14 DAY TRIAL // One of the most annoying moments in the Hannibal at the Gates expansion for Total War: Rome II is when I face an enemy who has three different armies involved in the battle and he chooses to retreat with his main force in order to create a larger army and then descend on my defensive line.
The feeling is generated by the very careful way the Artificial Intelligence moves its troops around and places them in position before starting a slow advance, with the whole process sometimes taking as much as ten minutes, which is a long time even with the simulation running at maximum speed.
The upside of all the waiting and frustration is the fact that, once formed into a battle line, the AI can deliver a solid tactical challenge to the player, especially if he has enough cavalry to cover its wings and enjoys at least a small numerical advantage.
There are early game battles that I lost in Hannibal at the Gates, mostly because I tended to be too eager to exploit a small gap in the enemy line and threw my own forces forward too quickly, and I tended to compensate for my superior skill by simulating some of the battles in which the computer was heavily favored.
The one element that Total War: Rome II does not seem to be able to get right is siege battles, where even a rather small garrison can take out huge numbers of enemies as long as they use the walls well, especially when having defensive weapons.
Those are the battles I have a tendency to simulate in order to keep the entire experience a little more fair.
Unfortunately, the AI does not cope well on the strategic map in Hannibal at the Gates and tends to use its various armies and especially navies in ways that do not make too much sense at times.
The computer does know how to harass using its agents, especially when I advance to its core provinces, and does raid when I conquer cities in order to encourage revolts.
But, at one point, the Romans have two full armies at sea near a well-defended North Africa even as Hannibal himself was leading two big armies that were ready to take a poorly protected Rome.
The Creative Assembly has pledged to deliver more patches for Total War: Rome II and I certainly hope that they can improve on these behaviors.