Your biggest demo battle

Saber Cherry · #1 October 31st, 2003, 07:19 PM

As Machaka, with all nations on Difficult, I got swarmed by both Jotunheim and Ctis. Ctis kept fielding armies of 150+ units, perhaps 50/50/50 undead, militia/LI, elite lizards/runners. This was by turn 15.

Jotun came at me with 80+ armies, half Jotuns and half wolf riders. In terms of expense and power, therefore, it was similar to a human army of 240 MI.

Oh, and live ermor was attacking with big armies as well. I couldn't understand why my massed priests weren't banishing them=) Eventually I figured that out.

I did manage to whip Abyssia, though - they only had a little 40-unit (10 Abyssian, 30 Humanbred) roving army.

My experience - the AI fields large, effective armies. But it is overly reliant on resource-cheap units. Maybe the AI gets too much gold for its level of resources? In that case, it should build more castles, not more light units.

P.S. I should also mention that the AI tactical deployment is far better than in Dom I. No more "1000 units stuck in a big square".

[ October 31, 2003, 17:22: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

HJ · #2 October 31st, 2003, 07:53 PM

I didn't manage to play the battle because of the turn limitation, but AI Mictlan showed up with 280 men on my border on the Last turn. I was playing Ulm, 5 normal AIs, indies at 5, Desert eyey map. From what I've seen, Mictlan armies are not of the highest quality, but the report said that the army also consisted of eagle and jaguar warriors (the latter I haven't encountered so far, but they sound elite), so it wasn't just the huge numbers of rabble. But I doubt they will pose much of a problem to my flaming weapons berserking black templars once I get the full game.

The biggest battle I actually fought was earlier in that same game against Tien Chi (around turn 35 or so). They had around 100 units, some 30 imperial bowmen and bowmen, 20 horsemen and heavy cavalry, and the rest was a mixed bag, some footmen, some imperial footmen, etc.. Unfortunatelly for them, I had a concentration of cca 40 templars again...

MStavros · #3 October 31st, 2003, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by HJ:
I didn't manage to play the battle because of the turn limitation, but AI Mictlan showed up with 280 men on my border on the Last turn. I was playing Ulm, 5 normal AIs, indies at 5, Desert eyey map. From what I've seen, Mictlan armies are not of the highest quality, but the report said that the army also consisted of eagle and jaguar warriors (the latter I haven't encountered so far, but they sound elite), so it wasn't just the huge numbers of rabble. But I doubt they will pose much of a problem to my flaming weapons berserking black templars once I get the full game.

The biggest battle I actually fought was earlier in that same game against Tien Chi (around turn 35 or so). They had around 100 units, some 30 imperial bowmen and bowmen, 20 horsemen and heavy cavalry, and the rest was a mixed bag, some footmen, some imperial footmen, etc.. Unfortunatelly for them, I had a concentration of cca 40 templars again...

Good example, that why the strategic AI is poor. Lot of cheap units - no match for a human army.

SnallTrippin · #4 November 4th, 2003, 05:41 AM

Over 240 units, I was just playing a long game, b4 i knew about demo time limit cause I died alot and was playing around b4...around turn 38. Mostly Souless/longdead type stuff...I think it was Emur or whatever but I can't remember.

EDIT- HAs anyone seen crap armies under higher AI conditions? Like imposs or whatever

[ November 04, 2003, 03:49: Message edited by: SnallTrippin ]

Pocus · #5 November 4th, 2003, 12:16 PM

On impossible, Ulm fielded 680 units against Mictlan. I saw the battle with astral window, and their army was made of woodmen and milicias, with a small group of national Ulmish units.

Aristoteles · #6 November 4th, 2003, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pocus:
On impossible, Ulm fielded 680 units against Mictlan. I saw the battle with astral window, and their army was made of woodmen and milicias, with a small group of national Ulmish units.

Uhhhhhhhh....We really need that AI upgrade.

NTJedi · #7 November 4th, 2003, 01:03 PM

One of the computer opponents mustered together 310 undead troops. It could have won my combined total of 200 troops... but for whatever reason it split the army and he only sent 125 at my empire. After stealing two territories he made a quick left turn at some other empire.

*** I think we would see better challenges if the developers gave the computer opponents different personalities. ***
Destroyer(Pillages lands which have been owned by opponents for long periods of time), Architect(focuses on improving lands), Arch-Mage(focuses on magic), Barbarian(mainly uses brute force), Insanity(unpredictable actions), etc... and so on.
Seems to be highly suggested for the current poll.