Pompey AI?

[Revan]

Hello evrybody.

So, i play Caesar in the Caesar Vs Pompey scenario. OK

Pompey choose Oriens, wealth and huge number of soldiers, OK. I bring my trrops in Spain and left two légions in Italy.

Suprise : after some turns, Pompey came back in Italy with......his two starting légions, and only these.
Their reinforcements? The Complete Numidian Army, with Juba and his penalities out of Africa.

It's not the first time i see that.

So my question is : is the AI able to build an army like Pompey is supposed to do?

Precision : the "All AI behaviour" is activated.

[bob.]

Short answer: no.

While the AI is not completely braindead, it is unfortunately in most cases unable to deal with the more complex things in the game. This includes suicidal naval landings like this. I don't think the AI is even "aware" of systems like the out of region penalty.

[Revan]

So it means that the civil war scenario, if i want to play Caesar's side is mostly broken and didn't represent any challenge.
I have only to finish Spain, bring Caesar back and kill Pompey. Over.

AI is able tu build units, i've seen Pontic AI doing that in Marius Vs Sulla, but in this scenario...never.

[bob.]

I don't know if I would call it completely broken, the AI at least USUALLY is quite competent in concentrating its forces and attacking somewhere, but especially strategically if you expect much of a challenge against the AI the only possibility is to choose a scenario where you are in an extremely difficult position and give the AI maximum bonuses. In the Civil War scenario the sides are just too balanced for the AI to have much of a chance if you are not a completely new player.

I have seen the AI build troops in this scenario, don't know how the AI decides when to build and when not to.

The game really makes up for it once you get into PBEM, though!

[PJJ]

This is a typical problem with strategy game AIs. It's a major issue, because the overwhelming majority of people never play PBEM games. Forums usually give the wrong picture, because you can find the most active PBEM players posting there in large numbers.

So without a good AI, the majority of players are left with less than enjoyable scenarios in wargames.

AGEOD games do have decent AI opponents, but this always depends on the scenario. Some situations are simply very difficult for the computer to understand and to make sensible decisions.