Civ Illustrated #1 (Know Your Enemy)

In the end, to resume:

1) Give away health/happy resources and pray
2) If you refused a tribute and suppose that was the cause of the plot, beg for enforced peace treaty
3) You can't control the AI otherwise. Too complicated of a function to predict and for what it worths.
 
Ok, I figured as much, but thanks for the clarification.

Yes I've seen Ai seemingly randomly drop war plots, interesting to read your account of the reasoning behind it.
 
So, the AI will continue plotting war against a player that has since doubled its Power rating. I would have expected that the AI would cancel such a suicidal war plotting, but we all know that the AI is feeble in doing many things. I guess avoiding suicidal DoWs is another that can be added to the list of stupid things the AI does.

I believe that a high Power rating will help prevent the player from ever being the target of an AI war plotting in the first place though.

Sun Tzu Wu
 
So, the AI will continue plotting war against a player that has since doubled its Power rating. I would have expected that the AI would cancel such a suicidal war plotting, but we all know that the AI is feeble in doing many things. I guess avoiding suicidal DoWs is another that can be added to the list of stupid things the AI does.

I believe that a high Power rating will help prevent the player from ever being the target of an AI war plotting in the first place though.

Sun Tzu Wu

Sadly, being at least twice as strong to all your neighbours is often sign you can either crush them or you are attempted a huge space game or time game.

The AI is especially feeble when it comes to reevaluate the situation or make a balance sheet of prospectives, i.e. planning. For instance, the AI decision of liberating an island into a colony is the most striking example of an absolute absence of planning/seeing the potential.
 
You misunderstood my meaning of doubling the Power rating. In most of my Deity games I often have Power rating of about 0.5, so a doubling of my Power rating would actually mean 1.0, not 2.0.

For example, drafting the maximum number of Riflemen each turn for about 10t will often be enough to double one's Power rating from about 0.5 to about 1.0 on a Standard map.

No one is saying that the AI is very smart, but I do believe that the AI does use Power rating among other data in its initial decision to plot war against another Civ. I agree that increasing one's Power rating will not prevent the DoW when the AI is already plotting War, but it will likely cause the DoW to be a tragic failure; The AI will likely be willing to talk about peace rather quickly, after losing its SoD in a suicide attack.

I've never seen an AI liberate a nearby island city into colony. Of course I usually play with the "No Vassals" option checked. :)

Sun Tzu Wu
 
Ah so trying to boost your power rating once you see an AI plotting might cause them not to stop plotting, but to change their target? Or once they're plotting do they have a target in my mind they can't be swayed from?

On the subject of colonies, are there any links to write-ups/YT playthroughs where the human player makes good use of them?
 
That'll certainly make colonies rarer! (they're vassals). I've only seen it when the AI has several cities on an island, where it's likely running into high maintenance costs.

If you want to know how to rush an AI into making a colony, check the link in my sig. It is explained. That can be useful when the target AI has a huge tech advantage over you and by breaking his nation into two, the new leader may trade away (especially knowing WFYABTA is fresh).
 
Ah so trying to boost your power rating once you see an AI plotting might cause them not to stop plotting, but to change their target? Or once they're plotting do they have a target in my mind they can't be swayed from?

On the subject of colonies, are there any links to write-ups/YT playthroughs where the human player makes good use of them?

No, their plot decisions are internal. Only external factor being someone bribed onto them.

I was trying recently to use colonies in a archipelago map in some mod to make a level unplayable into playable (i.e. deity), but by the time I set it up, it was rather late. Nonetheless, I have seen one case by AbsoluteZero: Victoria liberating Gilgamesh.
 
I was wondering what your decision regarding warmonger respect is? It is not listed under rejects and I find it important when calculating threshold for attitude changes.
 
Bumping for interest. Thanks for everyone inolved in this guide. Also, seconding asks for clearing and updates war academy, cause civ4 is not dead ;)
 
Are the authors still alive and around :p? If so, are you guys open to having contributors to the various (i.e. 51 of 52) incomplete "analysis" sections?

Personally, I'd prefer if the AIs were slightly more divisified - the fact that many AIs only have 1 "flavor" (at best 2) means that you will often find a few buildings (which unmodded, only has a couple flavors at best) in their cities, and see them beeline a certain tech path in the classical/medieval era (at times missing crucial worker techs for a century or 2...). A few centuries later, you see them bumbling around trying to back-fill their way through the other 3 tech paths.
 
I believe that the authors are still around, except for Seraiel (who has moved onto other things).

This article describes only the base game as modified by the current HoF module, BUFFY. We are not at liberty to change the flavors; we can only record them as they exist for HoF and xOTM {GOTM, WOTM, BOTM & SGOTM) game play.

孫子武
 
Are the authors still alive and around :p?

I'm still around as well, although have been missing for quite some time. Seraiel is back too. Civ 4 is like a black hole. It has great pulling power :D

The idea was to include analysis of all leaders, but unfortunately we never got there, and then released the guide without it as we wanted to get it out instead of seeing all the hours we had already put in be a waste. I'm glad to see it has still become a well-used resource, and I frequently use it myself too.
 
I am not sure whether it was somewhere mentioned or not, but I didn't find it and tested a little bit.
The thing is about WFYBTA. It doesn't apply (which means that game doesn't check this rule) if you and AI are in the bottom half of the scoreboard.
Howeve...what does it mean the bottom half? It is clear when the number of civilization are even. But if it odd then it would be good to mention that the middle position goes to the bottom half. Hence...Consider a standard game with 7 civs. Assume you are in 7 place and AI is at 3 place. Assume that this AI went WFYBTA mode. Now, if by some reason (e.g. you give something to AIs at 4 place and they swap their positions) this AI go to 4 place. Now you can trade with it (unlsess other rules are applied).
 
Interesting you should mention that @RedKi-rr because I noticed the same behaviour in a recent game. Hammurabi kept bumping between the middle position and one above, and would simultaneously bump between "... too advanced...." and being able to trade with him. Particularly in games with few AIs, it could be feasible to manipulate this if in a real bind for a trade.

The safest bet is getting them Friendly, but of course that's not always the easiest thing in the world, with demands flying this way and that.
 
Its interesting to know which civilizations are easier to get to capitulate. The only time I've ever gotten Sitting Bull to be willing to capitulate I was besieging his last city, and just a little bit ago I was able to get Catherine to capitulate after I just wiped out one of her stacks and captured two lightly defended cities.
 
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