AI use of armies

[grumjug]

I know that the AI is capable of using armies effectively (even if the units they combine are sometimes less than ideal), but most of the time they seem to add one unit and leave the army in a town.

I remember a C3C game where I watched the Inca use 3 4-unit knight armies to completely over-run the Hittites - why is this the exception? Is there some set of conditions where the AI will use their armies instead of wasting them?

 

[Ataxerxes]

I know that the AI is capable of using armies effectively (even if the units they combine are sometimes less than ideal), but most of the time they seem to add one unit and leave the army in a town.

I remember a C3C game where I watched the Inca use 3 4-unit knight armies to completely over-run the Hittites - why is this the exception? Is there some set of conditions where the AI will use their armies instead of wasting them?

It's very surprising that the AI Inca used an army effectively. What you describe in the first paragraph is the norm. I'm not aware of why the AI uses it's army so poorly 99.5% of the time. I just know I've never seen the AI use it well, even in the scenarios.

 

[vmxa]

I would have to see that to believe it. I have never seen C3C make an army, let alone fill it. You sure this was not a scenario? They use them in scenarios, because they are there at the start or they have a building that makes them.

I do not even recall seeing anyone post having one in an epic game. You sure it was not C3 or PTW? Even in scenarios you see post where they never added a unit to the army, because the units do not match the speed of the army and they do not grasp the +1. That was added in C3C and not thought of for the AI.

 

[keldr]

I have no idea why the AI usually uses armies so poorly. I have never seen an army used properly in an epic game, but I have seen it several times in the Rise of Rome scenario. In a few games where I (as the romans) just played defensively towards the Carthaginians, while destroying the Celts and the Goths. In these circumstances I have several examples of Carthage landing an army with 3 War Elephants on Sicily. Sometimes by itself and sometimes as a part of a larger invasion force. Although they didn't capture the city, at least I think it's a rare example of the AI making an actual effort. This was on emperor level by the way.

 

[grumjug]

I would have to see that to believe it. I have never seen C3C make an army, let alone fill it. You sure this was not a scenario? They use them in scenarios, because they are there at the start or they have a building that makes them.

I do not even recall seeing anyone post having one in an epic game. You sure it was not C3 or PTW? Even in scenarios you see post where they never added a unit to the army, because the units do not match the speed of the army and they do not grasp the +1. That was added in C3C and not thought of for the AI.

I am totally sure it was a normal game of C3C - standard size map, continents, emporer level. The Inca were the strongest civ in the game, and they had at least 3 armies and the pentagon. They had mixed armies of knights and cavs, and one had a crusader in it.

I was too afraid to land on their continent after I saw what they did to the Hittites - they really blitzed them, taking multiple cities in a turn. Too bad I didn't take any screenshots.

 

[vmxa]

I would have like to seen the save, never seen an AWDG or Sid conquest show up with one army. I have seen them make leaders and move them, but them rushed something every time.

 

[grumjug]

I looked and the only save I have from the game is 1605, the turn after I won - by this time I had killed the knight armies with bombers, and the only army Pachacuti has left is, predictably, loaded with one cav and parked in a city. You can see the Pentagon in Cuzco, and I think he has the Military Academy too.

 

[Lanzelot]

In GOTM 71 (Deity, PTW) I saw the Ottomans using Sipahi-Armies quite effectively...
Is there any difference between Vanilla/PTW and C3C with regards to Army-handling?

Lanzelot

 

[Optional]

Is there any difference between Vanilla/PTW and C3C with regards to Army-handling?

The difference is that in Conquests armies got an extra movement point, and this is a problem for the AI. Apparantly the AI tries to put units of the same speed in an army, but gets fooled by the extra speed of the army itself in Conquests. Some players say they see AI armies in a city with just one unit in them, forever waiting for more units with the required speed. Armies were more common in Vanilla/PTW.
I've never seen an AI army in any of my games, it seems only some players get them and others never, why I don't know.

 

[vmxa]

Yeah I saw they had a lone army. It must be even rarer than the AI using bombardment attacking town (n on areial). I have seen that a handful of times in a ton of games at every level.

That is the way I have heard armies, they make one and still a cav/rider and never can figure out that there are no 4 move units, so it sits.

I don't recall amries being plentiful in C3 or PTW, but I did run into some, maybe 6 or 7 in all those games. More common than the spear beats tank, which I only saw once in C3.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

I don't recall amries being plentiful in C3 or PTW, but I did run into some, maybe 6 or 7 in all those games. More common than the spear beats tank, which I only saw once in C3.

I depends heavily on what level you play, an on how much AI-AI fighting is going on. I think I had some deity level games in C3 where I saw three or even more AI armies.

 

[Sparthage]

The only times I've ever seen the AI use an arrmy effectively were in the Conquests that come with the game. Hannibal lands a army with a couple war elephants and a numidian merc on Sicily. Bummer that I had a Legionary II army as the island gaurd (extra units that I use to defend against invasions).

 

[vmxa]

I depends heavily on what level you play, an on how much AI-AI fighting is going on. I think I had some deity level games in C3 where I saw three or even more AI armies.

I can only say I rarely saw them, before and never see them now at any level or style. They may have them and they get bombed, before I find them, I don't know. I tend to not have Espionage.

 

[Bartleby]

I depends heavily on what level you play, an on how much AI-AI fighting is going on. I think I had some deity level games in C3 where I saw three or even more AI armies.

I recently played a PTW game on Warlord where I didn't start conquering the world until the Modern Ages, and I saw at least five AI Armies in that.

 

[del62]

I have rarely seen AI Armies, I cant remember ever seing one in C3C but have in Vanilla and Test of Time (stangely in TOT with only a single unit)