AI Beast Spam

[Khârn]

So I picked this game up over Christmas and I have to say that I'm enjoying it. I've mainly been playing skirmish and I've come across this problem.
If I play against a Medium AI, they just sit in their dungeon dribbling and half completed rooms and a couple of monsters. If I play against Difficult AI the jump is huge.
The main issue I have is with beast spam. Dozens and dozens of level 1 and 2 beasts simply overwhelm my elite highly trained units. They zerg me to death and there's little I can do to defend. I build trap rooms to try and thin out their numbers, but the just mine around them (seriously, it's annoying how easy it is to mine through fortified walls. What's the point in even having them if the enemy can mine through them in 30 seconds?)

I'm assuming you guys have worked out how to beat the zerg.

[Biervampir [AUT]]

There are different AI personalities, some train beasts, some don't.
Beasts don't get KO'd, they just die, so killing beasts, recover, killing beasts, will give you a bigger advantage over time.

Beast Den is a must build, if you don't build it, you make a huge mistake.
Also make sure to increase it over time, so that your beasts keep on spawning.

Yes, there is quite a big jump from Medium to Hard and as we (QA-Volunteers) worked on the AI we critizided it.

Defenses alone won't kill an army. You either need to Rampart them and build a garrison to kill an army with defenses. Otherwise use them as support.

Reenforced walls are very hard to mine down. I think the AI uses Underminers to breach. And you should repair the walls, so its even harder to breach.

[Khârn]

Thanks for the advice. I will give this a go.

[Biervampir [AUT]]

Originally posted by Khârn:

Thanks for the advice. I will give this a go.

NP
I also made some video guides, if you want to dive more into the RTS element of WFTO.

If you have any further question, do not hesitate to ask.

[Green.Sliche]

You should point out which kind of intelligent units you do attract.

It's quite easy to build an army of chunders and cultists, who together can deal with swarm of beast quite well. If you try to build an army using more intelligent units, then I'm afraid that's the source of your problem. The more intelligent units are in your spawn list ( you can check this by clicking on the center of your portal ) the harder it will be for you to hoard an army. If you don't want to get beasts of your own, an army of chunders, cultists and gnarlings or maybe ogres could do the job quite well. Also zapping beasts to death with lighting helps since beasts die without going into K.O while intelligent units can still be recovered.

[Korvek]

Honestly, you should not consider the medium AI to be a standard player/AI. The medium AI was nerfed hard and is now, as you pointed out, very weak. Hard, on the other hand, is better than the average player because it begins to use some of our better build order rules.

Some things to know:
1 - Do Not build 'trap rooms'. Defences in WFTO need to be placed tactically and reactively. This means that you place them mid battle. You do not pre-place them to hold a point. Ember demons currently make pre-placed defences obsolete. It is also just a bad idea generally because the AI Should Always use an alternative route.
2 - Your unit cap is determined by your room size (beast den) and prop number (intelligent beasts). Always build bigger rooms but do not build rooms bigger than you currently need because that just wastes gold.
3 - Do not waste time. Every second counts. Remember that the AI can micromanage better than the player. The player's advantage is never found in time; it is found in planning. Any training/micromanage you do, the AI can often do better. Start attracting units straight away. Do not make the mistake of building early slaughterpens/lairs/taverns.
4 - As Biervampir said, the AIs have different personalities which means different strategies. Crythor and I agree generally that the weakest ones are undertaker and guardian (because undertaker tries to use necromancers, which are weak, whilst the guardian pre-places defences, which is very bad).
5 - Watch the master AI battle. I even recorded some videos of this happening. They use the very same tactics we would use after all lol.
6 - If you want a safe strategy, rush ember demons. To rush ember demons, get four cultists.
7 - Contrary to what Slich suggested, I would advise against an army of chunders and cultists. Chunders were nerfed a lot and are weaker than gnarlings now (and gnarlings are bad for what they do). Instead, build up a beast army, train your beasts manually etc.

[Crythor]

Originally posted by Korvek:

Honestly, you should not consider the medium AI to be a standard player/AI. The medium AI was nerfed hard and is now, as you pointed out, very weak. Hard, on the other hand, is better than the average player because it begins to use some of our better build order rules.

Some things to know:
1 - Do Not build 'trap rooms'. Defences in WFTO need to be placed tactically and reactively. This means that you place them mid battle. You do not pre-place them to hold a point. Ember demons currently make pre-placed defences obsolete. It is also just a bad idea generally because the AI Should Always use an alternative route.
2 - Your unit cap is determined by your room size (beast den) and prop number (intelligent beasts). Always build bigger rooms but do not build rooms bigger than you currently need because that just wastes gold.
3 - Do not waste time. Every second counts. Remember that the AI can micromanage better than the player. The player's advantage is never found in time; it is found in planning. Any training/micromanage you do, the AI can often do better. Start attracting units straight away. Do not make the mistake of building early slaughterpens/lairs/taverns.
4 - As Biervampir said, the AIs have different personalities which means different strategies. Crythor and I agree generally that the weakest ones are undertaker and guardian (because undertaker tries to use necromancers, which are weak, whilst the guardian pre-places defences, which is very bad).
5 - Watch the master AI battle. I even recorded some videos of this happening. They use the very same tactics we would use after all lol.
6 - If you want a safe strategy, rush ember demons. To rush ember demons, get four cultists.
7 - Contrary to what Slich suggested, I would advise against an army of chunders and cultists. Chunders were nerfed a lot and are weaker than gnarlings now (and gnarlings are bad for what they do). Instead, build up a beast army, train your beasts manually etc.

Yup i agree with all of this.