Getting real tired of the AI having doomstacks in the first dozen turns.

[The Ohio Question]

This isnt a "challenge" CA, its ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Having the shadow king show up with an entire stack of shadow walkers (he cant afford) on turn 11 is just stupid. Or Vlad showing up with a solid stack of those damn punk bats. Or a bloody stack of taurs on a rando beastmen hoard.

Even on legendary this would be stupid, but just hard? Just hard the ai gets hyper doom armys in the beginning turns?

Amazing "balance"

[WiDOWZ]

While I do despise the method in which they overload the AI with infinite amounts of gold and most of their unit roster to amp the difficulty, as it stands this is what most if not all games of this nature i.e. 4x do as a compromise for limited ai knowledge. Every faction has an indicator as to their initial difficulty so its important to keep this in mind when choosing. Legendary is retarded (censored medical term for the mentally challenged), but very hard is a piece of cake for vets. We need a compromise between the two I say and as for you... what can I say save maybe get gud scrub?

[ChaosKhan]

Yeah, game is totally broken!

Just gotta wonder how people actually win the game... on Very Hard or even Legendary on top of it!

Oh, I am one of those... oh well... nvm, carry on with your whining. Since I beat the game I have no right wo whine with you. Now i feel kinda sad and left out... :(

[an entire Roman legion]

no such thing as doomstacks this early. a fairly strong army is not necessarily a doomstack.

[Garatgh Deloi]

I have completed several very hard campaigns and a few legendary ones. I can't remember ever seeing anything i would describe as a doom stack at turn 11.

That said, i would not consider a full stack of shadow walkers a doom stack either, sounds rather easy to counter (That said, i would consider such a army alarming at turn 11 and i would likely have to change my army to counter it, so if it showed up at a bad time it could mean game over, but that is true for pretty much anything, a army of skins showing up at the wrong time can break you).

Note that "doom stacks" are generally used to refer to stacks filled with very powerful units, mostly late game stuff.

[Drakulas]

Even on easy I've had the AI be down to 1 minor settlement yet are somehow still able to afford upkeep on at least 2 stacks.

[The Warmongering Khan]

Publicado originalmente por Drakulas:

Even on easy I've had the AI be down to 1 minor settlement yet are somehow still able to afford upkeep on at least 2 stacks.

Background income.

[Sn3z]

Its the increased growth, CA never considered what effect of adding bigger settlements would have on the campaign map with the bonus to growth the AI gets.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Publicado originalmente por Drakulas:

Even on easy I've had the AI be down to 1 minor settlement yet are somehow still able to afford upkeep on at least 2 stacks.

Background income is a thing for both you and the AI. Basically this is a income you get as long as your faction is still alive regardless to what settlements you hold or what buildings you have. You can check your background income by hovering you mouse over you income.

The amount of background income you get versus what the AI get depends on difficulty setting. Also, the AI gets upkeep reductions depending on difficulty setting. So a AI (especially on higher difficulties) can indeed field several semi cheap armies out of a single settlement.

Also note, that depending on the situation the AI can save up money and have a huge sum saved up to field a number or armies for a prolonged period of time (In most cases this seems to happen if a AI loses his armies quickly and don't get a change to rebuild them, since they get a monster like income while they don't have to deal with upkeep until they can rebuild their armies).

[Sn3z]

I actually take back what I said after properly reading the OP(:/), growth is a component but on atleast one of the factions "Vlad" its to exclusively do with him starting in a minor settlement and having access to T3 varghiests right from the start. Vlad should be starting in a seven slot capital @ T2 or a nine slot @ T1.

I suspect its the same situation with Alith Anar if someone can verify his starting buildings, I can't play him.

[JODEGAFUN]

Publicado originalmente por Spicy Rain:

This isnt a "challenge" CA, its ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥t. Having the shadow king show up with an entire stack of shadow walkers (he cant afford) on turn 11 is just stupid. Or Vlad showing up with a solid stack of those damn punk bats. Or a bloody stack of taurs on a rando beastmen hoard.

Even on legendary this would be stupid, but just hard? Just hard the ai gets hyper doom armys in the beginning turns?

Amazing "balance"

You realize that they cost only as much as spearmen for him? And that he can recruit them from with a t2 building? It is completly realistic that he field them in this amount. If you play him, you do almost not need spearmen (a few to stop dark rider and for nothing else early) in his army for fighting DK. Actually the greatest threat you have as Morathi is Alith, once you finish him of it becomes much easier (and of course if you get you cash province running)
And you have background income 2,5K as the Ai has it too, so fielding 20 of them (as they cost same amount as spearmen for him) is complete realistic, exspecially if you play higher than normal.

[Obiwan]

one man's doomstack is another man's minor problem.

this thread simply feedsback the OP is attempting difficulties they cannot compete against.

not everyone can beat every game on every difficulty.

[zefyris]

Err shadow walker IIRC for Alith anar are t2 or t3 troops with a building that doesn't even require a lower tier version of itself, isn't especially pricey either, and shadoiw walker's upkeep IIRC are heavily reduced for him so...
YOU CAN DO EXACTLY THE SAME.
Alith anar is in the top 5 most OP faction in the game easily when played by a player so actually the AI do very very poorly with it compared to player.

So talk about a concrete example of the "AI doing things you can't do".

Also the "big bats" are t3 and Vlad is one of the only lords that start with a t3 settlement (and already the t1 version of that building available and it has no t2 version so it's directly buildable to the correct state). In fact the player even starts with 2 of those from the start.
Once again you can do exactly the same in a few turns, it's not THAT costly.
Vlad is one of the easiest faction to start with right now (part of it being that the AI for vampire AI are bugged so you can basically just take the whole 2 provinces in like 5-6 turns and get a lot of money, WITHOUT cheesing), so once again the AI currently do absurdly poorly compared to that.

[Sn3z]

Publicado originalmente por zefyris:

Err shadow walker IIRC for Alith anar are t2 or t3 troops with a building that doesn't even require a lower tier version of itself, isn't especially pricey either, and shadoiw walker's upkeep IIRC are heavily reduced for him so...
YOU CAN DO EXACTLY THE SAME.
Alith anar is in the top 5 most OP faction in the game easily when played by a player so actually the AI do very very poorly with it compared to player.

So talk about a concrete example of the "AI doing things you can't do".

Also the "big bats" are t3 and Vlad is one of the only lords that start with a t3 settlement (and already the t1 version of that building available and it has no t2 version so it's directly buildable to the correct state). In fact the player even starts with 2 of those from the start.
Once again you can do exactly the same in a few turns, it's not THAT costly.
Vlad is one of the easiest faction to start with right now (part of it being that the AI for vampire AI are bugged so you can basically just take the whole 2 provinces in like 5-6 turns and get a lot of money, WITHOUT cheesing), so once again the AI currently do absurdly poorly compared to that.

In ME Alith should start with a T1 barracks, there's actually no point even adding shadow warriors to the camp,unless CA want to get creative with adding some incentivizing, the camp could be tiered - T2 add shadow warriors + buffs and T3 the shadow walkers + buffs. The AI would be producing in theory better army compositions.

[zefyris]

nigh full shadow walker for alith anar IS a valid composition and no way worse than what you're talking about.
Why are you asking CA to purposely makes the AI play less in its faction strength?

[Sn3z]

Publicado originalmente por zefyris:

nigh full shadow walker for alith anar IS a valid composition and no way worse than what you're talking about.
Why are you asking CA to purposely makes the AI play less in its faction strength?

Because those units in question demarcate aggressive HE army compositions, having access to them earlier make those far more viable from the early game than trying to transition into them using the tiers with using say Tyrion, that should be Alith Anar selling point. Not the literal stack-o-shadow walkers.