Lets discuss AI (and how to beat it!)

[emcdunna]

The AI in this game is good. As I've said before, its probably the best I've ever seen in a strategy battle game.

What I wanna talk about is how to employ tactics to beat the AI, which in my experience, is a very complex subject (unlike most strategy battle games which have such massive flaws in the AI that the best tactics are super simple... like Empire/Napoleon Total War).

To start out, I have noticed that it seems like the AI wants to charge you if it sees an exposed flank, even one quite a distance away. This could be used to draw units out of defensive positions and into a killing field.

Also, it seems like in the skirmish battles (where you are very limited on # of units) that if you dont take tons of infantry (and actually take some skirmishers and cav), then the AI is far more likely to want to rush out of a good defensive position to attack you. You can end up being outnumbered 2:1, with a territorial disadvantage, yet the AI knows this and gets aggressive. As long as you can repel the assaults, you can farm kills and eventually be strong enough to counter attack.

I stumbled across that when I was watching someone else play. He only got to bring like 12 units to a skirmish when he had to attack a position, and brought only 6 line infantry. The rest were 3 cannons, 2 small skirmisher units with snipers, and a smaller skirmish cav unit.

I expected him to fail to break through the enemy line (which had probably 9 - 10 infantry units with more veterency, better cover, and more men per unit as well), but instead, the AI rushed out of cover into a river to assault him. He farmed their kills, but the assaults kept coming till the two sides were closer to equal in strength. Then he flanked and took the objective.

For me, my instict would have been that I needed most of my 12 units to be bulky infantry so I had the numbers to assault a position, but this AI is actually interesting enough that there are more ways to engage it than that.

I've also noticed that the AI doesnt seem to respond well to large scale flanking manueveres (like if you move your entire army to one flank and attack), as long as you leave 1 - 2 distraction units in the front. This is a somewhat obvious tactic for many of us, but its worth mentioning that it does seem to work very well (like for the CSA at gaines mill)

What other larger AI behaviors do you guys notice?

[ayalan]

I've noticed sometimes that the AI also likes to use large flanking manuevers. There's been a few battles where I'd have to defend 3 or so points and the enemy really only attacks one of those points with almost all their forces.

[emcdunna]

Interesting.

[Sir Daubbles]

On CH, when defending as the CSA, when I played through, the Union essentially threw everything at the middle of my line, and eventually broke it.

I saved, and the second time around, I reinforced the middle of my line with more units. I held the line, but the Union AI attacked positions along my line I had abandoned.

The third time around, I left skirms to man the fixed defensive positions, and took the rest of my infantry to reinforce my line. The Union AI did attack, but it was nothing in comparison to what they brought when I had no units there.

Moral of the story is, if you want to suck the AI into attacking you, leave a gap in your line and the AI will try to push into it. Do it right, and it makes for some killer cross-fire.

[Caramirdan]

Detach skirmishers to increase LoS, engage with brigade, flank with skirmishers, rout, reattach skirmishers. This is pretty much my basic tactic to defeat the AI.

If the AI could detach skirmishers, I think I'd lose frequently. As it's normally "given" some skirmishers, they are problematic, but the AI doesn't use them the same way I as a player can apparently.

[emcdunna]

Being able to detach skirmishers is a very interesting design choice. It seriously saves my bacon quite often, as you just need more units sometimes.

Realistically, I think being able to detach a "regiment" from a brigade might be prett helpful as well. Basically make a tiny line inf unit from 1/3rd of the main one.

Interesting report about cold harbor. Leave a hole in the line to attract an assault... very interesting. Also I think the ai wants to attack YOU more than go for objectives, so distraction forces do seem to work quite well.

Some battles basically require u to lead the enemy away for you to sneak in and cap the point

[Didz]

I've found skirmishers to be a godsend in this game both in attakc and defence.

In attack they force the AI to waste time deploying to deal with them, and providing you react fast enough when you hear that it is about to assault them then you can literally waste time making them fight for every wood, house and cornfield.

In defence, the give you extended LOS for your artillery and break up and confuse their attack columns. I've even had occassions where an assault in a skirmish outpost lured a couple of enemy brigades into a killing ground established by their parent brigades.

Cavalry are another arm that is often misused by the AI, but can be really useful if handled well by the player. They can act as surrogate skirmishers if necessary, but aren't best suited to the task because they suffer penalties for moving through cover, and out in the open they become big targets for enemy volleys. However, the AI will waste time deploying to deal with them, and so they can be used as a distraction.

The AI tends to use cavalry as a seperate branch which means it's value is limted to taking out your skirmishers and artillery if your stupid enough to leave them exposed. However, if combined with a couple of infantry brigades cavalry can be a decisive force both in attack and defence.

Just use the infantry to make or meet the initial assault and then charge your cavalry into the melee once the bayonets have crossed and they will almost always tip the balance in your favour.

At both Gaines Mills and Malvern Hill my cavalry division deployed behind my defences broke and routed multiple CSA assault columns inflicitng massive casualties.

Just remember not to let them get over-excited and chase the routers into fresh enemy units. The best way I've found is to wait until the right moment and then push the 'HALT' button, which is usually enough to stop the pursuit and you can then order them to pull back and reform ready to assist against the next assault.

[emcdunna]

Yes great points. Leaving arty or skirmishers exposed also seems to get them a bit frisky for charging. In fact if you have a line of infantry in woods, hidden, you can lure enemies towards the woods with cav or skirmishers and unleash volleys from all of your other men at close range.

The ai also doesn't seem to like letting you shoot it forever from far away, so sniper skirmishers can get the ai to leave it's defenses to chase out after you

[Caramirdan]

Originally posted by emcdunna:

The ai also doesn't seem to like letting you shoot it forever from far away, so sniper skirmishers can get the ai to leave it's defenses to chase out after you

Heck, I'll do the same to the AI snipers ;-)

[emcdunna]

The only thing is the ai doesn't usually capitalize on trying to trick you into going after them.

[Caramirdan]

Originally posted by emcdunna:

The only thing is the ai doesn't usually capitalize on trying to trick you into going after them.

Well, except for when I charge a battery only to find I forgot to scout the brigade in the woods behind it . . . . .

[emcdunna]

You can stumble into a trap yeah. The ai is about as good as the union generals during the early/middle of the war.

[Kristoph42]

A trick that I like to use, on the regular, are detached skirmishers. I have one or two INF brigades in woods. detach skirmishers, move them towards the enemy, volley once or twice, the enemy will charge at your skirmishers, have them fall back and re-attach to parent unit, the enemy will come within range of the parent unit and your boys hiding in the woods can get off a volley or two. It is a cheap easy way to get a few hundred kills easily.

[Lesardah]

I have a few defensive tips.

The AI is aggressive, but they don't seem to take terrain into account. If your mission is to hold ground, pull back near a river to where your firing arc barely touches the far side, and watch the Iron Brigade turn to rust. Detach skirmishers and give them ground to pull them in. The AI may be heavy handed, but they aren't as devious as we can be.

They also love to charge entrenched positions. Have large units ready behind entrenchments, and a cavalry unit to cover every 3 positions for counter charging. The AI never seemed to learn. I get alot of prisoners this way during a counter charge. Be sure to use the fallback key to return to position.

If you're attacking an entrechment and you dislodge the defender, pull back a bit and leave it open. They will often try to reenter it from afar, and are extremely vulnerable as they stretch into lines. I've killed thousands this way. Almost a bug/exploit.

I'm still learning quite a bit. I still don't have a method I'm happy with for attacking entrenched positions, aside from lots of heavy artillery at close range and three units per each position. Really shows why you should never give an army a day to dig in.

The AI make some great maneuvers, too. I've watched them force a few breakouts from Cannae / Cowpens / Winterfell-esque situations. Impressive. They still lose in the end, but they don't get annihilated.

[Sir Daubbles]

Originally posted by Lesardah:

I'm still learning quite a bit. I still don't have a method I'm happy with for attacking entrenched positions, aside from lots of heavy artillery at close range and three units per each position. Really shows why you should never give an army a day to dig in.

Best way I've found is to have three units attack one. The first unit takes the volley, the second charges to melee, and the 1st and 3rd units then blast into the crowd.

If you do it correctly, and rout the defending unit quick enough, you can then use that 1st and 3rd unit to form a defensive line so that even if your 2nd unit routs after the melee is done, they'll have a nice barrier to run behind.

Other than that, I dunno.

[emcdunna]

For entrenched positions, attack with several units, and arty barrages, then bring up a melee inf unit (like some cheap guys with farmers or palmettos) and charge in, perhaps even followed by saber cav. Those units take lots of damage, but you can shoot into melee and really rout that enemy unit quick