Hi, I was playing a game with tons of islands (So I could create lots of colonies) on Noble. I met the French, I fairly large country, and the scroll icon religon (Confection I think it's called). I was Jewish (and Dutch) so I sent tons of emissaries to him. I converted him to Jewish for a bit. We became very good friends, and I even a Civic he liked. All of a suden, he delcares war on me. I was scared since I only had 5 men, guarding my 5 cities (for the happyness bounce). He sent 6 Swordsman in 3 galleys. I marched sailed tords my land and cam close to my island... when all of a sudden he dropped his army (the 6 guys) off on a very tiny island. His galleys where sent away. Was Napoleon (French leader) hit in the head with a pebble?

Was he at war with anyone else?
Or was the island in your culture zone?

Ah Confection, sweetest of all religions.

You have just learned a valuable lesson: diplomacy is useless, your army is everything.

AIs have a crush on small islands. Maybe Firaxis staff have been working too much and dreaming about their vacations, or listening to early Madonna, La Isla Bonita.

Now, seriously, you have to pay attention to the different leaders personalities. Shellshock-deranged war freaks - as Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Shaka, Catherine and Maddog Montezuma - will betray you if they think you're a wimp - and more often, even if they don't. While the tree-hugging dudes, as Gandhi, Mansa Musa and Roosevelt, are more reliable IF they think attacking you will not be a tea in the afternoon with their auntie Olivia. You have to remember: always build an attacking stack and place it where your rivals can see it, as in border cities. Always build walls and castles, and always keep your border defensive forces upgraded. I've played several peaceful games in Noble by doing that way. By peaceful I mean no surprises: they idiots would come, having the LS beat out of them and then go, while the peace-loving dudes would keep to their place, making their suspicious peace-fumes, eventually asking me to join the party.

You have to remember: always build an attacking stack and place it where your rivals can see it, as in border cities.

I disagree here. If you do that, you trigger a military competition. AI will start to make lots of military units and put it in the nearest city close to your stack. Put your stack inside your city.

Always build walls and castles, and always keep your border defensive forces upgraded.

Make walls and castles only at cities that might be attacked. That's one of the firaxis tips at startup.

Actually I build castles at any city where I need more culture and trade routes.

Well, I'm a Gandhi, where peace is nice. Sadly, his army remains on that island, and they still are enough to conquer at least 4 of my cities, but he is about to surrender on his main land, so his one mistake costed him the game. BTW, I destroy and transports trying to enter the island.

Is AI on Noble, stupid?

It is supposed to be stupid.

Ah Confection, sweetest of all religions.

:lol: :goodjob:

those confection pagans, they pray to chocolate bunny statues. :bowdown:

lovin the confection :lol:

It is called Confucianism, not Confection ;)

well the ai is not stupid someone programmed the AI. So it is actually the one who made the AI.

well the ai is not stupid someone programmed the AI. So it is actually the one who made the AI.

Lol as if it were that easy to program a good AI in a game where there are TONS of variables to consider :rolleyes:

... Make walls and castles only at cities that might be attacked. That's one of the firaxis tips at startup.

Actually I build castles at any city where I need more culture and trade routes.

Don't forget that castles also give you +25% espionage.

Lol as if it were that easy to program a good AI in a game where there are TONS of variables to consider :rolleyes:

Well no one is saying that it's easy to program an AI, or even that the AI for this game was poorly concieved. It's just a simple fact that AI's don't arise out of thin air - someone has to program the thing!

Did he never come back or something? I often use that trick when building up for a war when I have limited transport capacity, however I don't usually declare war yet... I'll start shuffling troops to a little island off the coast I want to attack, ideally one turn of ship movement away. Then once I figure I have enough troops on that island to take a couple cities and hold the line for a few turns, I'll get all my ships standing by there, load them up, declare war and land with as many troops as possible. The beauty of it is that your next wave of reinforcements is only 2 turns away, whereas the return trip to your capital and back could be 8, 10, even 20 turns long. This lets you use a lot fewer transports/galleons than you would otherwise, enabling you to keep on cranking out the ground troops.

Well no one is saying that it's easy to program an AI, or even that the AI for this game was poorly concieved. It's just a simple fact that AI's don't arise out of thin air - someone has to program the thing!

And remember, my dear CIV FANATICS fellows, that a established years-old community sharing EVERY flaw and EVERY exploit and EVERY hint in a forum is not, let's say, the most natural way to play a game, is it? We're the nightmare of any developer, even far worse when we are talking about a plotless game that you may well not grow tired of the rest of your life.

Can anyone here sincerely say that she/he would be playing (and winning, and exploiting) as she/he is now without ever knowing this or other forums? I get ahead and say it myself: I only managed to win on Noble after learning from other players here. And Noble level, except if I always do the exact same routine, using the same leader and the same map, is challenging enough for me. I find it frustrating to have the AI receiving magical bonuses on the levels above - seems like a Final Fight boss battle, not a Civilization simulation at all - in other words, too much of a videogame, in the Super Mario sense.