Post-patch random observations

Something I have seen twice since the patch, but never saw prior, is ally CS now going to war with me against a common enemy. Committing troops into enemy land was nearly unheard of but this weekend Manilla actually captured Washington, leaving only one AI capital left.

Ok I did all the city pounding and I left the Washington with no city health to see if Manilla would attack with its two melee units. The fact they captured a city, let alone a capital is unseen from me in over 700 hours of play.

Also noticed the Coup's are not constant and the AI civs all use their gold rather than horde it. I have seen a remarkable increase in Naval units being sent against me and most seemed to be purchased (I had cities encircled, taking out Korea's Navy and every turn Busan and Soeul were buying Turtle boats for me to sink) Still far from perfect (ai diplo and combat ability still way short of intellegent) but some things are much better.

My current game I blitzed Germany with 2 fleets of 4 range double-tapping battleships and double-tapping destroyers, along with a ground force of tanks upgraded from cossacks. Germany used its gold to buy fleets of 2-3 destroyers at a time...unfortunately for him there is no defense against those battleships. And those tanks are unstoppable now that pillaging heals. A tank can heal 75 hp a turn or it can attack and then heal 50 hp. Once they get blitz, forget about it, game over.

I do wonder if modern units like tanks should be able to pillage-heal, but I guess it`s the equivalent of stealing the petrol out of the enemy car and sticking it in your own tank as well as eating their food.

I think it is fair considering you have to tech the bottom of the modern tree before the top of the modern tree, which means your tech will be overall a little slower since you are delaying research labs. It gives the late game warmonger a chance to win via domination before those that teched the top of the tree win via the other victory conditions.