AI's War Time Thinking??

How does the AI conduct itself once war begins? In context let me explain.
I generally don't go to war until i know I can win (art of war) which generally means I create stack of swordmen and catapults before I launch my first invation (side note: please advice on this strategy should I war sooner?) It feels like every war has two stage, thee first stage I get non-essential unit the AI has thrown at me, or stationed int he city I'm attacking. Stage two is when the AI is worn down and has very little defense. Is there a turning point where the AI gives up and stops creating military units in every city, is there a core military production city I should target at the beginning of the war, it seems like any war can be done, even at matching techs through shear force of will and brute unit production, and if that's the case why not be at war all the time?

Does this make sense? How does the AI conduct itself once war is declared?

I think you're giving the AI way too much credit... It doesn't have a brilliant war strategy, rather it sends some mounted units here and there, while most cities will only have two or three units in them, except the capitol which the AI will keep most of its military in...

bonafide11 said:

I think you're giving the AI way too much credit... It doesn't have a brilliant war strategy, rather it sends some mounted units here and there, while most cities will only have two or three units in them, except the capitol which the AI will keep most of its military in...

Click to expand...

Seriously?

Even on the High levels??
Is this really how it works? God I sit there for years being a pu$$y scared to attack because I see a million units in one or two cities.

The AI relies heavily on mounted units and is often a bigger threat to pillage than to take cities, unless the latter are not well-defended. Always include several Spearmen/Pikemen/Riflemen in your stacks and city defenses and you should be able to deal with the AI's mounted pillagers.

You can definitely war much earlier: discover Bronze Working, hook up copper, build a stack of Axemen. If the enemy has mounted units (usually Chariots), throw in a Spearman. Axes with City Raider promotions can overcome a 20% or even a 40% cultural defense. You'll lose more of them than you would with Catapults, but it's still doable.

The AI's war strategy is this:
1)Send everything we have to try and pillage them.
2)We have nothing left, bunker down, occasionally suiciding a single unit to damage his stack.
3)Get dismantled city by city with no effective counter-attack or final stand.

So should you be at war all the time? Pretty much. The AI's only strength is force of numbers, and since you can pick most of your battles, that actually just means a large supply of experience.

edit the XML to allow the AI to build more units... Ie. !buildunitpercent from 30 too 70 or 75. Far more fun in times of war other then that playing the AI isent as fun as it should be

Speaking of AI war strategy, a very interesting thing happened to me a few days ago. I was playing as Elizabeth and had just gotten rifling "Redcoats". When I spotted Julius Ceasar about 20 tiles from my civ and headed my direction with about 4 stacks filled with war elephants, macemen, and a few knights. I was playing a hub map so there is a long stretch of bottle neck leading to my civ. I quickly plant 2 forts at the bottle neck, turn my research all the way to 0 and begin mass producing my redcoats and using all the extra gold to promote my old musketmen. By the time he got within 5-6 times from my forts I had about 15-20 recoats in each of them. Right about then I hear the War chime that I had expected all along and just waited for him to arrive. He got his stacks within 2 times of my redcoats, "I'm asuming that at this point he see's what he's up against" and turns all 4 of his stacks around and takes them back home, a few turns later he contacts me for a peace treaty. I was quite suprised that he was wise enough not to lead his cattle to the slaughter. I always assumed the AI could cheat and would always know exactly how many units you had and would use this information to choose the best time to attack, but it appeared he had no idea untill he actually got to my land. And made a very quick decision to retreat from the attack.

Yeah that is awesome. I think the AI is a little smarter than we give them credit for. Maybe the computer does know how many units you have and thats why they turned back, not specifically because of the units on those squares. The AI probably saw your power jump by a but and stood down.


Everyone thanks for your advice, I tested out the theories last night and beat the game in about 3 hours, won at 1600AD. By the time the new world got in contact with me they were the only 2 civs left on the map and they were so damn scared of me they both voted my way at the UN - HA!