My God... the AI...

Ok, I wanted to add this in my AAR but I just couldn't help but share it with ya'll because this is loving insane.

To start off, playing as the Mayans on Standard Continents, Standard Emperor.

I had conquered my entire continent, and there was a Runaway China who had a whole continent to herself. We didn't like each other from the start, and even though she is TWO eras ahead of me, I figured the wide oceans would be a stumbling block to any attempt by her to cross me.

So I declared war on her.

By then I had Privateers and Ironclads turning into Destroyers, a huge chunk of them in preparation to take out a city-state allied with China (Quebec City).





Now when I neared Quebec with ironclads and frigates, a few of them suddenly got chopped up by Fighters and Great War/Modern Bombers. Quebec had no oil in its borders, so that couldn't be them...

So I fronted out all my Modern units (Destroyers) in a tight pack to the area where I lost those ships.

No air attacks.

INSTEAD



Oh, only a few units? Hmmm, yeah I can handle this...

Then she did something else that completely makes me #!$& my pants



That's right. She had more units in the fog. She had another carrier in tow, probably another one and more ground units and perhaps even some destroyers.

But the main thing was - the moment her "conventional" carrier was in danger of being converted by my lone Privateer there, she switched it out with a full healthy one, and smashed my frigates with her superior BBs.

And this carrier contained something I RARELY see the AI send out across faraway continents...

She and I were in competition for Genoa there, and every now and then she would send spies to rig the elections.

If she succeeds in the next attempt, I think I would have to postpone any invasions.

This is why I scout my enemies before going to war with them :/

Don't want any "nasty" surprises in the form of nuclear weaponry.

Thanks for sharing! I've also been pretty impressed by the naval AI, although the few wars I've been in I've just had too strong an industrial base and a tech lead and blown their wooden navy out of the water with submarines (on Immortal, no less). Silly Denmark. Hopefully Suleiman will start closing in on Utopia Project soon and I'll have an excuse to see how a well-positioned AI handles its navy.

That was cool... unfortunately on land the AI will still bombard my damaged Scout with all they have instead of my full health Ram.

Still, this will make me a bit more wary when launching naval invasions.

Kabloosh said:

This is why I scout my enemies before going to war with them :/

Don't want any "nasty" surprises in the form of nuclear weaponry.

Click to expand...

I never seen AI in Vanilla base atomics in carrier groups.

Real carrier groups, and not "one suicidal carrier rush"

Lyoncet said:

Thanks for sharing! I've also been pretty impressed by the naval AI, although the few wars I've been in I've just had too strong an industrial base and a tech lead and blown their wooden navy out of the water with submarines (on Immortal, no less). Silly Denmark. Hopefully Suleiman will start closing in on Utopia Project soon and I'll have an excuse to see how a well-positioned AI handles its navy.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm waiting to see what more surprises Wu has in store for me. Did she bring in additional waves to backup her initial thrust? Is one of her spies in Genoa preparing a sudden coup that will turn my flanks into a massively exposed gap?

I've never been excited about AI-led naval invasions, until this point.

Huaojozu said:

That was cool... unfortunately on land the AI will still bombard my damaged Scout with all they have instead of my full health Ram.

Still, this will make me a bit more wary when launching naval invasions.

Click to expand...

Indeed, the AI could be a bit more better in regards to this situation - Wu is in the Information Era, so she must have submarines/nuclear submarines.

She should have send them in first to take out my frigates and privateers, or even better, harass my main fleet up north while she takes out mine south.

A greater use of submarine wolfpacks wouldn't hurt for the AI. This is definitely something I feel the next patch could tweak in!

It really seems AI is much improved. I had problems playing prince yesterday, and prince was my level to have a relaxing game.

Pretty neat!

On the other side, if your war opponent recognizes you are now stronger while there is war, the AI offers more than in Civ vanilla, what's great because AI was always cheeseparing in that case and never offered so much without been asked.

Kopernikus1979 said:

On the other side, if your war opponent recognizes you are now stronger while there is war, the AI offers more than in Civ vanilla, what's great because AI was always cheeseparing in that case and never offered so much without been asked.

Click to expand...

This seems highly situational. It will capitulate when it was the agressor or sees you as trustworthy (im not entirely clear ont he conditions) but I've 2 different AI civs now being beaten and outmatched militarily who came to the peace table but did not offer large GPT payments, like they used to in vanilla.

Ethiopia actually lost their capital and their deal was unchanged. peace for peace.

I am pretty much a runaway and very dominant in my current game. I wonder if that is a way to rubberband runaway or simply to stop large tribute payments that the AI can't really afford anyways.

The AI has really picked up its use of aircraft as well. I actually had a reason to start building anti-air units in my last few games. I never bothered in vanilla as they rarely ever used aircraft.

The AI is better, but still with mixed results. I still notice them leaving their generals undefended behind, but they are much better with focus-firing on weak, wounded troops, which is neat. I would like them to be more aggressive when attacking cities though...if you pick off individual units, it looks like the AI is broken: all the remaining units run away. :lol

Morningcalm said:

The AI is better, but still with mixed results. I still notice them leaving their generals undefended behind, but they are much better with focus-firing on weak, wounded troops, which is neat. I would like them to be more aggressive when attacking cities though...if you pick off individual units, it looks like the AI is broken: all the remaining units run away. :lol

Click to expand...

Yep, it's definitely better but still not great. As I mentioned in another thread, they are also horrible about killing themselves off by your citadels.

Rishara said:

Yep, it's definitely better but still not great. As I mentioned in another thread, they are also horrible about killing themselves off by your citadels.

Click to expand...

They build citadels now too. I'm aghast because the may war against usa in future, that citadel is just delibrately blocking one of the invasion routes. Though I don't know if USA will defend it or not because i'm definitely pillaging it when I go down that corridor.

Ok, I'm feeling mixed on this.


The AI actually took my city. In Vanilla, when it bothers to try put up a fight, it would usually bumble about the coast and then the beachheads for 1-2 turns before doing anything to my targeted city.

Here they just up and struck my city, after they felt my naval presence was inadequate enough



Quickly gathered most of my forces from the north and sent them plunging south



A bit of aggressive scouting (converted that Privateer with my Privateer Destroyer) revealed he had quite the gunline backing his beachheads. Meanwhile the Chinese carrier... didn't bother doing anything.



Even after I rebased WW1 Bombers in the vicinity to start retaking my city:



The carrier simply fled the scene, and I had gotten enough destroyers in the area to start chasing it down and destroyed it:



Nope, no atomic bombings.

I'm disappointed.


There were no backup waves at all; apparently the "closest" was a Marine unit being produced in her coastal city of Guangzhou, and an Infantry along with a SAM that were just asking to be ripped apart for being unescorted:




The AI really needs to be tweaked in bringing in more waves for its naval invasions. It has already proven itself able to flank and take out one of my coastal cities, but it needs more teeth to hold it AND be able to threaten my other holdings.

Also, using atomic weaponry without hesitation. I see the AI is less prone to nuking at the drop of the hat compared to Vanilla. Wu could have nuked Texcoco while my forces were gathered there, but she didn't.

They did it in my game too.



I don't think it was intended for me cause I had a military 4 times more powerful than Russia's which was second since I took half of Persia out. He still tried the win the game through a diplomatic victory so I had to bride a bunch of city states to win the game. I played more of a reaction type game that play through cause I was sort of aiming for a score win but Persia had a runaway science production that I couldn't catch up to so I had to gobble a few of his cities up. Hell, the whole game I had to be the warmonger just to stay competitive.

I noticed that the AI does move a group of naval ships out but they never reinforce it. Once you take out that group the rest is all just randomly sent in or moved around. After I won that game and Russia moved her little fleet to the Ocean east of my continent I blew it up with a nuclear missile just for laughs cause they keep their units bunched up.

lso, using atomic weaponry without hesitation. I see the AI is less prone to nuking at the drop of the hat compared to Vanilla. Wu could have nuked Texcoco while my forces were gathered there, but she didn't.

Click to expand...

Agree. AI nuking was a great balancer in vanilla. Don't listen to the haters Firaxis. Atomic Bombs need to be used

RAISES ARMS SKYWARD

dexters said:

Agree. AI nuking was a great balancer in vanilla. Don't listen to the haters Firaxis. Atomic Bombs need to be used

RAISES ARMS SKYWARD

Click to expand...

The Senate had it right - and hopefully we don't go the way of MacArthur