My faction loses every single battle

[Arkyll]

Its been like 10 battles since my faction's armies have won a decent battle.

If they do win, its with overwhelming odds.

The battle AI IS JUST SO TERRIBLE and I cannot do anything about it with how far I am into the game.

They are just not commanding anything properly at all.

- They KEEP MOVING THEIR DAMN ARCHERS EVERYWHERE INSTEAD OF JUST LETTING THEM SHOOT.
- Infantry literally sit in the middle of the field and get shot at the entire game
- Cavalry sit around at the flanks of the enemy and do nothing

Conveniently the enemy AI is super competent. They do everything sensibly. - Even against factions of the same culture!
Ive noticed that the defending AI is alot more competent than the attacking AI.

It's got to the point that I am forced to auto-resolve to win. This is extremely, extremely sad, because Bannerlords only redeeming fun at the moment is not fun now.

I dont have any mods that affect battle AI either.

I am playing Northern Empire. Does that have any relevance?

 

[Apocal]

I am playing Northern Empire. Does that have any relevance?

They have a terrible troop mix and that probably doesn't help.

 

[Arkyll]

They have a terrible troop mix and that probably doesn't help.

Is that Northern Empire in particular or just generally a remark about the Empire?

Fighting the Khuzaits is a huge pain.
Above having that 10% speed boost (GOD KNOWS WHY THEY STILL HAVE THAT!)

Horse archers even further confuse the already confused archers.

 

[Apocal]

Is that Northern Empire in particular or just generally a remark about the Empire?

The Empire in general.

 

[ImperialDane]

Yup, Empire forces tend to have fairly bad force compositions, which tends to get the AI to.. do less than great things. My best advice is basically not to play with allied Empire armies as much as possible unless you command them. Hit smaller lords, raid far away farms and support the AI and let it simulate it's way through battles at which point it does alright.

But your goal should be to build enough influence and getting friendly enough to lower influence costs to build your own imperial armies.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

Let the AI fight it's battles without you so it can auto calc. Build your own forces up, ranged units are good, infantry and cavalry are mostly for defense. You should be able to take down lords x2 you size with a good party, much more with some parties.

 

[Gandamula]

Never enter in a AI battle, let they fight each other, look the numbers lowering, and enter in the end stage,your faction will almost parish but your enemies will be weak to. I use to do it, and with a single army I use to defeat 6 or more clans armies. Some times I wait for my faction be completely defected and then I fight with a very weak enemy. Besides the normal loot I use to bring my faction prisioneiers troops to my party.

 

[Arkyll]

But your goal should be to build enough influence and getting friendly enough to lower influence costs to build your own imperial armies.

This is problematic considering that early on the influence system relies on AI's choice of policies.

 

[AlexTheCat]

This is problematic considering that early on the influence system relies on AI's choice of policies.

As a new part of a faction, goal #1 should be gaining influence. As an established member their goal would be to keep you down.

 

[Zorion_no]

is it necroing by commenting that something isnt right with the Northern Empire faction though. 1.510 Beta

Imo its its location to the other Empires, it touches borders with too many, Southern, Western, Sturgia, Khuzait + Battania.
Given that typically Khuzait while nerfed still seems to best NE early on, NE is weak -> may get peace, but as soon as that happends Western or Southern declare war on them, both even take a few more pieces of land.

This happends now repeatedly each time(Note I dont play NE, but I'm inclined to try to do so, just to even out the field abit for them).
Kind of like the scientific method, where you can repeat the experiment each time and get the same result(ok, so sometimes its not entirely true, and its the Southern Emprie that gets rolled by the others).

I dont think its directly related to troops tbh, its no problem with them when I use those kinds of troops vs any of the other factions.
What I think is the flaw is how its lands are to "stretched" and cut of abit odd aswell(Example Saneopa you have to travel quite the way around those mountains instead of through that unpassable thin gap that touches the riverline).

And that they face Khuzait at start, Khuzait seems much more balanced now, but its the problem of still they outpaceing the other factions due to the composition of troops(in general)(same for Aserai aswell, oddly enough Vlandia isnt that fast?).

Since those first critical moment of the war the Khuzait seems to generally get Epinosa Castle + Amprela, sometimes also Jogrus Castle, then flip back and forth abit, and peace.

I think part of the problem is that the NE form their armies over at Epicrotea, when its Amprela which is under threat, and thus travelling for 2-3 days for the army to arrive, by that time Khuzait have taken the city.

Just my 5cent why NE seems to typically get eaten alive in most plays.

 

[ImperialDane]

NE does indeed struggle quite a bit due to it's geography which makes it difficult to defend things easily on the far sides. Plus it has a fair share of enemies too. That said in the last few playthroughs i find they do perform a bit better than the Southern Empire which i find gets into trouble a lot with the Aserai.

 

[KingEroc1st]

i don't know what you are on about good vs bad ai tactics. i've only seen 2 types of ai tactic. attack or defend.

the attackers would advance in a line and once the archers get in range they'll post up to shoot and the infantry will start to charge once close enough. the horse archer always skirmishes regardless. and the cavalry will try to hit your flanks

the defender just sits there. i've seen empire and khuzait do circle formation, but others usually just shield wall. they'll have their cavs on the flanks and the horse archers skirmish

of course it gets slightly more complex when there are reinforcements and the battle size is much smaller than the combined armies. sometimes the advancing army would retreat for a little and form up again.but largely it's the same.

the determining factor in who attacks and who defends is usually army power level. but sometimes you'd face reckless opponents that charge against overwhelming odds.

it becomes slightly annoying when you join a lord in battle, and your combined force is slightly stronger than the opponent, so he charges with everything, even though most of the combat power comes from your party... they essentially suicide themselves against the enemy army... but i've learned to utilize this opening to create my formation and kill as many enemy as possible while setting up a killing field where my party will grind down the enemy till there's nothing left. get the RTS mod it helps a great deal.

 

[Apocal]

I dont think its directly related to troops tbh, its no problem with them when I use those kinds of troops vs any of the other factions.

It is absolutely the differences in troops. Cav-based armies move faster on the map.

 

[Arkyll]

Northern Empire is the weakest Empire faction I would say. The AI also loves fighting over Epicrotea for some reason, so thats a pretty instant -1 city for them out the gate.