[1.11.01] AI abandons territory and roads. City has weakest forces chosen as defenders

[phyroks]

V1.11.01 #127 No air units, maxed out all for AI to think, highest difficulty.
btw my last game was before 06 AI tweaks.

I know AI has been the worst part of this game for a while, and it often did abandon territory without fight, now the AI still does not seem to hold important parts of territory and most importantly it does not attack when it has clear superiority.

I managed to creep next to a town in the east with starting soldiers, while enemies had heavy combat armor on the troops, when they attacked I took lot of casualties, but they never did more than probing attacks. They often shifted their positions letting the borders to move toward their city (Ramiro) and 10 or so turns later I was next to their city while only defending and taking empty spaces. AND big relief yes as it never abandoned the city itself!!! (like often did happen in older versions) BUT it only defended it with militia while having really well armed troops next to it, I was able to slowly surround and take it as it kept moving away from some spots. After that it tried to take back the city but failed, run low on supply (most likely) and retreated, now I have managed to catch up to them in tech and their attacks no longer causes large casualties but same thing repeats, the troops keep retreating and giving easy ground without fight, im next to a new city (ezanor). Once again they got good troops next to the city and only militia inside it.

Honestly I dont expect the AI to be genius on tactics, but playing on hardest, could you set the AI be more aggressive when it has superiority and even without superiority less likely to move away from the borders if its supply is fine? And tweak the city/road defense AI. Cities near border should have more than militia in it.

Its overall much better than it used to be but clearly still needs few things improved and lets not talk about AIR ai
https://tdrive.kapsi.fi/mcity.rar save
Edit : Did leave the city alone and see what would happen if I were to stand next to it, and behold after end turn it brings more militia to defend the city, just 1 infantry formation would be better than those 3 militia, 5 turns later there is finaly more than militia in the city!... but they were there to attack and after the attack failed they withdraw, left only militia to defend the city and made sure none of the areas next to the city were defended and one could just walk in and surround it...

[Vic]

Thanks for the savefile. This is always appreciated.
Will see if i can nudge it a bit!
However keep in mind that at the time of your savegame the enemy is just lacking troops in general in that sector.

best wishes,
Vic

[phyroks]

I know, but if I recall the 2 situations right, it had units right next to the city and the ones standing next to it would have made taking the city nearly impossible. The 2 cities where it gave up the whole area to me by having militia inside but surrounding it with good troops, city was weakest point in the defense lines and naturally taking it also collapses the supply to surrounding troops.

The game so far still shows that AI has no idea how good place mountains and some other terrains are for defending and simply moves for some reason off the mountain next to a plains, and you can just take the mountains without a fight. If you dont walk into the mountain the AI might next turn decide to occupy it once again.

Also the AI economy seems bit bonkers, I have not seen a city besides a capital with any nice buildings, why the AI does not upgrade HQ or build more BP assets? It has a tech lead at start of the game but it loses it and seems to bog down.

Anyways, economy, terrains/cities and borders could still use bit more AI love.

[Don_Kiyote]

I have not seen a city besides a capital with any nice buildings

Ive noticed that too.

It must be fiendishly hard to program an effective AI. When I, as a human, play, I identify strong points or key points and try to hold those. These points describe a shape: a geometric thing which is strong because of how its points are arranged. If that makes sense, and doesnt sound too much like Clauswitz...

Anyways, the AI miss these key points and their utility to its forces, in its processing, sometimes. As you say, it can sometimes moves away from a key point too early, when just leaving one small unit behind would have made a difference.

Perhaps there was good reason. They will be harder to cut off and surround this way.

There have been some fine moments for the AI in my games recently. It has become very good at finding the player's weak spot and hitting it. There have been a few times it has genuinely beaten me. The lesson was clear, after the fifth time: don't overextend, or you will be punished.

Congratulations, AI! You are no longer a 'creep'.

[phyroks]

Yeah the AI has improved a lot from my previous game but it still fails on some important categories. I did not want to enable air forces as at least earlier the AI only crippled itself with AA units and never actually did anything else with air techs, there were some mentions of it in the patches but even just with ground units there is still some work that could be done (the ai does not need to be brilliant, but it still has big issues in the terrain/eco area). Maybe once ground AI works I'm ready to take a look at the air AI fumbling.

[Vic]

Latest patch v1.11.02 I did some work to improve those abandonment issues.