Friendly AI Can't Handle Horse Archers

[DerHerbst]

I've noticed that in battles between factions that have no horse archers, let's say a battle between England and France, the AI handles itself remarkably well.  Both sides start out in formation and advance across the battlefield in a coordinated manner.  Usually there is a cavalry charge and then the infantry engages while the archers stay put in the rear. 

The infantry always maintains cohesion throughout even the longest and biggest battles.  I REALLY LIKE the way the AI stays coordinated in this mod, it is definitely a huge improvement over other mods.  I rarely see infantry get separated and running over the battlefield in multiple directions.

However, the AI in my experience CANNOT handle enemy horse archers...at all.  I'm currently freelancing for the King of the Crusader States and we're battling the Mamluk Sultanate.  Every battle is a chaotic mess with huge and unnecessary losses.  It seems like the Mamluk army is always composed of 30-50% cavalry/horse archers.  That's not a problem in itself though.  What is frustrating is that my friendly AI have NO IDEA how to handle this.

Every battle begins with each side neatly set up in formation.  Then the inevitable cavalry charge happens.  After that, my friendly infantry just totally lose cohesion and start chasing the horse archers across the map in every direction.  As they are running around in every direction, chasing something they will never catch, they are cut down by enemy archers and cavalry.  Inevitably the battle ends up with 5-6 AI infantrymen reenacting Custer's last stand while the rest of my allied AI run around the map like a bunch of fools.

I was wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same problem behavior or if this is just my own problem?  I have the latest SVN version and I play on the hardest difficulty settings.  If anyone knows how to modify this behavior pleas let me know.  As of now I am starting a new game and freelancing around Western Europe, where there are zero horse archers to mess up my allied AI. 

Thanks for any responses.  This mod is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DrTomas]

Horse archer ai was bad - everyone complained
Horse archer ai improved -everyone complains.

Well ha - The AI is now even more improved in my version, so next revision is going to be fun.

[DerHerbst]

Thanks for replying Dr.Tomas.  The horse archers themselves are really good in my opinion.  They do a good job of staying out of melees and kill a decent amount of my troops.  It's just the way the friendly infantry AI reacts to them that is the problem.  Is there any way you could modify their behavior so that they remain as a group instead of individually running all over the battlefield?

I have no idea how easy/hard that is to do.  Everything else about the mod is great!  Thank you for such an amazing mod!!!

[Sequester]

It's not only the infantry who behave stupidly. cavalry also don't know how to deal with horse archers. Every battle in the holy land has horse archers circling you counterclockwise on fast steeds and heavy knights trying to catch up. Sometimes all I do is riding around clockwise and lance down all their horses. Then the ai can handle he rest.

[Cuthalion]

As long as mounted archers run out of arrows at some point and have to attack in close combat, shiled-wall-based infantry might indeed work (otherwise battles would just stop with one faction circling and one standing still, that's one issue that came to my mind when I read Tomas' argument). But who knows what clever idea he had in the meantime. 

[DrTomas]

Yes, people are historically stupid in this game.

[Lazyman]

I only wish there was some way to make them stand still and do volleys . (Mamluks and Romans, not Mongols ) .

[DrTomas]

Notted, I'll try to do something regarding that. Not sure how it's going to work out tho.