'Cut off the head' for Alexander's battles (Immortal Fire)

[CharlesdeBatz]

Based on several analyses I have read, the campaigns of Alexander (at least against the Persians, e.g. Issus/Granikos/Gaugamela) would have been decisively affected by his death. Was there thought given to setting the victory conditions for these scenarios in-game as 'cut off the head' instead of the standard 40/60 rout percentage?

Additionally, if I were to change the VCs for these scenarios to 'cut off the head', would this require adjusting the AI masterplan to account for the changed win conditions?

[Ray552]

I believe "cut off the head" battles always have the 40/60 rout percentage as the backup victory condition.

Otherwise it would be weird for the Persian player to destroy 99% of the Macedonian army and still not win because Alexander is playing "catch me if you can" while riding around the map with the last remaining Macedonian light cavalry unit...

Someone else more knowledgeable will have to address the AI plans.

[Paul59]

Based on several analyses I have read, the campaigns of Alexander (at least against the Persians, e.g. Issus/Granikos/Gaugamela) would have been decisively affected by his death. Was there thought given to setting the victory conditions for these scenarios in-game as 'cut off the head' instead of the standard 40/60 rout percentage?

Additionally, if I were to change the VCs for these scenarios to 'cut off the head', would this require adjusting the AI masterplan to account for the changed win conditions?

I didn't design the Epic battle scenarios for the Immortal Fire DLC, so I don't know if Richard considered using the "Kill the King" victory condition for the Alexander battles.

It could be argued that Alexander's death would have resulted in the Macedonians losing the battle, but the fact is that it never happened, so we will never know for sure. Personally, I don't like the "Kill the King" rule. It can bring a sudden end to an enjoyable game, and I am sure that many players would find it very frustrating. It would be good to get players opinions on that though, maybe someone could set up a poll!

The other reason against using it is that the AI would not attempt to protect it's CinC, and would not make any special effort to kill the enemy CinC, and so the rule would be very unfair to the AI in SP games. If you do use "Kill the King" for your scenarios there are no adjustments that can be made to the AI masterplan.

I would only use it for one of my scenarios if the result was definitely caused by the death of a commander, or if there are other very good reasons to use it.

ray552 is correct that the normal 40/60 break points are still in affect, although these can also be modified in the scenario .bsf file.


cheers

Paul