Some of you may have come across this already maybe multiple times but just like 10 minutes ago on Barbarian Invasion I was playing as the Franks, so the Goth Horde arrives, I was facing three and one half stacks of Goths against my like 1/4 stack of defenders at Mediolanium. I was like ok fine you can take this city but I am going to do massive amounts of damage to you so when I come in with a full army it will be easier to decimate you. I mean I knew about some things like sometimes the enemy will stand in front of your towers as they are taking the walls letting quite a few of their troops die and I was counting on that to be helpful.
But then the trouble started once they took the gatehouse, now mind you they attacked with only one ram and one siege tower on one of their four armies so if all of the armies had had siege equipment it would not of been so bad. But as soon as they took that gatehouse all of the gothic armies rushed to it not giving a damn that the towers were shooting them, they probably lost about 20% of their army outside which... I mean is really stupid but I guess its bearable bad AI but then they started to march through the city getting shot down by towers as they went, so many fell in the streets that I couldnt see the street through all the corpses of the Goths not an exaggeration. By the time the goths got to a little trap I had set up (Levy spearmen in a shield wall formation in the way of the central plaza while Noble Cavalry were waiting to hit from behind, kind of in one of those random squares in the street) the enemy were tired and had taken heavy casualties so they routed extremely easily. The only troops I had to actually fight was Chosen Swordsmen when I foolishly tried to defend the wall with some Levy Spearmen which had I known this would of happened just saved them in the central plaza. Then some General's Bodyguard which went under the gauntlet of those towers and survived but they werent a match for my peasants in the central plaza.
So yeah I won the battle with about 3500 kills and about 400 casualties but I probably could of done it with like 20 casualties had I predicted this happening.
This happened to me earlier in reverse but not quite as bad and a little different. About a week ago I was playing as the Carthaginians, sieged a city, and then attacked but I just didnt feel like fighting the battle just watching and I didnt really even care if I got some unequal casualties from stupid AI because I was winning big time anyways but I was controlling the army with onagers and I broke one piece of the wall and armoured hoplites got in front of it waiting the two other AI armies of Carthaginians started running by the walls getting shot down by the hundreds then to top it off the AI foolishly sent wave after wave of light cavalry right into the spears of those hoplies. I was so disgusted with how my men were being mercilessly slaughtered that I just quit and redid the battle myself.
Oh and why does the city design in Barbarian Invasion have to be so... just stupid I mean like it seems with every roman city there is a goddamn winding path to get to the central plaza and the plaza is ringed on three sides by buildings, very sheltered, and the way to get to it is so winding and just so... annoying as hell. They really should of done the city design a lot better that was a key component of how the goths died was because I had a roman town with that kind of thing so they had to be under tower fire for a super long time.
On a somewhat random note does anybody else think that troops in the central plaza of a city should go into fight to the death mode when they get to the routing point instead of just never routing? I'm not sure if actually running outside of the city would be a plausible thing but I feel like having the troops go into fight to the death mode like they do on the walls would be nice instead of this thing where they never rout and fight to the last man to their full abilities because I know when they do fight to the last man their defence is like cut down significantly which is kind of realistic if you're fighting and you know you have no chance of winning. Maybe like the central plaza could give a 2+ bonus to morale or something. Anyways just a random thought.
So anyways, what does everyone think about that flaw? I'm sure most of you have experienced it.
But then the trouble started once they took the gatehouse, now mind you they attacked with only one ram and one siege tower on one of their four armies so if all of the armies had had siege equipment it would not of been so bad. But as soon as they took that gatehouse all of the gothic armies rushed to it not giving a damn that the towers were shooting them, they probably lost about 20% of their army outside which... I mean is really stupid but I guess its bearable bad AI but then they started to march through the city getting shot down by towers as they went, so many fell in the streets that I couldnt see the street through all the corpses of the Goths not an exaggeration. By the time the goths got to a little trap I had set up (Levy spearmen in a shield wall formation in the way of the central plaza while Noble Cavalry were waiting to hit from behind, kind of in one of those random squares in the street) the enemy were tired and had taken heavy casualties so they routed extremely easily. The only troops I had to actually fight was Chosen Swordsmen when I foolishly tried to defend the wall with some Levy Spearmen which had I known this would of happened just saved them in the central plaza. Then some General's Bodyguard which went under the gauntlet of those towers and survived but they werent a match for my peasants in the central plaza.
So yeah I won the battle with about 3500 kills and about 400 casualties but I probably could of done it with like 20 casualties had I predicted this happening.
This happened to me earlier in reverse but not quite as bad and a little different. About a week ago I was playing as the Carthaginians, sieged a city, and then attacked but I just didnt feel like fighting the battle just watching and I didnt really even care if I got some unequal casualties from stupid AI because I was winning big time anyways but I was controlling the army with onagers and I broke one piece of the wall and armoured hoplites got in front of it waiting the two other AI armies of Carthaginians started running by the walls getting shot down by the hundreds then to top it off the AI foolishly sent wave after wave of light cavalry right into the spears of those hoplies. I was so disgusted with how my men were being mercilessly slaughtered that I just quit and redid the battle myself.
Oh and why does the city design in Barbarian Invasion have to be so... just stupid I mean like it seems with every roman city there is a goddamn winding path to get to the central plaza and the plaza is ringed on three sides by buildings, very sheltered, and the way to get to it is so winding and just so... annoying as hell. They really should of done the city design a lot better that was a key component of how the goths died was because I had a roman town with that kind of thing so they had to be under tower fire for a super long time.
On a somewhat random note does anybody else think that troops in the central plaza of a city should go into fight to the death mode when they get to the routing point instead of just never routing? I'm not sure if actually running outside of the city would be a plausible thing but I feel like having the troops go into fight to the death mode like they do on the walls would be nice instead of this thing where they never rout and fight to the last man to their full abilities because I know when they do fight to the last man their defence is like cut down significantly which is kind of realistic if you're fighting and you know you have no chance of winning. Maybe like the central plaza could give a 2+ bonus to morale or something. Anyways just a random thought.
So anyways, what does everyone think about that flaw? I'm sure most of you have experienced it.
[This message has been edited by JuBuOrangie (edited 02-25-2011 @ 12:29 PM).]