Smarter battles, busier rivals

The battle AI has been reworked from your reports: cavalry that goes where you send it, enemy archers that shoot back, sieges that look like sieges, and rival courts that take more of the map. Live now in the full game and the free demo.

This update is about the AI, and most of it started with your reports. I went through every comment about battle behaviour I could find on Steam and Bilibili, measured what the armies were actually doing across hundreds of simulated battles, and changed the parts that were wrong. Here is what you will notice.

One right-click on the enemy archers. The riders go round the spears and into the bows. Recorded in the current build.

Your cavalry goes where you send it

The most common complaint was cavalry sent at enemy archers getting stuck in the infantry in front of them, then needing five or six orders to come back. Riders ordered onto a group of archers now ride past the spears and hit the archers. In my test battle, cavalry sent around the flank used to make no contact with the archers at all; now most of its contacts land on them.

The riders went for the archers and left the spears alone.

Pulling cavalry out of a fight takes one order again, including a right-click. Before, riders ordered back with a right-click picked the nearest enemy straight back up, and in two battles out of three they never got out. Now they disengage on the first order every time.

One right-click behind the lines, and they come away.

Enemy archers shoot instead of shuffling

The AI's archers used to back away from anything that came near, and an archer who is walking is not shooting. Against charging cavalry they spent most of the battle idle with a target in range. They now hold and shoot while their own infantry covers them or your troops are still coming, and give ground only to slow infantry that gets close. Their idle time against charging cavalry fell from 62 percent to 13.

They are harder to catch, too. When your horse rides at their archers, a nearby enemy spear company steps in front of them and braces. And archers your infantry catches in melee fall back behind their own foot instead of fighting it out.

The enemy archers stand and shoot behind their spears.

Enemy cavalry waits for its moment

AI cavalry used to charge in within the first ten seconds of a battle. It now holds on the wing until the lines meet, then rides round for your archers, commits to one charge and rests before the next. Watch your bows once the infantry locks up.

You can read the enemy's plan

When an enemy company starts something you should react to, the command bar tells you: "Their horse rides for our flank.", "They storm the gate.", "Ladders go up on the wall." or "Their archers fall back." It only speaks when the company is on your screen, and not more than once every ten seconds.

The field report line names what the enemy is doing.

Sieges look like sieges

When the AI storms your walls, it no longer crowds dozens of men against the gate under the oil. A crew works the ram while the rest of the company waits back, out of the oil and arrows, and feeds the crew as it thins.

A crew at the ram, the rest held back.

When you storm theirs, the garrison's archers man the walls while the gate holds, and when it gives they pull back into the courtyard to form up behind their spearmen.

The garrison's archers hold the wall while the gate stands.

Rival courts finish what they start

On the campaign map, rival offensives were often stuck waiting for their best general to recover, and their armies sat outside the walls until time ran out. Command now passes to the first lord fit to march. Sieges that are resolved off-screen also now match how those sieges go when they are fought. Together, about a fifth more towns and cities change hands over the first 90 days. Expect a map that moves.

Fixes

• Pressing Esc on the New Campaign screen no longer crashes the game.
• The title menu keeps every option on screen at 2K, 4K, 720p and on the Steam Deck.
• The Officers screen keeps its place after each order.
• Damaged save files are refused before they can load a broken campaign.
• Very large co-op campaign turns are split so they reach the other player.

Send me your battles

The game now keeps your last twelve finished battles. If your army does something that looks wrong, find the files in %APPDATA%\The Land Divides\replays (the demo keeps them in %APPDATA%\Three Kingdoms Reimagined Steam Demo\replays) and attach the newest one to your report. I can replay the exact battle and see what each company was told to do.

Thank you for the reports. Keep them coming.

Jeremy