The Mamluks Really are Special

[TheIronDuke21]

Honest question is the Mamluk AI tweeked in some way to be extra stupid? Playing a game as Karaman the Mamluks declare war on Qara, I join, we outnumber them solidly at the beginning of the war. Mamluks run around in circles in Iraq, I siege down Mosul. Qara fight me in Mosul major battle ensues Mamluks to their credit reinforce and we win, both the battle and the siege. What happens next is what I cannot explain, the Mamluks then park all 41,000 of their men in Sinjar, a 6 development enemy province, and sit their for the rest of the war dying to massive attrition. 41,000 men become 20,000 and in the meantime Qara/allies have sieged down all my provinces and massacred my army and the Mamluk vassals, what the hell is that?!? I know this is a common theme (hating on the AI) but its so frustrating and it is therapeutic to make a post about it.

 

[TenshiN]

Had a lot of that in my own Karaman campaigns, but against Ottomans. It really seems to undertake the worst decisions it possibly can, even with great numerical advantage and equal tech...

 

[Rikissa]

AI pathing around the Caucasus, the QQ area seems wonky. If they freeze completely you might want to reload the game and see if they move.

 

[Blust]

Yes, the AI allies are - in my experience - fucking retarded.

 

[iquabakaner]

Pretty sure every AI is just as stupid. I just had two of my CNs lose a huge chunk of territories in their colonial wars, despite severely outnumbering their enemies. They just let their enemies siege out their provinces while they stood in the middle of nowhere.

 

[ElGranCapitan]

Pretty sure every AI is just as stupid.

Allies are significantly worse than enemies though and for a good reason. The AI can't understand what the player is doing, unlike other AI which it does understand so coordination between two AI allies will always be significantly better than coordination between player and AI

 

[holyvigil]

Allies are significantly worse than enemies though and for a good reason. The AI can't understand what the player is doing, unlike other AI which it does understand so coordination between two AI allies will always be significantly better than coordination between player and AI

Agreed. I've had small allies rush into doom stacks thinking I'm going to reinforce them when all I want to do is siege down the province to white peace them.

 

[bigaristotel]

If they freeze completely you might want to reload the game and see if they move.

This.
It's happened to me sometimes. Don't know what's the issue, but reload helps

 

[TheIronDuke21]

Started a new game, as a new country, because the Mamluks frustrated me so much in my Karaman game and it happened again!!! This is a war between Ethiopia and my ally Adal which the Mamluks happen to be involved in so not as frustrating to me but still watching them park what was 40,000 plus men in a 3 development province in Somalia for the entire war is mind blowing.

 

[Felisto]

The AI sometimes "forgets" an army somewhere. It has been reported multiple times already as a bug:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ly-large-stacks-sitting-still-in-war.1058240/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...s-his-army-in-italy-and-does-nothing.1057259/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ai-wont-move-until-game-is-restarted.1056325/

Let's hope it gets fixed soon.

 

[TheIronDuke21]

That's good to hear, I'll stop going on about it then but good god is it an annoying bug.

 

[babuchas1]

Anyway, answering your question: yes, the Mamluks are designed to be extra stupid.
Maybe colonial nations goes second, especially when they fight natives.

 

[Zorlin_Shape]

In the future it would be great if we had the possibility to do war-planning hoi4 style, also with pre-war allied pacts and agreements of neutrality from other countries

 

[bbqftw]

The mamluks really are on their own tier of mind blowing stupidity.

Last night had instructed them to siege mushasha's capital. Well they did not want to do this so they walk to Qatif. The problem being you have to walk around the entire peninsula due to certain fort zocs. At which point they realized they didn't want to siege Qatif. So they walked all the way across the Arabian desert again and up through Syria then through Iraq.

This could be helped if objectives set were actually seriously prioritized by the AI. Right now they are ignored the vast majority of the time.

Honestly right now a lot of early game wars which are player + strong AI vs strong AI are simply decided by who's AI malfunctions less.

Earlier in the campaign I had ottoman afk 20k stacks on Rhodes for an entire war causing their entire downfall. On the one hand it sort of feels like a bummer to win the war that way, on the other hand with the mamluks apt to have half their army wander off to desiege rebels in the middle of nowhere you take the good with the bad.

 

[bbqftw]

As for karaman starts. If the mamluk AI is causing you too much brain damage, you can restart until mehmed is an administrator. This allows you to ally ottomans day 1.

Chew on dulkadir, wait until ottoman hit tech 4 then declare on the mamluks. They run over the mamluks with such horrifying efficiency. 3:1 casualty ratio in a well executed war and 2:1 even if playing sloppy.

In vh its the difference between a 3 hour microfest with 20 loans and 20 war ex declaring vs ottoman and something you can speed 3 through with minimal loans and hardly any war ex (you do need to shepherd the ottoman around but it's a lot more pleasant)

 

[Cataphract887]

I have to wonder if the AI is esspecially bad in the latest patch. Last game I just started up an hour ago, I was able to ally ottomans from the start as a french custom and did it just for the laughs. While waiting on other stuff I watched them dow albania who brought in knights and several other tiny little powers with small armies. The ottos had two armies with nearly 20k each. They ran back and fourth endlessly in the middle of their nation while losing multiple forts to 6k stack sieges, even the capitol...!! The one thing they managed to siege down was Albania itself, and after a many year wait they finally got the 100% score and got the annexation peace. Their capitol was still in the hands of the knights at this point!

 

[Politic Revolutionnaire]

I have to wonder if the AI is esspecially bad in the latest patch. Last game I just started up an hour ago, I was able to ally ottomans from the start as a french custom and did it just for the laughs. While waiting on other stuff I watched them dow albania who brought in knights and several other tiny little powers with small armies. The ottos had two armies with nearly 20k each. They ran back and fourth endlessly in the middle of their nation while losing multiple forts to 6k stack sieges, even the capitol...!! The one thing they managed to siege down was Albania itself, and after a many year wait they finally got the 100% score and got the annexation peace. Their capitol was still in the hands of the knights at this point!

Ottomans are just taking winning at all costs to the next tier.

 

[Knight of the Black Rose]

i've seen the ottoman army circling in east siberia when russia occupies all of crimean-moldovian area.

AI needs to be in old system (pre rom) when their priority was sieging castles far more than hanging around.

 

[Sukramo]

Pretty sure every AI is just as stupid. I just had two of my CNs lose a huge chunk of territories in their colonial wars, despite severely outnumbering their enemies. They just let their enemies siege out their provinces while they stood in the middle of nowhere.

This too. Had my Oman colonial nations start 4 wars that they ultimatly lost. My Brazil colony of 20 provinces get fully anexed. RIP merchant.