Single Player

[LaStarza]

I was just wondering how the single player experience is for this game. Does the AI provide a good challenge, etc? Any problems with this game that are a real concern for single player play?

Thanks!

[stockwellpete]

Single player is very poor in this game. Use single player to learn the basics for a few hours then move to multi-player.

[LaStarza]

I'm very sorry to hear that. But thank you for the reply.

[Micha63]

Hello, i lost a lot of games against the AI, i dont think he is so stupid.

[stockwellpete]

You can "enhance" the performance of the AI by choosing very open battlefields and not selecting armies with large numbers of "poor" troops in them. The AI gets confused by dense terrain and leaves all its "poor" troops up by its camp.

[CaptainHuge]

I play single player all the time. One thing I like to do in DAG games is create armies but don't use all the points. I will create a 400 point army, then upgrade the points to 500, but don't buy any more troops. That way, when I play a DAG game against the AI with that army the AI will have 500 points worth of troops and I will only have 400. That is one way of giving the AI a chance.

[bloodphoenix]

Multi-player online is where this game really shines. But that can involve waiting (sometimes days) for your opponent to play a turn. Sometimes its nice to just set down and play out a whole battle in an hour or so, and get the feel of momentum building. For that matter, one of the things this game lacks is any kind of ranking system in the game postings...so until you memorize the names of the players who are um...beyond your ability?...a relative novice can encounter many one-sided battles with masters. If you tweak the game balance, playing against the AI can be good practice.

I've actually played a series of games recently against the AI that have been very enjoyable, based on a "Solo Alexander Campaign" that I found on a wargame blog online.

I simply go into the army creator, select the point total for the size battle I want, and then only spend a portion of the points. The computer will use every point of course, for whatever opposing army you choose. I started out selecting 600 points, and then buying 500, but that may be too easy, so I'll up the differential.

The result though, is a battle unlike any you see with equal-point matches with a human player.

The Alexandrian Macedonian army tends to be small compared to its historical opponents to begin with, because many of its stands have a high point cost. When you then give the enemy extra points to purchase even more cheap units, it becomes a matter of quality vs quantity, and it can be an enjoyable challenge holding the tide at bay. Within that context, I also play Alexander in a manner typical of his historic battlefield behavior: brave to the point of recklessness. He is an Inspired Commander, of course, with an Elite Companion cavalry unit, and naturally, leads the charge. Should he fall in battle, I treat the game as an automatic loss for the Macedonians regardless of rout points.
The less than stellar Generalship of the computer actually seems historic in this context, as many of Alexander's opponents were badly outmatched in skill. The final outcome is often a battle which, if you wrote an after-action report, would SOUND like a description of one of Alexander's victories over an army that outnumbered him many times over.

[Micha63]

Give yourself a handicap and the AI an advance. Thats the easyst way to have a harder game.
But the real problem is the stupid AI does sometimes not attack if the human player is entrenched on a hill or mountain.

[TheGrayMouser]

Give yourself a handicap and the AI an advance. Thats the easyst way to have a harder game.
But the real problem is the stupid AI does sometimes not attack if the humen player is entreched on a hill or mountain.

Perhaps its not so dumb after all

[Micha63]

Good answer,lol.

[Yuknoom]

A lot of the scenarios are badly imbalanced, so playing the 'poor' side can provide a challenge. For example, most of the Roman/Barbarian ones have a legionary/warband ratio of something like 1-1.5 , so the barbarians are pretty screwed between human players. Yet some, like Mancester, the Ebro, and Orchomenus are quite hopeless for the Romans with opponents of equal ability. Try one of those as the Romans (ok, best to avoid that last one, unless you enjoy being annoyed) and you should find them interesting.