AI sieges

[felipye]

I have been playing RoP against AI for some time now and I have to say I like the challenge very much. However, one thing seems to happen over and over again and it sometimes really messes with the game balance.

AI armies seem all to eager to abandon (almost) successful sieges and start long marches through harsh weather back to home regions, thus exposing themselves to heavy attrition losses and making our job sometimes too easy.

Example from my latest game:

AI Frederick slipped past Pirna and laid siege to Prag with 4 corps. All of my Austrian forces are skulking in Koenigsgratz, out of reach.
Two turns later there are two breaches in Prag fortress walls and the garrison defending would be a pushover for mighty forces of Friedich if they assaulted. However, it is late October (i think) and the first snows fall. Immediately, Friedrich abandons the siege and all of his corps start the long march north, where by the time they reach safety of Dresden they will be half eaten by attrition losses and I will have ample time to march my reinforcements from Wien as soon as they are released.

So, my strategic choice to not oppose Prussians around Lobositz and Prag does not end in Prussians having a strong supply base in Bohemia, but instead ends in me preserving my armies for free and Prussians spending winter far from my cities.

I understand that real armies would not have the benefit of knowing when the besieged fortresses would fall and could decide to abandon sieges and retreat for supply concerns, but in cases like this retreating will lead to much worse losses that assaulting (not to mention that assaulting would have brought them a supply base and effectively preserved the entire army throughout the winter).

Ok, to stop ranting, I believe the games would be much more challenging if computer stuck to their sieges a bit longer as now it all too often makes a sudden retreat that ends up saving its opponent.

[Moogel]

I dont know about this example. As prussia i took Prag before that first winter, but was unable to winter there because lack of supplies. In the end i had to leave there very small garrison and pull back to dresden. So maybe instead of waiting to city to fall, AI should have gone back before the winter's first snow

[caranorn]

Yes, so late in the season as a human player I'd also withdraw at least most of my forces, even if Prague was largely breached. Even if it's assaultable (2 breaches in a level 2 fortification), the Prussian forces might not have been active (though that's unprobable considering the good strat rating of most Prussian leaders). In the end I prefer to see the ai withdraw and take some losses then see them stay, maybe take the city, and then starve and freeze to death...