players as well.

I actually like AI's perfect calculation but zone of control and retreat option need some tweaks. Zone of control needs features from Empire TW and retreating should consume movement points.

Itharus#3127

You like chasing annoying little 3 unit armies all day long? What is wrong with you :-P

lilsweetcaligula

Oh c'mon guys, either the AI is too stupid, or too clever. Take the AI's cleverness as a challenge. It is by leaps and bounds better than if the AI was plain catatonic.