Cohesion lost via movement

[McNaughton]

I have been watching the AI carefully, and have found that it has a very difficult time in keeping its unit's cohesion up. It seems like units are almost always in constant momvement, meaning that every turn each unit loses around 15 points (1 point is lost per day of movement for most formations). As turns move along AI units get lower and lower, to the point where large and effective formations have very little, if no, combat strength (have seen entire corps dragged down to single number values for unit strength).

I am going to try and severely cohesion loss for movement, representing cohesion to be solely battle condition of the troops. I have read of many formations fighting extremely well, even after hard marching. Since the AI tends to foul up its forces, while players are much more capable at 'resting' their forces before committing them to battle, that cohesion lost via movement (as it currently is) is just too strong.

Currently, most units have values of 100 (which equate into 100 / 100 = 1, meaning each day a unit keeps in motion they lose 1 cohesion point. 15 days / 1 turn equates upwards of 15 cohesion points lost per turn).

I am thinking of values of 20 (which equate into 20 / 100 = 0.2, meaning that after 5 days in motion, they lose 1 cohesion point. 15 days / 1 turn equates upwards of 3 cohesion points lost per turn).

This drastically reduces, but does not eliminate, cohesion loss that the AI tends to suffer from (while humans can deal with it much better, plus will make attacking slightly more worth while).

[Jabberwock]

Just remember, the cohesion loss values for moving through hostile territory were raised 4 months ago, to limit the ridiculous amount of deep raiding that overly aggressive humans (such as myself) were doing. I think you are looking a the values for moving through friendly territory. For hostile territory I believe it is 3 cohesion lost per day of movement. There is less ahistorical immediate gratification now, but it is more realistic.

My current opponents think I still do a ridiculous amount of deep raiding. If they could only have played against me before 1.04(d?) . . .
ouet:

[McNaughton]

Just remember, the cohesion loss values for moving through hostile territory were raised 4 months ago, to limit the ridiculous amount of deep raiding that aggressive humans (such as myself) were doing. There is less ahistorical immediate gratification now, but it is more realistic.

Well, the AI is generally crippled by this, as I have routinely found entire corps totally worthless, and can steamroll the enemy formations with little effort. For someone who plays primarily against the AI (with PBEM not being an issue), I think that this is an important issue, that should be addressed either through the game engine, or through modding.

I have also been toying with the idea about giving the AI free cohesion via events, to make up for their poor control of their armies.

Anyway, something needs to be done.

[Jabberwock]

I have also been toying with the idea about giving the AI free cohesion via events, to make up for their poor control of their armies.

Anyway, something needs to be done.

That might be a good solution. I'm not trying to discourage you from working on the problem, just pointing out an additional factor.

[McNaughton]

I have just tested the AI Cohesion event, and it seems to be very good, the AI is even a bit more aggressive as a result (since its cohesion is higher, its military value is higher, thereby sees itself as more powerful). Had the CSA AI attempt at re-taking Harper's ferry, and a bloody battle ensued.

[Pocus]

The restless AI syndroma is and has always been a major problem in many games I think... Players tend to move their forces only when they really should, whereas the AIs are more and less inclined to move to a slightly better spot every turn.
I know this problem is one to be fixed in AGE, so if we can work together to at least diminish it, I would be very happy.

As you say, more cohesion = more power = AI feeling more confident in offensive operations.

Also... theorically the AI is supposed to send for resting units which start to be too low on cohesion, do you see that or not in your games?

What I propose you is to send me a save, where you see a far too weakened stack doing something else but resting. I will identify why and hopefully improve the AI logic on that.

[McNaughton]

The difficulty with sending a save is that I am presently doing a lot of stuff with my mod, which means that the save is incompatible with a regular game (although I guess you could pick the save apart...).

[Pocus]

right... I will have to check myself, this should not be too difficult, if only I had ample time.