The AI allways knows how many troops are near your towers and will attack them when it thinks it has the soldiers to take the fight. You can see this trick best in the speedrun of Roman IV of the 1st Roman Campaign (the fight against the egyptian enemy). This is exploited in many missions by blocking their path with soldiers and killing a lot of enemy soldiers without taking to much losses. Therefore they are not attacking until they have reached the tower. The nice thing about this is, that they are send with +. When a tower of the AI is attacked all soldiers in the area (maybe even all soldiers the AI has) are send to the tower. I try to explain some things I have encountered. It is possible to manipulate the AI in some ways. Tipp: Stealing also works on neutral areas. on 'Steal Goods' = They steal goods at the current location + = Work order to target location (they will move to the location, steal goods and walk bach to the current location) on 'Find Resources' = They start looking for minerals at the current location + = Work order to target location (they will move to the location and start looking for minerals immediately afterwards) Tipp: Turning pioneers back to carriers only works when they are standing still or have the + order. on 'Pioneer' = They start pioneering at the current location + = Work order to target location (they will move to the location and start pioneering immediately afterwards) on 'Hold Position' = They hold the position. + = Patrol order between target location and current location + = Move order to target location (they will NOT stop for anything) = Attack order to target location (they will stop for any enemy on the way and attack them) + = Select all units of a soldier type (swords, bows or lances) on screen The priority is allways: soldiers > priests > pioneers > geolegists > thiefs. If you try to select different unit types only one type is selected. There are also handy ways to select units. Following list shows what orders a unit may receive from the player. Most controlable units have a 'standard' move order given by right clicks and a secondary move order giving by holding while right clicking. This guide is still work in progress, but I thought I might as well show the information I have gathered so far.

Settlers 3