AI Army Composition change and ignoring ZoC

[Kingless]

I'm playing as the Mamluks right now, I'm 2 years ahead of time with Tech 8, I've got my three little value cannons for my artillery barrage. Ottoman's DC me, no big deal I think. I'm 4th great power, I have forts all down the Levant and a strong Ramazan vassal stretching my border with the Ottomans from former Karaman all the way to Mosul. Ottoman's have 10 more force limit than me, but that's nothing if I play it smart. Ottomans walk right through Ramazan. Oh no, Zone of Control isn't working? Well, fine, I've got more troops here right now so we'll just push them back and see if it still happens. We enter battle. Ottoman's on tech 8 brought 16 cannons. Tech 8. Smallest Ottoman AI I've ever fought with the most cannons I've ever seen in their stacks. They wrecked me. My army broke to Cairo, the Mamluks walked past 3 forts that had no adjacent countries and no non-Zone of Control tiles, straight into Cairo to stackwipe me. Good times.

 

[sigeena]

Can't comment on your ZoC but how much cav did you bring for your stack?

 

[Kingless]

27 infantry and 4 cavalry, I always run 4 until tech 18 where I go to 6 and then 8 at tech 23. Unless I'm playing a horde.

 

[grandad1982]

Ideas? Generals? Advisors?

 

[bbqftw]

if you are getting rekt by 16 cannons at tech 8 you would have lost to a non trolling composition.

Cannons really don't do much at that stage.

 

[sigeena]

Mamluks have cav combat traditions? You should go in with more cav. Don't go optimal, go overkill

 

[Ultima_Ratio]

You should use WAY more cavalry in the early game if you want to win battles. Tech 8 is especially good for cavalry.

 

[Sfan]

It's not about the cav ratio, or about the canons (meaningless early, even if slightly less bad now that they are the only ones attacking from backrow). Probably terrain, generals or potentially rolls.

As for forts, screenshot? Mothballed in Karaman maybe?

 

[PhoenixG]

Well, your muslim units are also a bit weaker than anatolian units, besides the got janisaries and most likely better drilled units.

 

[artemis667]

Zone of control might function a bit differently this time, I was playing the Ottomans (drilled Janissaries pack some punch ) and I was able to march down the coast and siege Cairo while there was still a fort in the Jerusalem province, under siege by my armies at the time but it hadn't been mothballed (I didn't check to see if it was a full garrison). Need to play a bit more to try and make sense though, I may have missed something.

Well, your muslim units are also a bit weaker than anatolian units, besides the got janisaries and most likely better drilled units.

AFAIK muslim units are pretty good at the early tech levels but you definitely need to use your strengths (early cavalry shock), not ignore them. Maybe I need to play Mamluk myself though - I tend to be timid of the more challenging countries.

 

[PhoenixG]

AFAIK muslim units are pretty good at the early tech levels but you definitely need to use your strengths (early cavalry shock), not ignore them. Maybe I need to play Mamluk myself though - I tend to be timid of the more challenging countries.

Compare to anatolian units they have equal cav, but have one off. morale pip less

 

[Kingless]

It's not about the cav ratio, or about the canons (meaningless early, even if slightly less bad now that they are the only ones attacking from backrow). Probably terrain, generals or potentially rolls.

As for forts, screenshot? Mothballed in Karaman maybe?

Nothing Mothballed that I know of, I kept an eye on it because I built extra forts to block an Otto attack. My General was better, the terrain for each engagement was drylands behind a river, and our rolls were mostly the same except that they took crossing penalties in the last fight but my morale was already lower. I don't have screenshots unfortunately, I ragequit like a child. But I'm not really worried about having lost the fight, it was probably some bad RNG like every other time I lose a favorable fight in EU. The ZoC really annoyed me though, and I'd never seen an AI use anywhere near that many cannons this early in the game. The one fire doesn't normally do much, I know that, but 16 on 3 did enough that my morale, which was equal to Otto's, crumbled much faster in every combat. I mostly just wanted to know if other people noticed this kind of AI army composition so I can plan on it. Weirdly enough, my army drill was higher, I was being pretty anal retentive about drilling them every single second they weren't in combat, but I did have enough time for their morale to refill before the first fight.