War is broken? BNW

So is "war broken on civ5 bnw" I remember reading this here on the forums.. but it seems to me like the computer still doesn't know how to wage war in fact their morons at it

I'll give you a example.. in my recent venice game.. I was invading with a semi-inferior army (they have ww2 infantry) and I've only got mainly got experienced machine gunners..

But the AI.. hides all the units in their territory/by their cities and doesn't meet me on the battlefield.. (nor spam it!) seems like there just going to let me "take" their cities.. it's quite boring..

So am I understanding right that the code/programming in "gods & kings" is still better than BNW for war?

So if war is broken what can I do.. mods?

Should I choose certain civ's.. or do I just need to go back a expansion/gods & kings.. I'm a deity level player I like a challenge.. but civ5's AI.. is no challenge when it's all jury-rigged for anything but war, yes?

theemaster said:

So if war is broken what can I do.. mods?

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Rise the difficulty level if you haven't already done that. Things can ge challenging when the AI meets you with 5x the numbers you have and a tech level ahead.
If the enemy cities happen to be in good defendable positions (like on a set of hills with forest tiles covering for visibility etc) a city can be surprisingly difficult to claim - so map settings do also play a role.

Yes the AI can be a real ass about how they manage their troops, but sometimes they will also surprise you. How they pillage your boats, culture farm on honor using the barbs, invade you from two sides using the sea etc. Imho, the AI on this game is better than most.

TurboJ said:

Rise the difficulty level if you haven't already done that. Things can ge challenging when the AI meets you with 5x the numbers you have and a tech level ahead.
If the enemy cities happen to be in good defendable positions (like on a set of hills with forest tiles covering for visibility etc) a city can be surprisingly difficult to claim - so map settings do also play a role.

Yes the AI can be a real ass about how they manage their troops, but sometimes they will also surprise you. How they pillage your boats, culture farm on honor using the barbs, invade you from two sides using the sea etc. Imho, the AI on this game is better than most.

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Ohh, yah the only improvement I've seen in the AI.. is the fleets in the sea.. usually I could just roll up by anyway via the sea.. and I wouldn't run into defender boats.. so that's the only thing I've "noticed" is different + the AI cheats and follows you if you try to avoid their boats...

But yah, already a DEITY player..

I don't really like boats/sea battles (since they've been useless since just about every civ.. I think ) but I guess I see a challenge of maybe playing 'pagnea' or islands that would have me change my game a bit.. (probably lousy to for even using anything but ships..)

There is a mod that improves AI combat, allowing the AI to move and shoot and not embark into dangerous waters. The move and shoot makes the naval game much more interesting.

theemaster said:

But yah, already a DEITY player..

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Then I guess you should try different maps and perhaps more to it, different map options. Lots of hills, mountains and forest does make warfare more challenging.
Maybe it's luck, but in my deity domination games I always find that the first city I really need to conquer to get things moving, will be on a hill, behind a foresty
hill and a river, and have the great wall and +30% defence religion. And a recent beeline to their unique unit. Go figure... But my point is depending on luck, some cities can be extremely tough to conquer
so by altering the map settings you can make a big difference in difficulty.

Gamewizard said:

There is a mod that improves AI combat, allowing the AI to move and shoot and not embark into dangerous waters. The move and shoot makes the naval game much more interesting.

Click to expand...

Care to share where to find that?

TurboJ said:

Care to share where to find that?

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It is called [BNW] Smart AI on steam workshop.

I agree with you. In some ways they will always be worse than humans, but they could certainly be better. I posted a suggestion on here last month about how if AI could just be taught 4 basic cookie-cutter strategies that they would select based on the situation even that would make them better than they are now. These are:

1. Sacrificial unit traps and and ambushes
2. rotation: aka don't toss your wounded units against the city till they die rotate wounded ones out. The reason I think they usually forgo this is they seem incapable of the "swap unit" operation or the "white selection circle". They always move them sequentially. This is a major flaw and hurts their coordination ability, it also wastes a turn on their siege too.
3. strategic formation and screening their distance units. So far, I've seen them do this on accident but they usually are bad at protecting their bombardment units or moving in siege before they've cleared the field.
4. Pillaging behind lines, destroying resources/luxuries, cutting roads, and disbanding enemy workers for long-term economic and happiness impact.

Interestingly, I did see the Ottomans do a very good job at 2 or 3 of these on my last war so it seems they have it in them sometimes.

The Zulus did quite a number on me last night. I was playing as Aztecs on King level. He was my neighbor on my continent. He kept sending waves of Impis and wiped out most of my army.

You have to be careful with your units and not waste them so foolishly. AIs can do that especially in higher levels since AIs get spoiled.

^^I was trying to be careful with them, especially since I had very highly promoted units. I wasn't wasting them foolishly. I successfully defended against the first wave, it's the second one that messed me up. And that wave came from a different direction.

It was well played by the AI. And there's only so much you can do when your being attacked by 7 or 8 impi units as well as several crossbowmen, and trebauchets.

I was able to keep my highly-promoted units alive and mainly wasted money on rush-buying units to hold off the attack and be aggressive here and there. And my city location was not the greatest so far as terrain and defense.

It was fun, I will admit that.

I'm not understanding what you're asking.. You can quit and lower the difficulty as well.

^^Actually I wasn't asking anything. I was just posting about the war and how the AI acts in regards to the OP saying it was broken. Just sharing my experience.

And I know I can go to a lower level. I moved up to King because I was finding Prince too easy.

I was not complaining or anything. Just talking about my experience.

Thanks for your replies

"their morons?" Ha ha ha ha. Oh the irony.

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docbud said:

^^Actually I wasn't asking anything. I was just posting about the war and how the AI acts in regards to the OP saying it was broken. Just sharing my experience.

And I know I can go to a lower level. I moved up to King because I was finding Prince too easy.

I was not complaining or anything. Just talking about my experience.

Thanks for your replies

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Yeah, np. Btw, were you using composite bowmen? I had a similar fate with composite bowmen, exception: I was Ethiopia.

^^^actually I had crossbowmen and longswordsmen and a few horsemen.

Speaking of Ethiopiaa--in an earlier game I was also Ethiopia and had the Zulus as neighbors

How in the heck do you (and others) deal with them?

Also-No problem either. I appreciate the advice you give and the help you offer.

@Zaimejs: I think your post was uncalled for.

Why not try the strategies and Tips section? I'm pretty sure you could find a strategy in there that could suit what you're looking for. I actually did get to capture ulundi in the king difficulty if that is what you're asking. I used the worker steal strategy with scouts and attacked early to prevent improvements for the impies. As for the other civilizations and the rest of the world, I have no idea since that is another challenge. I'm not worried about it anymore since I was able to take umgungunlovu and ulundi. \/\/

^^Oh don't worry. I read through that section all the time. Great stuff in there that has been useful for me.

Thanks

Zulu as neighbors? If you aren't the only neighbor then you have to get shaka to set his sights on someone else. Keep him fat, happy, and occupied until you can get into the industrial era and use artillery to deal with him.

If you 2 are secluded from other civs...well nice knowing you! I hope you have some chokepoints to hold him off long enough to reach dynamite.

docbud said:

The Zulus did quite a number on me last night. I was playing as Aztecs on King level. He was my neighbor on my continent. He kept sending waves of Impis and wiped out most of my army.

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If Shaka is your direct neighbor, stop your exploration immediately and wipe him out asap. Or at least reduce him to OCC if you both have already met some but not all civs. Either get rid of him with CB rush before Impis or live with nightmares until Industrialization.

Hey @Gamewizard and @Sagax: Unfortunately he was the only one on my continent.

And yeah--I definitely should have taken him out sooner. All the threads here say to do that. I concentrated on my military techs so I could gain an advantage and had my Jaguars farm some camps for experience. And I got them upgraded to swordsmen and had plenty of jungle around me, and I figured they would be pretty powerful. I figured I was safe for a while because his capital and mine were separated by a mountain range. And I was able to get to composite bowmen and crossbowmen. Then he settled two cities in my face...

Though I lost quite a bit of my army, I did manage to wipe out most of his. He refused peace, however, so it's been a stalemate since then.

I quit the game for now, but have it saved to play at a later date.

Thanks for the insight.