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Age of Wonders 3 SG 3
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AOW3 AI has fog-of-war hack so that's why it keeps sending out those baby-stacks. This is actually working to our advantage because the game has reached the stage were the units we have now are more important then potential units (cities). They can also see your invisible units but they won't attack (less they get a true site unit or other reason to go to the tile).
I am aware of the AI cheating yes. I recognised the behaviour from the Medieval 2 Total War AI (which also "cheats" on vision), that will also send small stacks everywhere if you leave empty settlements, since it thinks "0 power means I have to deploy literally anything more than nothing to capture this target" of course it doesn't know about your full-banner army that will intercept when it tries it. It's a general problem with AI, giving it a specific "attack where enemy is weak" heuristic seems good on paper, but in reality it just opens up a plethora of unique ways to fuck up. But anyway knowing why it fucks up doesn't mean it doesn't bother me when it does.
Svengir is dead. I've been building Exalted and some buildings to boost them (Arenas, Slaughter Pits), and I've spammed Embrace Darkness on our unit pump cities, so that our Exalted get Life Leech. For research, I've focused on combat spells, after researching Embrace Darkness on Turn 50. I've passed on Shrine of Smiting because I think it makes more sense to keep spamming Exalted.
Turn 50: A sorceror offers to join, but I don't have enough money left over after my build orders. We've just researched Sanctified Sites so I start casting that. Turn 51: Nothing much going on, research on Embrace Darkness finishes and I pick Denounce Heretic next. Turn 52: My first major blunder for this game. This should not have happened: I lost 5 Exalted and an Hellhound trying to retake the Giant dwelling. It was supposed to be a very likely victory, if I remember correctly.  I fare better against one of Svengir's core cities:  I've lost an Ogre, two Hellhounds and two Crusaders. The units are a bad matchup for our Draconians, with fire-immune Firstborn and ice-damage dealing Shadow Stalkers, but I could probably have done better. Migrating to Orcs would be the fastest way to get the city functional, but since they dislike the arctic, I spend three instead of two turns to migrate to Frostlings. I leave behind some evangelists to protect the city. Turn 53: Svengir captures the Orc city of Maerdun which we took from Gamblag. I push forward towards his throne city instead of caring about that. We can retake it at our leisure once we kicked him out of the game. Or not. More annoying is that he also intercepted two Orc Exalted I was moving to the front. Turn 54: I finally retook our Giant dwelling. Turn 55: Some Shadow Stalkers and Succubus are poking around the fortress east of Hismir. I rush an Evangelist to keep our throne city safe. Near the Giant dwelling, the Fire Rogue shows up.  I move away the exalted again. Some stacks with Phoenixes have been showing up around other places, which I assume is related to the same event. Meanwhile, our main army arrives at Svengir's throne city. It's protected by three full stacks, including the resurrected hero that defended the previous city. Two of the hexes adjacent to the city are on mountains, so I can get only three of my four stacks in on this turn. The combat screen shows "Probable Defeat" so I abort and bunch my armies up again in case Svengir attacks in the open. Phoenixes attack at several places, but are easily defeated. Turn 56: The Fire Rogue attacked Roger Peacock and died, so he gets her treasures. Oh well... For the main event, I move all four stacks on Svengir's city and the game tells me it's closely matched:  I won't be getting better odds anytime soon, so I hope that my human brain will win the day and start the battle. I win, but lose two Hellhounds, two Crusaders, a Shocktrooper and our champion Crusher. And with that, Svengir is defeated and only Roger Peacock remains in the game. Turn 57-60: Migrating Svengir's throne city to Frostlings changes our alignment to Evil, so we get another happiness boost. I mop up Vinyatur, and migrate it to Frostlings as well. Then, I move on our army towards Roger, but I didn't break peace yet. We can move right up to his throne city before breaking peace, which would be a proper evil end for this game, right?  (October 26th, 2018, 18:38)Japper007 Wrote: I am aware of the AI cheating yes. I recognised the behaviour from the Medieval 2 Total War AI (which also "cheats" on vision), that will also send small stacks everywhere if you leave empty settlements, since it thinks "0 power means I have to deploy literally anything more than nothing to capture this target" of course it doesn't know about your full-banner army that will intercept when it tries it. It's a general problem with AI, giving it a specific "attack where enemy is weak" heuristic seems good on paper, but in reality it just opens up a plethora of unique ways to fuck up. But anyway knowing why it fucks up doesn't mean it doesn't bother me when it does. Yeah, I don't mind AIs cheating to make the game more challenging. But in this case, it backfires on the AI and it's annoying too. MJW, I think you mentioned playing multi-player. How long does a duel game last, on average? I've been wondering if there is some TBS game where you can finish a match in an hour or two. (October 27th, 2018, 17:46)RFS-81 Wrote:(October 26th, 2018, 18:38)Japper007 Wrote: I am aware of the AI cheating yes. I recognised the behaviour from the Medieval 2 Total War AI (which also "cheats" on vision), that will also send small stacks everywhere if you leave empty settlements, since it thinks "0 power means I have to deploy literally anything more than nothing to capture this target" of course it doesn't know about your full-banner army that will intercept when it tries it. It's a general problem with AI, giving it a specific "attack where enemy is weak" heuristic seems good on paper, but in reality it just opens up a plethora of unique ways to fuck up. But anyway knowing why it fucks up doesn't mean it doesn't bother me when it does. I've watched a few vids and MP games take around 2.5 hours on average. The problem is that the MP community doesn't exist anymore because the game is old but it works. I will pass the save to Japper after ten turns, unless I win or I could kill him on the next turn. Have to go to bed now...
gg guys!
Report: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1kj7k6p0j7hbft...t.pdf?dl=0 Save (just before final attack): https://www.dropbox.com/s/e4ovl4wwq90b6k...n.ASG?dl=0 Quote:However, the AI wastes a lot of units in garrisons so that’s what made the difference between what was felt and what was the actual truth Hey, someone might send out a swarm of mini-stacks to capture them. But seriously, it's better like this than catching the AI with its pants down. Good game, everyone! It was over much faster than I expected. Who's up for a larger map?
I'm not interested in playing AOW3 anymore because I've figured out the formula: a timing push when stack-splitting matters but before the AI blobs up. Without resurgence we would be weaker but stack-splitting would carry us. The only way to lose is getting 2v1 but that's no fun. I can play if two people really want to play another SG (I suggest Lightside if you cannot think of anything else) though.
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As a French person I feel like it's my duty to explain strikes to you. - AdrienIer |
