Sun Tzu and very annoying AI battlefield behavior

[tinkthank]

I have had this happen to me twice in a row:

- In a faraway province, I had assassins take out all Indy commanders, leaving nothing but chaff behind. My assassins moved on. So I sent in a flying unit (An Indy Caelum necromancer mage thingy costing 120 gold whose name I forget) to take the province, as I had no other troops around. It flies in, but I do *NOT* capture the province. Confused, I watch the replay. As is to be expected, the Indy province routs immediately (no commanders left), but the Caleum mage flies immediately to the extreme rear of the field and gets slaughtered by the routing infantrists.
Annoyed, I recruit another flying Caelum necromancer, but this time I set him to "cast spells" (before I did not set any battle orders).
But instead of casting "raise dead" (which he does normally until he is blue in the face, no matter what the circumstances), he again flies to the rear to insert himself between the routing enemies and the emergency exit, where he does absolutely nothing but bleed profusely.
Odd, don't you think?
Wouldnt it be wiser to have some commanders know when an enemy army is routing and avoid self-injury?

Sun Tzu says: Always leave the rear door *open* for your enemies to escape, so that they do not fight to the death.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

I'll have to check this, but it might be due to a "too clever" spellcasting AI.

I mean, what if the AI refuses to cast raise XXX once the enemy army is defeated - maybe to avoid wasting valuable corpses that could be reanimated during the next season? If that's the case and the mage is beyond range for other spells, his only available option to carry his orders on is to move closer to the ennemy.

What happens if you script him to specifically cast 'raise XXX' (might not work) or put him on hold x 5/stay behind troops? What happens if you deploy him closest to the enemy so he's in range for Frighten, Decay or other ranged spells?

[Anglachel]

[edited}

[ April 07, 2004, 11:55: Message edited by: Anglachel ]

[Nagot Gick Fel]

If hold/stay behind troops doesn't behave as expected if the Seraph is alone, maybe sending 1 Harab Seraph + 1 Raptor will fix this - I mean, now the mage has real troops to stay behind.

[tinkthank]

I will try it out, thanks NGF. Problem is this was very early in the game and I didnt have anything researched. (100% construction till then, it was only turn 10 or something.)

Think it still might be nice if the tactical AI eased up a bit on armies which have routed, *especially* if these are independent armies (since there is no point in slaughtering them, they have nowhere to go.) Especially if it means reducing casualties by 100%.

[PDF]

Put the guy on "hold" orders for as long as possible, or best send a non-flier.
I usually take the province directly with the assassin in this case : OK, it's 1 assassin turn wasted, but I find it very fun to see my lone guy chasing the mass of frightened indy troops, and then crowning himself King of That Land