Walk and stop, walk and stop. Circle the enemy!

[IceShade]

I just *have* to make a new topic about it, because it is just so retarded. I can even say the sieges are a true work of art compared to this.

First off: Battlesize 400, Nords.

I'll explain. Sometimes.. no, wait, quite often, both armies (AI ONLY, this is NOT your own army) will form a line and face each other. Then, both armies take 10 steps forward. Then they stop. But they don't just advance forward... no no no. They advance slightly forward and the rest of those 10 steps go either right, or left. Obviously, if one army strays off the path, the other army must compensate! After all, they must face each other. So, during the battle, they will advance very very slowly and circle around the map.

This not only takes ages, but the archers will be able to unload all their little arrows at the enemy without them doing anything. It's even worse when you consider that it's a Rhodok army vs a Nord army. The Rhodoks crossbowmen (50% of the army) will rip apart the Nords. And they'll just stand there. Move 10 paces. Stand there. Move 10 paces. The circling is so bad, it's not uncommon for one army to reach the edge of the battlefield and crush the line formation into one giant blob. I seriously don't understand why they behave like this. It would even be better to just mindlessly CHAERG!!1 and hope for the best.

And then, finally, after 5 whole minutes and 50 casualties later.. they reach the enemy. Then they charge. And they all die within 10 seconds.

Yay.

"But IceShade, why don't you just charge the enemy yourself?"
Because I can't take on 200 defending enemies on my own! My whole point of joining the battle was to fight alongside the allied AI and help each other out. Crush the enemy with minimal losses, take the lords captive, put them in the dungeon and ransom them for cash! Not sit there on the battlefield, waiting for my allies to drop dead from either boredom or a bolt to the face!

I've retried the battle 5 times, and each time they did exactly the same. I even waited for others to join the battle, hoping it might change things. It didn't.

I hope I made the situation clear. This just happens way too often. Is there anything I can do about it? A magic tweak from TheMageLord? A little script? Nothing that will require to start a new game, I hope.

 

[Tiberius]

Make them follow you.

 

[zemegauser]

I usually just charge... then attract the Rhodoks with my fast horse while my Nords get 'em in the  back.

 

[IceShade]

Slight edit. I'm talking about AI armies here, NOT your own.

I'm not the Marshall and haven't had the chance to be one yet, and I really don't want control over their armies 24/7. I'd like to be able to attack from two sides, and all. But anyway.
Obviously, my own AI doesn't do silly things like these.

 

[macethump]

Happened to me with Khergits from Lord Hugu's party.  They just hung back and approached very slowly while my own troops charged with me.  I couldn't get Hugu's lily-livers to follow me and use their lances.

 

[Sanzo84]

Yeah, this pisses me off and it happens too often. You're in a battle with allied lords against a group of enemy lords. Everyone that isn't controlled by you does this forward-stop-forward-stop maneuver which is tedious. I usually circle the enemy with my cavalry following me and infantry and archers moving along with the rest of the allied troop with the help of the battle map. Get attention of the enemy, run down a few of them especially in the rear ranks, retreat and repeat until your allies and enemy forces meet and smack each other silly. It was fun the first thirty times but seriously, the AI needs to be reworked in some parts.

 

[Headshot!]

Haha.  Yeah i've seen this happen a few times with the Khergits, they've shimmied round to match my rank of infantry, and have sort of collided with the barrier, so it kind of looks like a huge 'L' shaped mass of men advancing (agonisingly slowly of course), and then some of mounted men bizarrely just face off towards the barrier and just either dismount or stand their unable to move.  Quite ridiculous really.

I haven't seen it happen with anyone else though.  it must be just a condition of standing your ground, or being close to the back of the battlefield. meh.

 

[golin]

i have seen this happen a few times but i dont mind it to much because it just makes it so easy to kill em all with calvery and archers. but then again i have never seen my alies do it so never seen the bad side of this AI problem

 

[noosers]

Another reason to work hard on your relations with your fellow lords, your kingdom and monarch and become Marshall of your Empire as fast as possible Or try to lure the enemy towards your battleline with your cavalry - or at least distract them from your allies and bring their battle into disarray. Once they are close enough the enemy will charge. And once they charge they will either split up to follow you and your mounted companions or go after your allies. Either way, their force is split up and ready for the chop.

Or you might check out the tweak thread and start following the editing advice given there, enabled to command any troop on the battlefield regardless your relation with their Lord.

Nonetheless I´ve seen  that occurance a couple of times myself, endured, encountered and abused it, especially against those dreaded Khergits. I suppose catching them on the battlefield border is just another form of taking advantage of your enviroment.... and pretty bloody purifying vengeance.

 

[Jericho]

There has been a noticeable boost in the AI’s strategic capabilities with the final release
but sadly the AI’s tactical capabilities are still substandard. The AI had been drastically
improved for single combat (1vs1, 2vs1, 3vs1, etc.) but fighting as one cohesive unit it
cannot do. ~ IF it ever does; hopefully either in future patches, MODs or even MB2; than I think
we will all be missing the good old days of being able to easily solo a couple dozen sea raiders. 

 

[Zas]

Same thing has happened to me very often now that I'm playing Nords. So I just sit back, smoke a cig and wait for the dumb AIs to be done with their silliness so I can charge them with minimal casualties of my party. Of course the lords armies get slaughtered since we are fighting Rhodocks as well.
And with Khergit the AI sometimes cheats. They just pull their forces to the edge of the map and wait. I never do that because it feels very cheap.


I absolutely love this game and all but it could definitely use a mod that improves AI.

 

[fisheye]

I think it's an artifact of the super-huge battlesizer (the giant line keeps waiting for the slowest guy, who is pretty damn slow in a group of 200).

I play with battlesize between 30-50 and they never really pause for long.

 

[Lord Bryggan]

Yeah, it must be the battlesizer.  I, unfortunately can only play at 80, and while they do take a long time, it's not stupidly so.  It seems everytime they advance they have to wait until their line is in perfect order before they advance again.  And yeah, they don't advance a direct ten paces.  The line sorta falls apart, and the fastest guys get to the centre of the new line first, leaving the slowest ones wandering around trying to find an open spot in the ranks, which, of course, is at the extreme ends.

All I can say is, 'thank god for the cavalry', as I can harrass one end of the line, or the rear, while I wait.  Sometimes I can get them into a charge, and I lead them to my allies, though sometimes they actually go back into their line.  Perhaps (if you are a very insignificant part of the army) you should use auto calc until the numbers are a little more 'manoever friendly'.

 

[Vulkan]

I play with battlesizer 222 and have never had this problem.

Sometimes the enemy AI will do it, especially if their khergits, but my allies have always advanced towards them normally and charged (big mistake unfortunately, but meh they're expendable), or held position.

Either way, my party at least usually comes out on top. For the Nords!

 

[Warlord11030]

I usually just let the allies die and take as many enemies as they can with them.

Then just send in my troops to clean up.



Don't know what your even talking about if your men get slaughtered so easily.

Shouldn't be fighting things that strong..