Does the AI ever build barricades/fortresses?

I can't remember ever seeing them build one. Though I think I've seen the AI use pre-placed ones, or ones that I built.

If the AI does build them, are there any ways to motivate the AI to build them more often?

That brings me to another question. Does the AI build colonies to get resources outside it's territory? I'm pretty sure it doesn't but I hope I'm wrong.

They build them all the time in my games. In fact that is how I get most of my barricades and fortresses, by taking over: AI colonies, barricades and fortresses.

It definitely builds colonies, and I also always see them building fortresses on their colony tiles as well. I haven't ever seen them build fortresses or barricades off of tiles with a colony, though.

Well that's good news guys. I guess I'm just not observant enough when playing. I'll look more closely from now on, and maybe do some tests.

Thanks for posts.

For offensive/defensive units that have the ability to build fortresses/barricades, this is something I never see if that Civ is in a locked alliance. I believe they do build them (rarely) if not at war though.

Tom

I'm pretty sure I've seen them build Fortresses/Barricades at one-tile chokepoints before, although I can't guarantee that was C3C instead of Vanilla. But considering how rare one-tile chokepoints are, that's a pretty rare occurence.

The AI builds all of it; colonies, fortresses and barricades. Perhaps only fortresses/barricades at chokepoints, because I've only seen it once, and this was on a chokepoint. It was a double fortress (2 tiles) that the Byzantines had built against their warring neighbours, the Babylonians. This was in a regular Conquests game.

The AI only builds fortress/barricades where they can be sure that an enemy simply won't walk around their defenses; in one of those very rare one or two tile-wide peninsulas.

The AI builds colonies only if its strictly better than placing a city would be; which obviously, very rarely happens.

In my upcoming mod CCM the AI frequently buils colonies and when possible, these colonies later will be replaced with cities.

Thanks for posts guys.

That's interesting about chokepoints. Seems likely there are certain factors that make it more or less likely the AI will build colonies and fortresses.

The main thing for me is that they deffinitely build all of them. I'n not sure why I haven't seen it happen much, as some of you seem to have seen it a lot. I'd love to see the AI building lots of fortresses in good defensive positions. I'm thinking about this for a scenario, so perhaps I can try and engineer a larger than usuall number of chokepoints. It's a maximum size map though will four huge continents, so not much opportunity for one tile squares. Perhaps if they are quicker to build the AI might be more likely to build them.

Actually I wonder if size of map has anything to do with how often they build colonies?

Optional: I would have loved to see that two tile Byzantine fortresses defense.

Optional: I would have loved to see that two tile Byzantine fortresses defense.http://s408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/Hynsterider/ByzDefence.jpg

http://s408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/Hynsterider/ByzDefence.jpg

How do we know that's a generic map? :mischief:

Anyway, I have always seen the AI build colonies. (In fact, many wars were started between me and AIs because of colonies) They also use colonies if, for example, tundra = no cities and there are resources out there that they want. As for fortresses and etc, I have seen varied uses in every other game. Once, Spain built forts on all tiles containing resources. And, though it's rare, the AI does see & use choke-points. But like I said, It only happens in like every other game I play. (Or maybe they do, but I wouldn't know since I don't usually play all the way through the middle age. :rolleyes: )

How do we know that's a generic map? :mischief:I still have saves of this game, so if you are asking whether this was a random generated map I can tell you the map properties. I'm usually adjusting the default map sizes a bit, and this appears to have been a large map, where I've gone for a size of 134 x 134 (instead of 130 x 130), but apart from that it's still randomly generated:
seed 414585;
continents;
normal climate;
temperate;
4 billion years.
If you put that in the editor, you'll find the Byzantine starting peninsula in the south-west. The editor always seems to put the exact starting spots in different places from the game itself. In game, the Byz started right on top of that middle cow, so that's where Constantinopel ended up. We human players don't like to put our cities right on top of cattle, but you know how the AI is.. ;)

I think this is the only time I've ever seen the AI build this type of defense. I don't even know whether this is a fortress or a barricade, so unfamiliar am I with them.
The circumstances are quite specific: You'll spot Smyrna in the east, now Babylonian, but formerly Byzantine of course. So there's been a war, and the exact area of the chokepoint has become the front. And that chokepoint/front is still owned by the defenders, the Byzantines. So I assume this was ideal for putting up this type of defenses.

But you're right Logitech, I think the AI also has a habit of putting defenses on colonies, if they've got those. So if you've modded your game to make certain terrain unsettleable, you'll see them more often, I suppose.
And you'll probably see them more on lower levels, where the cultural expansion of the AI is slower, so more opportunity to take that resource in by founding a colony.

Thanks for the screen shot Optional so pretty.

This is all very incouraging for me. I plan to have a scenario with lots of unsettleable terrains types, so I could see a lot of colonies and thus fortresses. Am I right in thinking you don't actually see the fortress while the colony exists, because only the colony graphic is displayed?

Thanks for the screen shot Optional so pretty.

This is all very incouraging for me. I plan to have a scenario with lots of unsettleable terrains types, so I could see a lot of colonies and thus fortresses. Am I right in thinking you don't actually see the fortress while the colony exists, because only the colony graphic is displayed?

Yes, I believe that is correct, the colony should display over the fortress/barricade, so you wouldn't be able to see it.

Tom

Yes, I believe that is correct, the colony should display over the fortress/barricade, so you wouldn't be able to see it.

Tom

Not until culture expands your territory over the colony anyway. I guess I could up the generation rate for culture to speed up the process of Fortresses becoming visible. If your territory spread too quickly there would of course be no need for the colonies though, so maybe not.

Nick

I see them build fortresses on colonies but never barricades

I see them build fortresses on colonies but never barricades

Isn't a barricade what you build first then upgrade to a fortress? Or am I confusing the names?

It's fortress > barricade. I would expect it the other way round more in real life, though.

http://s408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/Hynsterider/Barricade.jpg

It's fortress > barricade. I would expect it the other way round more in real life, though.

http://s408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/Hynsterider/Barricade.jpg

Yes you are completely right. And it really doesn't make sense does it. A barricade is really just some kind of obstruction blocking a road or gateway or something isn't it? It's definitely not something more imposing than a fortress.

Thanks for going to the trouble of putting in a screenshot.

Cheers

Nick

I think what they had in mind with barricades is to represent (from a war standpoint), things like: Barbed wire fences, trenches, tank obstacles (like the hedgehog), moats, etc. As it doubles the fortress' defensive, that is probably a good value, after all, unless an army was completely prepared to take down or to get around obstacles quickly, it will make them sitting ducks as they struggle with it. Just look at D-Day for instance (in which they were prepared for obstacles), but still had a difficult time taking them down.

Tom

I think what they had in mind with barricades is to represent (from a war standpoint), things like: Barbed wire fences, trenches, tank obstacles (like the hedgehog), moats, etc. As it doubles the fortress' defensive, that is probably a good value, after all, unless an army was completely prepared to take down or to get around obstacles quickly, it will make them sitting ducks as they struggle with it. Just look at D-Day for instance (in which they were prepared for obstacles), but still had a difficult time taking them down.

Tom

Quite right. Actually that point occured to me last night after I made my post when I was trying to sleep but failing because I had Civ on the brain.

Nick

Quite right. Actually that point occured to me last night after I made my post when I was trying to sleep but failing because I had Civ on the brain.

Nick

Speaking of thinking, since I got Spore this really cool game, I cant stop thinking about what I'll do next. :lol:

Nick0515, what you might find interesting is that strategic resources that are hooked up through a colony do not deplete.
I've just found this out when I was doing a test regarding resource depletion. You can find the test itself here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=8302893#post8302893).

Nick0515, what you might find interesting is that strategic resources that are hooked up through a colony do not deplete.
I've just found this out when I was doing a test regarding resource depletion. You can find the test itself here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=8302893#post8302893).

Really, that is interesting. Man this game is full of bugs like that. Sometimes they are useful though. That's probably a good thing for my scenario. With a bit of luck they'll build lots of colonies and lots of Fortresses and then the culture will expand over them revealing the fortresses. Though it could take some balancing to make sure culture doesn't spreed too fast, but fast enough that you get to see the fortress graphics.

Though I wonder whether the AI will move defending units off of the the Fotress sqare once the colony is gone or if the fortress will motivate it to still defend the square.

Thanks for the post. Will sheck out the thread.

Though I wonder whether the AI will move defending units off of the the Fotress sqare once the colony is gone or if the fortress will motivate it to still defend the square.


From what I've noticed, the AI will completely ignore pre-placed scenario fortresses and barricades (as if they didn't even exist) unless there happens to be one in a special spot or situation, such as a one-tile wide corridor connecting 2 continents that the AI owns. Not completely sure on this for epic games, haven't played one in a while.

Tom

From what I've noticed, the AI will completely ignore pre-placed scenario fortresses and barricades (as if they didn't even exist) unless there happens to be one in a special spot or situation, such as a one-tile wide corridor connecting 2 continents that the AI owns. Not completely sure on this for epic games, haven't played one in a while.

Tom

I think you're right about that Tom, the only time I recall seing the AI use these fortresses is when it's a 1-tile chokepoint, and even then they usually just build cities on that tile.

Damn. Oh well not the end of the world. But I would love to see castles built all over the place. There are currently no 1 tile choke points on the massive map I'm working on. I wonder if 1 tile between impassable terrain would have the same effect on the AI as 1 tile between water.

I guess I could use radar towers as castles like the boarder forts in MEM. The AI builds and defends tons of those. Problem is that you can only have a single graphic for the radar tower slot. Whereas the fortress slot can have four different graphics. Since in my scenario there isn't going to be an extensive tech tree. I thought I could have different civs start in different eras and have all their techs contained within a single era. This allows me to have different fortress graphics for some of the civs. Also means I can simulate more than five culture groups by having totally different graphics for the same culture group in different eras. Haven't tested it yet, but I think it will work.

In my curent game the AI built a fortress and a barricade at a choke point. There are no resources under the fortresses.

Mind you they are within the city limits, but still the AI built them.

Thanks Pounder. I think I'll definitely have to try and put some choke points in my map.