Any tips for Aljubarrota as Castile on Level 3?

Field of Glory II: Medieval

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Patrat
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Any tips for Aljubarrota as Castile on Level 3?

Post by Patrat »

I've tried it several times. It seems like your only hope, is that the French mercenaries make a gap you can exploit.

Any suggestions are welcome.
Patrat
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Re: Any tips for Aljubarrota as Castile on Level 3?

Post by Patrat »

Ok I tried it again and while technically I didn't win, ( lost by 1 point on the last turn), I'm pretty sure I could of won if I had played a little differently.

It's basically that you have to hope that the French make a hole. Support them with knights as much as you can squeeze them into the French fights.

Meanwhile keep the rest of your knights massed in the center ready to exploit an opening made by the French. This also keeps them away from the enemy archers on the flanks. Use your light horse to screen your flanks by having them trade shots with the archers. With any luck your losses will be much lower then mine were, because I wasted knights on fruitless attacks on the flanks.

Doing the above, should pretty much guarantee victory, provided the French and their supporting knights actually make a hole with enough time left to exploit it. You won't need much time. I didn't start rolling up the enemy line till turn 16 and I still almost won even with my extra losses from my flank attacks.

Note: if anyone is interested, to win as Portuguese i recommend buying all the light troops you can and advance them immediately to the woods on both sides of the map in front of your position. This will slow down the enemy enough that they will run out of time. It also causes the enemy knights to arrive piecemeal at your position, allowing you to destroy them before the have enough mass to swamp you.
Nabob
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Re: Any tips for Aljubarrota as Castile on Level 3?

Post by Nabob »

I'm just trying this battle and it is very tough for the Castillians, and I've played several games and the french berserkers never made a breakthrough. I've been trying to use light cav to reduce bowmen on one flank and circulate more in when their ammo runs low. I'm finding knight charges to be fruitless if they cross the obstacle unless their reinforcing a melee.

The other battle which is about impossible is Grandson as the Burgundians ...
Athos1660
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Re: Any tips for Aljubarrota as Castile on Level 3?

Post by Athos1660 »

I didn't know this battle. I've just looked at it. That battle looks very much like the setup of Azincourt.
The Castillans are not meant to win. In 1385, if they had been guided only by rational logic, they should have refused such uneven fight and left the battlefield before the start. It's like assaulting a besieged castle with horses.
In 2025, in FoG2, well... luck may help them. Who knows ?
Athos1660
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Re: Any tips for Aljubarrota as Castile on Level 3?

Post by Athos1660 »

Quite surprisingly, when playing the Castillans, this friendly unit that is marked red below and that is AI-controlled if I am not mistaken, stopped doing anything after a few turns, hadn't moved forward when the hex in front of it was empty, nor fought nor done anything for several turns (nor could it be controlled by the player) :

Image

It happened again during the next test game wiith another unit of MAA :

Image

It may happen with this type of obstacle and AI-controlled unit and when the enemy dismounted MAA falls back after losing a round of close combat. You can see these enemy units on top of the pics. The winning friendly dismounted MAA seems stuck with 0 PA, unable to move on during the next turns.

However I may be mistaken. I played the start of this battle only twice. I have a backup of these battles.

Has it happened to others ?
Paul59
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Re: Any tips for Aljubarrota as Castile on Level 3?

Post by Paul59 »

Athos1660 wrote: Tue Jun 17, 2025 8:47 pm Quite surprisingly, when playing the Castillans, this friendly unit that is marked red below and that is AI-controlled if I am not mistaken, stopped doing anything after a few turns, hadn't moved forward when the hex in front of it was empty, nor fought nor done anything for several turns (nor could it be controlled by the player) :

Image

It happened again during the next test game wiith another unit of MAA :

Image

It may happen with this type of obstacle and AI-controlled unit and when the enemy dismounted MAA falls back after losing a round of close combat. You can see these enemy units on top of the pics. The winning friendly dismounted MAA seems stuck with 0 PA, unable to move on during the next turns.

However I may be mistaken. I played the start of this battle only twice. I have a backup of these battles.

Has it happened to others ?
These AI controlled player units are very difficult to code. Richard and I spent a lot of time trying to perfect these Aljubarrota units throughout Beta testing, but there are still some issues as you have found. However, the current solution is much better than what we had before, which would often throw up some very strange behaviour.
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Athos1660
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Re: Any tips for Aljubarrota as Castile on Level 3?

Post by Athos1660 »

Indeed. You guys rocks !
Just reporting anything I see. No big deal in this case. Won't change the result of the game.

You shouldn't sweat blood and water working on this AI. Make an informative panel at the start of the battle indicating the dismount MMA should be sent straigt ahead till contact without waiting for the rest of their army, to play the battle historically. And let the player move these units manually. It's SP. If the player doesn't follow the historical rule and wants to "cheat", too bad for him :)

Allows What-if scenarios. Saves hours of work. I'm sure some players would like it as Freedom is nowadays obsession :-)

Anyway, who am I... ?
Nabob
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Re: Any tips for Aljubarrota as Castile on Level 3?

Post by Nabob »

I did finally get a win as the Castillians (though as Knight/level 2 difficulty).

What happened is that the charging knights were very successful and had forced a breakthrough by Turn 5 or 6 or so, after that the mounted knights were ready to get over the obstacle. Still, very challenging.

The reinforcements seem to be random, and arrive to late to do anything very much (maybe a few shots with the cannons). Once they didnt arrive at all.

Historically, the Castillians lost, so if I win in game I understand their problems more so.
Athos1660
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Re: Any tips for Aljubarrota as Castile on Level 3?

Post by Athos1660 »

Well done :)
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