Unofficialcrusaderpatch: AI should recruit more units for castle defence

[ByBurton]

As probably everyone here knows, all AI lords, but some especially, are pretty weird when it comes to static castle defenders.

Let us take the Rat for example: It seems to put some men on the walls when the game starts, and then some more the first 5 minutes. But then later in the game they seem to almost never be replaced when killed. Also they are just too few.
This seems to be the case for every AI lord, although some seem to be able to put more men on the towers / walls.
Now, I would love if this behaviour would be improved.
Have the AI always try to replace their dead defenders as soon as possible. Highest priority probably.
Increase the number of units each ai opponent places on the walls / towers. Especially for: Rat, Philip, Richard.

I have already mentioned that in #5 . But I feel like it reaches more people here.

Edit: I know this could be bad for AI vs AI matches, as they already have difficulties sieging each other.
Improving their defensive power would just lengthen most matches. But I believe it would still be a very nice addition.

[Panbutt]

Agreed. Certain AIs simply take waaaaaaay too long to retrain killed tower crew. Sheriff, Marshal and Saladin also suffer from this where they simply take so dang long to to retrain tower archers that they might as well not.

Something else to consider (Somewhat Off Topic) is to remove the hard limit of ranged units certain AIs can train for attack forces. This can be observed with Richard, Rat and Marshal. They train very little archers even if they have an extremely large army, removing that weird limit could allow them to counter tower crews better. Balance out better defenses with better sieges.

[PitchNeeded]

There is still the issue with Emir where he will be slow to recruit European archers for defence if he is not planning on attacking an enemy with a moat. Put Emir in a 1 v 1 against any AI without a moat and you will see this happening.

Another issue with Emir, on Crusader mode (high starting troops), he won't man his towers at all with Arabian archers or European archers. He starts with loads of horse archers instead of Arabian archers and unless these starting horse archers are killed (through a castle fire or something) he won't man his towers in Crusader mode.

It would be good if it could be made so that Sultan still leaves some Arabian archers behind on the keep if he is attacking. Of course it would be excellent too if Sultan could man his lookout towers at least with Arabian archers.

[Heroesflorian]

This seems to be the case for every AI lord, although some seem to be able to put more men on the towers / walls.

Definitely not for every AI lord, but certainly for a lot of them. E.g. Abbot, Marshal, Snake, Pig, Wolf seem to do pretty well in that regard, given the towers remain accessible (yes, mangonels, I look at you!) and the AI has enough gold to afford it.

Agreed. Certain AIs simply take waaaaaaay too long to retrain killed tower crew. Sheriff, Marshal and Saladin also suffer from this where they simply take so dang long to to retrain tower archers that they might as well not.

Marshal in particular actually does fine (with decent castles and/or the patch) - he only takes long to re-occupy his towers when he lacks bows or gold and thus cannot recruit archers as he would like. But indeed, a lot of AI characters have that issue - also Sultan (especially his fire throwers), for example.

Something else to consider (Somewhat Off Topic) is to remove the hard limit of ranged units certain AIs can train for attack forces. This can be observed with Richard, Rat and Marshal. They train very little archers even if they have an extremely large army, removing that weird limit could allow them to counter tower crews better. Balance out better defenses with better sieges.

Indeed, a bunch of AI characters mostly just increase their melee troops with each attack, and barely (or not at all) stock up their ranged troops. Very unfortunate and would be a very welcome change!

[PitchNeeded]

It would also be good if Saladin, Emir and Wazir could use some slingers on their towers alongside their archers. Slingers are cheap and quite good against melee troops attacking walls below. Slingers would also be good against any enemy horse archers that came too close to the walls.

[ByBurton]

It would also be good if Saladin, Emir and Wazir could use some slingers on their towers alongside their archers. Slingers are cheap and quite good against melee troops attacking walls below. Slingers would also be good against any enemy horse archers that came too close to the walls.

The Caliph was meant to use them.

[PitchNeeded]

It would also be good if Saladin, Emir and Wazir could use some slingers on their towers alongside their archers. Slingers are cheap and quite good against melee troops attacking walls below. Slingers would also be good against any enemy horse archers that came too close to the walls.

The Caliph was meant to use them.

I think I remember now seeing that on his AIV castles before.

I think that some slingers on towers along with the archers would be good for Emir particularly, as his archers can struggle to fire at enemy units attacking his walls and slingers can fire downwards from the top of walls well. Wazir, Saladin and Sheriff could also benefit from some too!

[ByBurton]

Every single AI would be much harder to siege, if they had decent manned walls & towers.
And if they would give defensive units priority above everything else.
(If a defensive unit is missing, replace it instead of recruiting for a siege, harassment or economy defence squad)

[PitchNeeded]

Yep all of them apart from Nizar, Snake and Marshall (who already man their towers well), could do with more well manned towers.

Some of the stronger AIs could also use portable shields on towers too, like many human players do!

[ByBurton]

Yep all of them apart from Nizar, Snake and Marshall (who already man their towers well)

That is actually not completely true. Nazir only mans the view towers he has well. Not exceptionally well.
I would still say ALL of them should increase their defensive units and focus more on retraining lost ones.

[Sh0wdown]

Fixed in v2.11 and now editable with AICs.