The IA masters the tactic of hit and run. Every time it has ranged units, and you charge at them with cavalry or infantry. said ranged unit will retreat, but then it will stop, shoot, and retreat again with perect timing. And, since it’s a computer, it can do it with every ranged unit individually.
It’s irritating, of course. But here’s the thing: I don’t remember the IA doing it in 1999. I may be remembering it wrong, since 20 years have passed from the original Age of Empires II. The IA has had an overhaul in the latest installements, so, what’s the deal here? Does the improvement in the artificial intelligence brought this new mastery of hit and run, or has it always been like that? I just re-played the Joan of Arc campaign, so you can understand how angry I am. Actually, come to think of it, the Dos Pilas scenario also has your purple opponent sending Archers and Skirmishers and making them run when you try to get up close to them and provoking you to scream.
Players also do this, so yeah, not sure what else to add. Most people don’t want their expensive archers to die, so it makes sense that neither does the AI.
The AI has always been doing this as far as I can recall, and it results in completely different meta against it. Typically mangonels are rather bad because the AI will dodge most shots. Imo that’s stupid and I would like an option to remove it, it makes it the AI a very bad practice opponent.
Adding realistic micro to the AI would be fine. The problem is, no human player would ever be able to dodge like the AI currently does. The AI also does not use formations but rather micro’s every single unit on the map. There’s a middle ground to find between making the AI stronger and making it realistic, currently you can clearly tell you’re playing against a script.
I don’t think the computer should be made less intelligent. If anything, it’s a better sparring partner. I was very happy when I played HD for the first time and found out the new AI in Hard difficulty; it made me learn a lot. Regarding micromanagement to avoid arrows, and mangonel shots, it only makes it clear that a human player would be unable to behave in such way, and that if it wasn’t a computer you’re facing, then you would connect the hit.