This thread is more then a little off topic. Anyway after playing I am not noticing a huge difference from 1.12. Mostly because the things that bug me are still around and I guess I tend to focus on them. Here is what I have found after playing one long game in 1.2.
Good
-The AI goes for magic victory with half decent skill. Although it's usually hard for them to build up that 150 crystals and 500 mana.
-Switching out units in tactical combat to maximize damage and save wounded units. Very very cool.
-They garrison their cities.
-They produce a lot of units.
-They have high level champions.
Bad
-In tactical combat sometimes the AI's units could move and attack my vulnerable units like archers but choose to keep trading blows with my tanks instead.
-They don't seem to cast a lot of magic in tactical. They need to waste less mana on monsters and stuff I guess. When fighting monsters they should use more troops and less mana maybe?
-AI sovereigns and champions still run into my territory and next to my stacks alone. Very very annoying. Seriously there is never a good reason for the AI to put units within a single turns movement of my armies. It should never happen.
-AI spreads its units very thin. The best defense is a good offense. Instead of putting 4-5 units in every city and having your sovereign wander around alone how about combining them to take out my stack? The best defense against a big stack is to gather your own stack. The AI has more then enough units it simply isn't combining them.
-It builds fortresses on spots with low production. You should only build fortresses in high production locations.
-It declares war on players without having an army on the border. I just rolled over Rosoln after they declared war on me because they had no troops near me at all. They should only declare war if they plan on entering my territory with an army the next turn.
Conclusions
The big problem with the AI is definitely its strategic control of units. It sends it's champions and sovereigns out alone into deathtraps way too much. It also builds tons of units but can't deal with players stacks because it splits its units up among all its cities and tons of small armies.
If the AI sees a stack it needs to check how strong it is. Weaker unit groups should fall back and for absolutely no reason what so ever enter within attacking distance of the stack, ever. Nearby cities should be reinforced and used as staging grounds where the AI can combine all it's small armies into big ones. Also if the city is not within 3-4 turns of the enemy stack the troops should move out of the city to reinforce other cities that are threatened, taking advantage of their higher movement in their own territory.
If the AI gathers an army with roughly equal or superior strength then that army should attack the enemy stack. The AI shoves too many units into cities and just forgets about them or has them wandering around solo while it is under attack. Bottom line is every time the AI encounters an enemy army it needs to gather its own army with equal or greater toughness to deal with it, even if it has to give new orders to all its units.
