Can the AI fight? Maybe!

Let me ramble:

I was on the northern part of a donut-shaped (mostly) continent with all the AIs on it (really a Pangaea almost, 2 small islands were colonizable.

I am Spain. To my southwest was my good friend China, to my southeast was my better friend Mongolia. East is the Romans, mostly irrelevant. West is the Persians, who I don't get along with (religious tensions). My south is covered by the 'inner sea' of the donut.

I am comfortably #1 on the score chart -- Napoleon is #2, about 300 points behind. I'm playing a happy peaceful game, colonizing the little islands, spreading Hinduism. It's my first real game, I'm just gonna cruise to a spaceship win. Napoleon (power #2) doesn't like me, but he's WAY down SW, past China. I saw his lands in about 1000 BC, before he crushed Germany.

Suddenly, end of one turn, I'm getting messages about things being pillaged, and my #2 city is ATTACKED. During this, Napoleon declares war (funny, in game terms I suppose he had to declare war first, but I got to see the pillages and fights first)

He has moved up through China's lands, with 3 stacks totalling 16 cavalry! I'm defending with Riflemen, but my #2 city only has 2 in it -- why should I have more, it was near the SAFE border with China!

Before I can even get my defenses moving, (I'm still putting up railroads) I've lost my #2 city. He burned it to the ground. I figure I'll call up my buddy Mao and get him to join me against Napoleon -- cutting off Nappy's access, and turning the tables. NO CHANCE. Apparently Mao is even buddier with Nappy than me, and refuses to discuss it. Still wants to be friends though. Thanks for nothing.

I rally my forces, and in a horrible battle of attrition, manage to destroy his forces. I've lost a major city, and some improvements, but big deal, right? Wrong. Napoleon's second and third waves hit. The second is 12 more cavalry, along with a dozen slow-movers that have come through China. Remember my battle with him has been one of attrition -- I have no real defense LEFT. They're posed on the borders of 2 more cities.

I probably could have rallied them off. But on the same turn (coincidence? Dear God I hope so) he lands *3* galleons full of cavalry on my northeast area. I've stripped it of all but token defenses, to fight off the southwest assault! I've got one defender left per city, and he has 12 cavalry.

I only played out 3 more turns -- Napoleon took out my new #2 city in the northeast, and was poised to take the capital. He also burned another city up there, and the two he was threatening in the southwest. That last turn, he landed 4 more cav on the island I had just started to colonize. I folded.

Did I mention this all happened on NOBLE?

I don't know how much of this is coincidence, how much was my overconfidence, and how much the AI really learned since Civ3, but I haven't been so royally trounced since my first Regent game, the day Civ3 came out.
2 stacks of doom. A 3 ship-load naval invasion that just happened to arrive at the same time as SoD 2. Another shipload to take the colonies. Pillaging, burning cities... it was horribly wonderful.

Napoleon is now Kill on Sight.

This sounds fantastic, a real fighting AI opponent!! I'm sure if it wasn't Napoleon you may have managed a peaceful win eventually, but I'm sure some of the other AI opponents will fight just as mean and hard! Can't wait to get the game!

ps. Did you choose Napoleon as a competitor's leader or did you just choose France (no choice of leader) or maybe went for random? Choosing lots of warmongoring leaders might be fun!

The new AIs are definitely nasty. I've won games on "Deity" with Civ III, but now I am having lots of unpleasant surprises even on "Warlord".

Either have such a strong military that the other leaders will think twice before attacking you, or make sure that everyone has the same state religion as you do. Preferably both. The other leaders will home in on any weaknesses you have.

Yeah I am having troubles with Aztecs in my German game (see the thread ), they are alot more intelligent and know how to hit and where to hit. Which religion did Napoleon have? I think some religions hate other religions more than others.

Oh no! Are the AIs even more treacherous and backstabbing? Or fair in wars, but with nasty tricks up their sleeves?

They are backstabbing and treacherous aswell. Border agreements with aggressive nations? Better think twice! The Aztec invaded me once, only 2 tiles away from my capital with an army of chariots

I don't think the AI is necessarily treacherous and backstabbing -- I *knew* Napoleon hated my guts, for religious reasons, and for trade-related reasons. I had just dismissed him as insignificant due to his position.

I've played some more games since -- as a rule, you can get a very good idea who your friends are, and who the other guys are.

But the computer isn't stupid. If it's not buddy-buddy with you, and you show weakness, it will attack you. Or the other AIs.

To Kevinicus - Napoleon was Jewish, I was the head Hindu. I had steadily converted half the continent to Hinduism, but I don't think the AI considers that. We did have a -4 for religion though, and a number of trade-penalties.

To Dicanio: Napoleon was the luck (?) of the draw. I would never specify my opponents until I know the game well. I need to learn them all. Heck, I need to learn what *I'm* doing first.

Kevin, your comment about the AI backstabbing you confuses me. Was your border only 2 squares away from your capital? Because otherwise the AI *can't* backstab you that way -- if you have open borders, and move your forces into position, the moment you declare war all your troops are removed from the country. RoP-rape is gone forever.

Nope, we had open borders, he was inside my borders and 2 spots away, it could also be that he just had his units set back and then moved them back in right in the next turn, where he was then 2 tiles away. He had 3 chariots and they ruined my infrastructure, after that he sent wave for wave of units.

Yes the AI is much better this time. Isn't it great. Hats off to Soren.

For now he's great but soon, we will figure it out and be complaining about how easy it becomes. It's just a matter of time.

In my games so far he hasn't done anything really unexpected though. It might have something to do with me stocking huge militaries, I don't know. I really wouldn't attack me either if I were him.



-E

C'est Napoleon. Even in A.I. form one could expect him to conquer Spain.

Either way, this does sound promising.

I agree with all the above comments on offensive operations from AI. In my first game, I got creamed big time.

Lesson learned: build lots of unit. I know I had the habit from Civ3 to limit the amount of unit building I did since they used to cost gold. Now, it is far easier (ie less costly) to have a decent OOB, so take advantage of it. Especially in the first half of the game. When I have an empire of 6-7 cities, I always have 1-2 of them building units non-stop. I do a rotation in this task between my cities so that none of them fall short in their infrastructure.

I think the AI can fight in CIV3, looks like I may have to roll up my sleeves when I get CIV4.

The AI builds an alot bigger military in this game. It is no longer okay to have 2 units defending your back cities. I have attacked AI cities with 10 units defending it. The thing is is just build a bigger military. If you go under statitiics you can see your rank for army size. Im playing a game now with agressive AI. i like it lots of wars. Check it out on link below.

that stronger AI sounds realy cool, thanks for seeing al this guys, I now know what I souldn't do, wenn i got my own Civ IV

Grunthex said:

Let me ramble:

I was on the northern part of a donut-shaped (mostly) continent with all the AIs on it (really a Pangaea almost, 2 small islands were colonizable.

Click to expand...

You definately need to keep a larger standing army than you did in Civ III. In civ III I would keep one or two defense (usually obsolete) units in my border cities but Civ IV you need more than that. For some reason I always end up next to Caesar and he attacks me. Thankfully he's almost always one of the weaker civs.