AI civilization expansion problem

I have noticed in several of my games that some times AI civilization doesn't expand at all. He doesn't build new cities. That happened in my latest game where Siam did just this. I didn't really pay attention to it until one of my workers got near the capital and I saw that they had a great general on the city tile. As the AI never moves the general out of the city they can't produce any civilian unit and so they never expand. Don't know if this is very common but I have seen in few of my games once with England and now with Siam. They don't even have any workers and its already turn 356. Even bigger AI nations have the tendency to keep the great generals in the cities and so making the city not be able to produce civilian units. Heres the save if someone wants to check it.

Wezqu said:

I have noticed in several of my games that some times AI civilization doesn't expand at all. He doesn't build new cities. That happened in my latest game where Siam did just this. I didn't really pay attention to it until one of my workers got near the capital and I saw that they had a great general on the city tile. As the AI never moves the general out of the city they can't produce any civilian unit and so they never expand. Don't know if this is very common but I have seen in few of my games once with England and now with Siam. They don't even have any workers and its already turn 356. Even bigger AI nations have the tendency to keep the great generals in the cities and so making the city not be able to produce civilian units. Heres the save if someone wants to check it.

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I don't think that what you think is happening is actually happening. A great general being stationed in a city will not prevent that city from producing a worker. You can try it yourself. A great general in a city will stop you from purchasing a worker, but it will not stop you from producing one; on the turn that the worker finishes being built, it will be stacked in the city with the general, one of the few instances in the game when unit stacking is possible, though you will get a message from the game telling you to move one of the two units.

It's possible that there is something wrong with the civ causing it not to expand, but the great general is not the problem.

Wezqu said:

I have noticed in several of my games that some times AI civilization doesn't expand at all. He doesn't build new cities.

Click to expand...

I've seen the same thing, and never saw it before the patch.
Also I've seen city states that never build workers and as such never develop their resources.

There may be a cycle where the AI loses a worker, builds a worker then loses that worker so builds another, then builds a wonder, then decides everyone else has military so builds some of that. In the meantime there's no worker development (as they get captured) and no settlers.

How frequent is this problem though? I haven't played enough games to really judge. Is it about one nation in ten that fails to expand?

DaveGold said:

There may be a cycle where the AI loses a worker, builds a worker then loses that worker so builds another, then builds a wonder, then decides everyone else has military so builds some of that. In the meantime there's no worker development (as they get captured) and no settlers.

How frequent is this problem though? I haven't played enough games to really judge. Is it about one nation in ten that fails to expand?

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I've played three multiplayer games since the patch and have seen one or both of those "bugs" show up in each game.

1st Game - Honesty don't recall the details but do recall thinking it odd that two city states had no worked improvements. Note - it wasn't pillaged resources.. they just didn't have any improvement at all. The game was won in the industrial era and I believe both CS were still alive at the end.

2nd Game - I think it was Hiawatha. Playing Multi with a friend and we declared on him and Napoleon in late middle ages. 6 player small, flat, North vs South map. Hiawatha was in a bit of a corner, but had certainly room to expand but had not done so at all. He had workers and had improved his land, but never once saw a settler and he only had his capital. I can't think of what strat the AI was using... even if he was going warmonger or wonder wh**ring I can't believe he wouldn't have built a settler by that point.

3rd Game - CS Copenhagen. Late middle ages my teammate (seeking Iron) becomes an ally with the CS in order to gain the resource. The CS window indicated they had 2 iron, but in actuality it had none as it had not improved any of it's land. We actually tried sending workers to the CS to mine his Iron for him.. which we couldn't do. So eventually we just conquered him.

So I've seen a few times where the CSs had zero tile improvements by mid-game and one situation where (like the OP) the AI civ did not build a second town.

I can probably dig up a save file for the third game if wanted.

France in 1500 AD with no improved land resources.
what's the AI's logic in this?

ipris said:

France in 1500 AD with no improved land resources.
what's the AI's logic in this?

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What difficulty are you playing at? At Prince or below (maybe even King or below), some AIs take a really long time to improve their land.

EndoConvert said:

What difficulty are you playing at? At Prince or below (maybe even King or below), some AIs take a really long time to improve their land.

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Would have been on King... latest patch.

Not sure if map type plays into this (archipelago) but like I've posted above I've seen this before on other map types (pangea etc).

I'm having the same problem, every single game I've been playing, NONE of the AI's are expanding beyond their capital. They build lots of military, but no expansion. This is after the patch...sucks...

The AI failing to expand beyond its capital has never happened in a single one of my games, playing on Immortal, or for my roommate, playing on King (in both cases with the TBC mod, which doesn't influence this).