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3 movement units have always been a problem for the AI when they launch their attacks. You might have an AI attack for example, where 18 tanks move next to your city to end their turn, and 3 cavs (with 3 movement) attack. Naturally, your next move would be to blow the tanks away with everything you have, even though under human control, those 18 tanks would be quite devastating. The short of it is that the AI has a problem of showing their hand (target) with poorly planned unit movements that allow players time to counter.
After observing enough games, I've come to the conclusion that a potential (easy) fix might be to simply tell the AI to prioritize 3 movement units with a preference towards targeting cities /targets that they can reach in the same turn.
Attacking important targets on the same turn, can really blow our socks off by. (ie: I declaration of war followed by an all out assault on cities within reach by the fastest unit, followed by the 2nd fast and so on). This means the mobile 3 move units go in first. And the 2 movement unit can follow. Defensive units then move last, finding the path that allows them to stop on top of the 3 movement or 2 movement stacks. The idea here is for the fastest units to go first, the slower units will then try to find alternate paths that will allow them to end the turn stacked with the faster units (if possible). This is of course, a common human strategy.
Alternatively, if targets are too far for a 3 movement unit to attack in their first turn, the stack can simply move like a turtle, with the defensive unit (slowest) determining the pace of the rest of the stack. I believe this is done by the AI currently, but i'm putting it out there just to cover all bases.
An implicit advantage here is that this also partially solved the combined arms issue as movement based attack priorities would imply that the AI would go through a set order and send units of a certain type. Later in the game for example, cavalry charges will precede a tank attack. I don't know about other players but during the transition from tank to cavalry, I like to send my expendable cavalry to soften up a target first then move in with my tanks. pre-tanks, Cavalry go in first, which make some sense, and assuming some sort of tech parity, cavalry being the fastest unit in the late middle ages tend to be used first anyways, because of their Attack power and range.
I think this prioritizing is possible to do with the current engine. I doubt we'll see it, but any comments are welcome.
After observing enough games, I've come to the conclusion that a potential (easy) fix might be to simply tell the AI to prioritize 3 movement units with a preference towards targeting cities /targets that they can reach in the same turn.
Attacking important targets on the same turn, can really blow our socks off by. (ie: I declaration of war followed by an all out assault on cities within reach by the fastest unit, followed by the 2nd fast and so on). This means the mobile 3 move units go in first. And the 2 movement unit can follow. Defensive units then move last, finding the path that allows them to stop on top of the 3 movement or 2 movement stacks. The idea here is for the fastest units to go first, the slower units will then try to find alternate paths that will allow them to end the turn stacked with the faster units (if possible). This is of course, a common human strategy.
Alternatively, if targets are too far for a 3 movement unit to attack in their first turn, the stack can simply move like a turtle, with the defensive unit (slowest) determining the pace of the rest of the stack. I believe this is done by the AI currently, but i'm putting it out there just to cover all bases.
An implicit advantage here is that this also partially solved the combined arms issue as movement based attack priorities would imply that the AI would go through a set order and send units of a certain type. Later in the game for example, cavalry charges will precede a tank attack. I don't know about other players but during the transition from tank to cavalry, I like to send my expendable cavalry to soften up a target first then move in with my tanks. pre-tanks, Cavalry go in first, which make some sense, and assuming some sort of tech parity, cavalry being the fastest unit in the late middle ages tend to be used first anyways, because of their Attack power and range.
I think this prioritizing is possible to do with the current engine. I doubt we'll see it, but any comments are welcome.
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