Just played against the Russian AI and it seems to really love sending hordes of strelets into melee against musketeers…even without the Sovnya card so they have low attack and trade really bad in melee.
Don’t think it was like this before (but it was quite impressive to watch XD).
Also I always have the impression for a long time that the AI would have a bunch of musketeers walking around in melee (or maybe stagger, because they are similar)
Does the AI switch their range units into melee too often and unnecessarily?
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Great thing AoE3 DE AI tries to be as realistic as possible
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Strelets do more damage to musketeers in melee. (They also die faster to musketeers in melee because they have ranged resist).
I think they go into melee to maximize damage output, but its clearly not the best move.
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damn this is true, I had to review it and I think that at distance they do 20 damage (1 shot rate of fire 3) while cac they do 24 (2 shots, rate of fire 1.5
Yes when I say they trade poorly I’m also taking resistance into account.
This is universally true, all LI trade badly with HI in melee. But this seems to be a strelet thing, japan AI doesn’t send yumi hand to hand with musks.
Maybe that’s also occasional, like something triggered the AI to make such decisions.
I’ll double check later.
It did happen to me too, but just the 1 time vs my weakened army.
One thing that still happens is the “ranged melee” that the AI does. Played vs Russia and the Rekruts sniped a Dragoon doing that 
Seems they do it when the AI accepts there’s no way to save those units.
I hate that this is a thing SOOOO MUCH.
I do have a feeling that it is tied to their range.