AI and following scripts

[Gandalf Parker]

The AI TRIES to be thinking intelligent.
You are basically making suggestions to the mage or commander. But out on the battlefield the unit will read the situation for themselves. Sometimes all they can see is undead which might change their mind about what to do. Sometimes terrain can affect decisions or even temperature.

Placing archers or people told to attack "rearmost" enemies can be helped by placing them far off to the sides of the battlefield (the top or bottom of the placement screen). I like to put archers at the top (left flank during the battle) set to fire at archers, and put mounted or other 4-footed attackers such as tramplers off to the bottom (the right flank during a battle) set for "Hold and attack Rearmost". That seems to match up well with how the enemy AIs like to place their units.

Also check the range on the spells you are asking for. Sometimes you might want it to attack for one round and then cast if they are short-range spells.

I know this can be irritating but it also helps. If a unit is damaged and incapable of carrying out its original orders it will at least do something instead of just standing there stupidly trying to carry out its commands.

By the way, each commander can lead 5 squads. Use those. Even if you are just breaking up one large group into 5 smaller ones but leaving them all standing in the same spot with the same orders. It can help you avoid things like having them all rout at the same time, or having them all make the same bad decision.

[Dorjan]

But doesn't each unit's morle increase with more numbers? So a block of 80 is harder to break then 5 squads of 16?

[Tifone]

Originally Posted by Dorjan

But doesn't each unit's morle increase with more numbers? So a block of 80 is harder to break then 5 squads of 16?

I know what you mean because that's a thing that drives me crazy, and probably shows how n00b I am. Except for different orders, I often keep all the units with the same function always grouped (the ones with shield that should attack closest together, the fast ones that should attack rearmost together). It makes far more difficult to have them routing but surely it's quite dumb, you often have like one third of your army actually fighting in melee.

That's probably that I just hate to need losing turns regathering my routed units from 3 or 4 different provinces. And that's why I see no use for "fire and flee" command. While I retake and regroup them, the enemy is conquering provinces.

[rdonj]

I find the fire and flee command annoying too, it would be far more enjoyable if they all run to the same province when you tell them to retreat. You can somewhat get around it by making huge numbers of commanders and keeping them in all the provinces where your units could retreat to, but that's pretty annoying in itself.