Observation: Berzerker dwarf versus level 3 wraith

[shevegen]

I am playing a lich campaign right now - quite fine so far.

My undead army enters some dwarf fortress in a cave. I noticed that berzerkers (the opponent dwarf
recruits some berzerker dwarves) keep on suicide-running on my wraith. That is, there is no way they
can win such a fight, the wraith will regenerate, but the zerkers keep on trying to hit them. The enemy
already lost 3 berzerkers and will continue to have all berzerkers die.

I assume the current implementation may not factor in regeneration? Otherwise it would not
throw the berzerkers in.

I think in that event, e. g. in pseudocode, "if can not reach other units", then it may be better for
the berzerker to simply occupy key positions instead, cities or areas where the chance to
injure the berzerker is small, ideally away from ranged units. I have not looked at the code,
and the current code may make sense for most of the other units, but for berzerkers the code is
probably not ideal and should include an additional check towards enemies' regeneration.
(Without regeneration the level 3 wraith would sooner or later die. But with regeneration
the wraith just keeps on regenerating during combat and the berzerker never seems able
to kill any wraith yet keeps on suiciding on the wraith.)

[beetlenaut]

If you check the damage calculations, you will find that the dwarf can win that fight. It's only a 16% chance to kill on good terrain, but the AI is usually set to be aggressive enough to try. There is a better chance that they will do some damage to the wraith, making it more vulnerable to later attacks. Aggressiveness would need to be turned out pretty low for them not to care about trying to damaging the most dangerous enemy (even when they will probably lose the unit).

You are right that the AI doesn't know how to use berserker units though. They should guard key positions like you said.