Power of your army

Hi guys !

First post, first thread... Big day

I was wondering, when you compare you military strength with that of your opponents, does it take into account your technological lead or only the number of units ?
Because I've got the feeling that it is only the number of units you have that matters...
Last game, the french supposedly had an army really bigger than mine, but mine was the up-to-datest (neologism ) in the world, because I was the leader in science. So they came at me with a huge stack of 35 spearmen, warriors, and bowmen, and my 10 knights were (of course) able to wipe its butt big time.

Don't you think the REAL power of your army should be taken into acount during negociations, and not the NUMERICAL ?
Because it's annoying to see your opponents ripping your guts open during bargaining, only because he's got, say, 100 warriors when you "only" have 20 modern armors...

Or am I wrong ?

You are right. Only the number of your units (workers including! -not sure about captured) count.

I think the A/D values of your army's units should be used to ponderate its strength.
Say that for instance you've got 100 units with 1 attack and 1 defense, your army would be worth 100*1*1 = 100.
But with 20 units with 5 attack and 5 defense, it would be worth 20*5*5 = 500.
Or something like that.

LOL

You could have an army of 100 warriors and the AI have an army of 99 modern armor and you military advisor would say, "Compared to these guys, we have a strong military!" Tis is but one of the many reasons the Civ III AI sucks.

Yes, I only worried about your army being smaller but stronger because it has always been the case
But the opposite is also quite right... Although I don't think it happens a lot, unless you're a newbie playing your first game in deity ?
But anyway the way it is now... it sucks.

It's pretty obvious that it only compare the number of units. A formula like Masquerouge's suggestion should be the way to go, although I think I'd prefer a sum of A and D instead of a product.

It does have its bright side though, when your have modern armour and the AI declares war with its knights because it has more units than you. You get to roll over the inferior enemy, and feel good at the same time since he was the aggressor

Yeah my method was just a rough one... But taking into account the real power of your units seems a must to me.
Adn maybe it would improve the AI's effectiveness in battle, by NOT declaring war to overpowered opponents... Or by stopping it early enough.

Well, if they had ten tanks and you had twelve spearman, you would have a much stronger defense

Of course ! the maybe add a line such as "IF unit = spearman THEN army.value=army.value*5", or something like that.

Maybe someone at Firaxis had a grandfather he loved that was a spearman... And he got killed while manoeuvering during a storm in a rather sad but funny demonstration of Franklin's kite, and now it's a kind of tribute, the Spearman has hidden attributes.
(dang, "tribute" is twice in the same sentence.)

Originally posted by Masquerouge
Yes, I only worried about your army being smaller but stronger because it has always been the case
But the opposite is also quite right... Although I don't think it happens a lot, unless you're a newbie playing your first game in deity ?
But anyway the way it is now... it sucks.

Click to expand...

I play deity since civ1 and still is (and winning most of the time). But my forces are usually stronger in the early stage of the game since I have tons of workers working the lands. My record is 200+ workers in 250AD.

The calculation definitely needs to be fixed. The one to one comparison is doing a disservice to the AI, thinking his one swordman matches up evenly with my Mech Infantry. However, I would suggest the formula per unit go like this:

non-blitz unit = HP + A + D + M
blitz unit = HP + D + (A * M)

That would provide me (and the AI) with a fair asessment of my opponents strength.

I never worry - I genraly have the strognest army in both ways (567 in my curret game, only 3o of which are workers)