Quick Question

[beldurax]

Looking at buying into this series ... wondering how smart the AI is ?

[bkosar19]

It's barely competent. It's bad even by PC gaming standards.

The Civil War AI does function a bit better than the Napoleonic games' AI due to the movement rules being more forgiving. So, it can't disorder as many units by marching them into broken terrain or by stacking infantry and cavalry together as does the Napoleonic AI. But it's lousy at everything: sighting artillery, handling its cavalry, and protecting its leaders. It can be marginally effective on the defense, but it's hopeless on the attack unless it has massive odds in its favor and/or the player ramps-up its ability to inflict damage by way of the handicap slider.

The only good thing that I can say about the Tiller engine's AI is that it's always available. If you just want to play a bunch of turns in a single sitting or play through an entire scenario all in one go then the AI works for that purpose. But it's neither an effective nor an interesting opponent.