[Wauthan]

You're not the first who have been puzzled by the AI choice of actions. I'm not sure of anything but I'm starting to feel that there is a logical pattern behind the 'chaos'.

Aim will be cast at the closest missile unit with the worst precision score. This can be a great boon for Abysia with it's shotgun totin' mages but not so good for the superaccurate Vanir (who also have a lot of javelin tossers).

Area damage spells seems to be defaulting to strike as many units as possible. This is great since it means your mages will always go for the most bang for the buck. It's not so great when they keep tossing fireballs into the frontlines and roasting your own troops.

Single target damage or affliction spells will be aimed at the closest, mightiest, unit. If you want to stop Hydras then load up on Lightning, Blindness, Mind Burn, etc. If you want to protect Hydras (and other expensive units) bring a big monster commander or pretender and deck it out with magicresistant gear. The mages will go for the beefiest unit as long as they have a chance of hurting it. That means 100% resistance is not always better than 75%.

Units on attack rear will gladly charge trough cloud effects, since they are diverted from their path by 'threats'. A threathens a huge area and thus attracts a lot of units. This is the reason why makes Hydras so powerful and cost a fortune. Get as many missile units as possible and put them on fire at large enemy creatures. Put the infantery or cavalery on the flanks with hold and attack enemy archers (not rearmost). I had more wins than losses with this setup when playing against Pythium.

[ May 11, 2004, 09:55: Message edited by: Wauthan ]