AI Query

[gavril]

Like Rumguff says, fascinating answer Richard!

TBH the experience with Pike & Shot is sooooooooo much better than playing FoG against the AI. Is it verboten to ask if you'd consider - at some stage - working on an ancients or medieval offering based on the Pike & Shot engine?!?

I come from a background of Ancient/Medieval wargaming so it does seem likely. What gets done first, however, has not yet been decided.

Cheers, thanks for that Richard. All sounds good. I'm sure Pike & Shot will keep me busy for a long time anyhow, but nice to have that to look forward to at some point!

[SteveD64]

What AI difficulty level is the most "historical"? Is it the default setting?

[rbodleyscott]

What AI difficulty level is the most "historical"? Is it the default setting?

Usually Sergeant Major General which is the middle setting. All scenarios were primarily designed on that setting, but beta testers suggested that the default starting difficulty should be Colonel. The tutorial scenarios were then tweaked on the assumption that they would be played on the Colonel setting.

[jakefont]

The tutorial scenarios were then tweaked on the assumption that they would be played on the Colonel setting.

After losing the third tutorial *twice* on Sergeant Major General, I NEEDED to hear this! Please add a note in the popups or the manual.

Had a great deal of fun losing, though. Very impressed by the AI so far!

And by the Swedes.

[Iratespartan13]

I played the first scenario of 30 Years War called Pilgram three times before I won the scenario. I don't know much about Pike and Shot tactics, so I am learning on the fly. I have been wargaming in one way or another for about 34 of my 44 years, so I can sort out the basics. I bought FOG recently and while I love the content, I am really enjoying the difficulty I have had with the AI of this game better. I also just bought BA and have enjoyed that game as well. I read a review of this game and one of the complaints was that cannon were useless. The first time I won Pilgram, my cannon fire from the left flank hilltop caused two units to lose cohesion. This ended up being critical to my success as my cavalry was then able to charge these units and eventually route them. IMHO the AI is really good and a blast to play against, the scenarios I have played have been very balanced.

Thanks for Pike and Shot and for the challenge with the AI. Looking forward to some future content. In the meanwhile I have 28 more scenarios to master!

[Jhykronos]

I played the first scenario of 30 Years War called Pilgram three times before I won the scenario. I don't know much about Pike and Shot tactics, so I am learning on the fly. I have been wargaming in one way or another for about 34 of my 44 years, so I can sort out the basics. I bought FOG recently and while I love the content, I am really enjoying the difficulty I have had with the AI of this game better. I also just bought BA and have enjoyed that game as well. I read a review of this game and one of the complaints was that cannon were useless. The first time I won Pilgram, my cannon fire from the left flank hilltop caused two units to lose cohesion. This ended up being critical to my success as my cavalry was then able to charge these units and eventually route them. IMHO the AI is really good and a blast to play against, the scenarios I have played have been very balanced.

Thanks for Pike and Shot and for the challenge with the AI. Looking forward to some future content. In the meanwhile I have 28 more scenarios to master!

Pilgram has some cruel victory conditions. Putting the game on a time limit, then jamming a superior Tercio in the middle choke point is just evil.

White Mountain is less nasty. Your infantry don't hold long, but all those demoralized Hussars can jump flanks and attrition breakthrough Tercios just fine.

Wimpfen is just plain unfair... it steals your lunch money and laughs at you. I need to be convinced that one is winnable.

[rbodleyscott]

The tutorial scenarios were then tweaked on the assumption that they would be played on the Colonel setting.

After losing the third tutorial *twice* on Sergeant Major General, I NEEDED to hear this! Please add a note in the popups or the manual.

Ah well, the tutorials start in Colonel mode unless you have manually changed the difficulty.

The tutorials are not supposed to suggest you increase the difficulty level after you win. I have just noticed that a bug is allowing them to do so. Will see about correcting that for the first patch.

[rbodleyscott]

I read a review of this game and one of the complaints was that cannon were useless. The first time I won Pilgram, my cannon fire from the left flank hilltop caused two units to lose cohesion. This ended up being critical to my success as my cavalry was then able to charge these units and eventually route them.

Proper use of cannons is critical the victory in Pilgram-Lomnitz.

I read that review as well (of course). The poster was probably fooled by the apparently low casualties caused by cannon fire, and did not delve deep enough to discover how devilishly effective they are in causing morale drops in enemy units, especially when combined with small arms fire.

[Igorputski]

@ gavril:

What I saw in Surtur's revealing video and read in several reviews the AI seems to be quite capable, and this is good news.

You might check the articles below for more impressions:

http://www.wargamer.com/article/3674/fi ... and-musket
http://www.pockettactics.com/news/ios-n ... pike-shot/


@Galangalad:

Solo player here, and I think I'm not the only one. One I day I got really fed up by hearing the same sentence in those endless FOG discussions over and over again: "Try multiplayer!" In the end it was only a weak excuse for FOG's inferior AI. And right now I'm getting a kind of allergic reaction from reading something similar here. - I honestly hope that this game's AI is much better than FOG's; but please understand that I'm a bit wary too ... Well, at least it's a kind of relief to hear that you've been beaten by the AI several times.

Thanks for the links mate, very helpful. Totally agree with your comments about Multiplayer! I think that if FoG had been designed with a challenging AI it would have become an all-time great, and a money spinner for Slitherine.

I have to agree here. I bought FOG hoping for a challenging ai as well and what I got was not what expected. I also am leary about anything from Matrixgames or Slitherine anymore praising all the goodness of the ai and pushing multiplayer over the top. Multiplayer only grasps about 2% to 10% of the player base out there and it's not going to keep you in business too long if that's the only thing you are concerned with now. Throughout the years it has been solo playing games that have pushed the market. That's the way it always has been and that's the way it should be. Concentrate on better ai's no on multiplayer abilities.