Bug with the Indians?

Is it just me or do the indians never actually make use of the "Armed Mounted Brave" unit? It occurred to me that I hadn't ever seen one, so I tried showering a local tribe with guns and horses during a brief digression from my last game (revolutionary 1.09b) - probably 500+ horses and 500+ guns all total. I saw no mounted units, although I did see some armed ones in the villages. So, I attacked to see what would happen. This prompted the indians to field some "Mounted Brave" units, but I still didn't see any "Armed Mounted Braves".

Do they actually exist or is it just a myth?

Armed braves defend their villages.

If they have both horses and muskets they turn them to armed mounted braves to attack.

That's my point though. I can get the indians to generate an "armed brave" by giving them guns, and if I provoke them, they will equip some "mounted braves", but I have never, in any game I've played, seen an "armed mounted brave" (unless I deposit one on the map through worldbuilder). Seems like this is a bug with the AI. Given that the indians are such pushovers generally, it would help if they could at least field the units they have access to. "Armed Mounted Braves" are comparable to the best units the colonies can field and the indians not using them, even when they have the necessary equipment, makes me think there's a bug somewhere.

I see what you mean. Good point!

The reason is both have: <iCombatChange>3</iCombatChange>

In addition, the armed brave receives defensive bonuses, and the horseman doesn't! Hence, naturaly the AI will favour the one with defensive bonuses.

Armed mounted braves should have, just like dragoons do: <iCombatChange>4</iCombatChange>

Have no idea what that means but I'm glad you do

It means the computer isn't stupid enough to use a unit that has no significant advantages over another. Why should they use horses, when they can have something just as strong without horses.

Sure, on defense. But occassionally I would like to be able to use the injuns in proxy wars and right now they don't seem to have the knowhow to do it because they won't build their best offensive unit. Of course, even if they build them, they would have to know -how- to use them, which may be another issue entirely.

But that "best" offensive unit isn't really any better than the armed brave. Sure it has the extra movement point, but is that movement point worth 100 horses, also considering that you lose defensive bonuses? The AI clearly doesn't think so.

PiMan said:

But that "best" offensive unit isn't really any better than the armed brave. Sure it has the extra movement point, but is that movement point worth 100 horses, also considering that you lose defensive bonuses? The AI clearly doesn't think so.

Click to expand...

I think G's point is that, given the fact the unit exists in the game, it should have characteristics that make it a viable choice for the AI to use.

The question remains whether the unit never appears because the AI judges it isn't worth it (in which case raising its combat value might solve the problem) or whether the unit never appears simply because the AI doesn't know how to make it appear.

In either case, it probably wouldn't hurt game balance at all to make the native top-end fighting unit a bit beefier. They won't have any (or many) in the early game due to lack of horses, and their having more (or at least a few) in the later game might help make them more credible threats.

Cheers, --- Wheldrake

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