So... how does the computer pump out so many armies?

[logical_psycho]

In about every game I find myself overwhelmed by offensive units created by the enemy. I can hardly keep up with them building my defensive units. This causes me to lag behind in technology which leads to two possible outcomes:

1. I am trying to keep off Knights and Cannons with archers and eventually die.

2. I hold my ground until I have good defensive units and later catch up with them.


So my question is: How do they get all those units and STILL get ahead in tech? I can't think of any way but cheating. Early in the game I find it hard to produce many hammers in a city, usually I am under siege already before I even get to build a workshop. For this same reason I also find it hard to get the early wonders without getting behind in tech or getting my arse whooped.

 

[Aden52]

Maybe the AI has a good/decent production city, that he uses to mainly build armies, and then he sends those armies over to take you out? How often do you build military units when your at peace? Throwing in a unit (army) here and there after producing buildings never hurts.

The tech lead might be because of the civs your playing against, and what resources they have available to them. Make sure your science/gold cities are in locations that have atleast 1-2 or more resources to make them worthwhile.

Also, what difficulty level are you playing on?

If you build military while your at peace, then it prepares you for the eventual war with the AI. You don't necessarily have to stop producing buildings and go straight to military, when they declare war on you, if you know you can handle the armies invading you. Generally I try to put my production city close to my borders with other civs, and my science/gold cities sit in the back with minimal protection, and even when I'm at war, they still build buildings (unless I know they might actually take a city), while my other production cities build military to defend and counter.

Oh, thats another point too, build offensive units to use for defense when your at war. Counter attack them so they can't attack you. If your successful, you'll wipe out their army, and earn your armies promotions, which you can then use to invade them.

 

[atx4runner]

Alright I'm very new to the game but, once I have Archie armies in all cities and the AI starts to catchup I go for Pikeman and replace my Archers.

I'm just shocked at how aggressive the AI is. No matter what I do it seems like I have domination victory and they are all over me. Even with one lonely unit I was still in 1st place for domination.

Edit - Oh I forgot to mention, I found the Great Wall helps too if you can get it.

 

[logical_psycho]

I usually play on emperor and most of the times I am still able to win, but I hardly ever take the lead in the early ages. I also generally have a catapult army at the city under siege, especially when you can overrun your attackers's "escorting" defenders I find it to be really useful. Especially when my city is next to a hill I definitely do not want to rely on my archers for defense. Yet I still find it surprising how the computer opponent can rush out units and still advance in technology.

 

[Double Barrel]

I think the cpu tends to trade tech with each other a lot more than it does with the human player, especially at higher levels. And I think the cpu does not attack each other as much as they tend to gang up on the human player. With the cpu getting tech trades, it doesn't have to spend time/resources on research as much, and since it doesn't seem to fight each, their military units can be geared towards offense and attacking the human player.

 

[Carch]

Depending on difficulty, the AI gets more resources per turn than you. That's why on Diety level, they will always out-build, out-tech and out-grow your cities, unless you can keep them at war and focused on army production.

 

[goofyballer]

I also generally have a catapult army at the city under siege, especially when you can overrun your attackers's "escorting" defenders I find it to be really useful.

Yeah, this helps a lot when dealing with attackers.

 

[Smidlee]

It's been pretty much proven that the AI cheats especially at higher difficulty. By cheats I talking about playing by different rules not just extra resources. Ever notice that the AI will park a ship next to your city they will land endless armies until you destroy the ship. Also someone has shown that the AI will spawn armies in fog of war just like barbs do in civ4.

 

[Aden52]

Ever notice that the AI will park a ship next to your city they will land endless armies until you destroy the ship. Also someone has shown that the AI will spawn armies in fog of war just like barbs do in civ4.

Both of these have happened to me, at first I just thought they had switched ships out and I was not paying close enough attention. But the same ship stayed parked at my city, and kept unloading units. Although, it is possible that the AI has loaded all of them on the boat, and is only sending one or two armies every once in awhile, I highly doubt it, as there is no way they would win the war doing so.

Also, in another game I played, I noticed that out of no where a Roman Legion army appeared in my lands. There was no ocean/coast nearby, but a lake. I had all the surrounding land. The only entrance way into my part of the continent has my city there, and it was my second city from the 100g settler. I also moved warriors there at the very beginning of the game. No AI got through to my lands to scout them. I had a large portion of the continent to myself, and I quickly settled cities along all of the coast. Then later in the game, the Romans declare war. Fine by me, they were really far away. But then, from the middle of my land, comes a Roman Legion army. The only water nearby is from a lake... I have no idea how he got there, because I know for a fact that no AI was in my part of the continent once yet. He ended up walking into one of my cities (well, I did have an archer there, but only one, because I did not expect him to be able to rush one of my cities in the back corner of my empire...). I took it back right away, but it was a BIG surprise.

 

[KingDerfliw]

The AI definitely "cheats" at higher levels... but that's the only way to make them competitive with a human player. Even with the cheating the AI is not that good. So if they want to keep throwing spawned legion armies at my wall of archers/pikemen that's fine with me (thanks for the upgrades), especially since the AI hardly ever attacks with more than one army at a time... I actually like the fact that they cheat sometimes. It makes you have to defend all of your cities, as you really should.

 

[Smidlee]

Of course you can use the AI cheats and work it against them. For example when I play the Germans I will leave the parked ship alone so I can continue to kill their endless armies with my knights. This helps turn upgrade all my knight armies so they are ready to become tanks.

 

[I-am-a-panda]

the ai produces units, not buildings and city focus is production mostly!

 

[AznWarlord]

The same way I do. I play on Deity and I usually beat the AI with better tech, at least until Tanks, but I usually win by then.

First of all, in War, you have to set all cities to generate production. Don't forget to rush units too, that's the key to winning. I have One defensive Army in each city and in times of peace, I build walls in the ones closest to danger.

 

[Ninja Samurai]

The AI does not seem to spontaneously create armies every single turn. If you are able to eliminate a wave of attackers and immediately start advancing offensive units, you can often take a few cities before having to repeat the process.

 

[Jimmy369]

It is almost a foregone conclusion in Civ that at the higher difficulties the AI cheats. The only real difference is how they cheat. In CivRev I find that this takes the form of large numbers of armies and enhanced everything else. The AI does not cheat effectively though. They attack with forces that can easily be fended of by two defensive armies and a skirmisher or two. Most of the time I will focus on only allowing them one path into the empire. The units almost always stop at the first city where your defensive forces can easily halt their advance. This allows your other cities to ignore the war(mostly) and focus on keeping caught up in tech.

 

[bardolph]

In about every game I find myself overwhelmed by offensive units created by the enemy. I can hardly keep up with them building my defensive units. This causes me to lag behind in technology which leads to two possible outcomes:

Attack early and often. CivRev allows you to tech through conquest, so you are definitely rewarded for aggressive play. After you pump your first three warriors, you may be able to steal your second city from a neighbor by forming an army and invading while they still have lone archers. If this gambit succeeds, you will often also be rewarded with a technology.

Often, barbarian cities will reward you with horsemen. If this is the case, build as many horsemen as you need to make an army out of them, and sieze another civ's satellite city.

If you see settlers, take them. If you see exploratory units in your territory, kill them. You can always make peace later, once you establish your territory.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have at least one city pumping units, possibly two. Have a good mix of offensive and defensive units. Use offensive armies to repel attackers before they attack your cities.

An easy mistake to make at harder levels (Emperor and above especially) is to build more buildings than you need. Don't build libraries in your gold cities. Don't build a marketplace in your science cities. Don't build a Trading Post unless you have at least two (preferably three) desert tiles. Temples and Cathedrals are nice, but often a luxury you can't afford. Also realize that courthouses, while nice, are not always necessary in the early stages of the game.

You don't need any more than one barracks in your entire empire. Remember, a single veteran unit is enough to make an entire veteran army. Having a second barracks is a waste if you're building armies.

Make sure you have a gold reserve, so you can rush buildings you can't afford to wait for. In your army pumps, you will probably need to build granaries and workshops in order to keep your cities as productive as possible. Build these buildings with gold, and get back to building armies as soon as possible.

Once you've established your territory and secured your borders, then you can build more infrastructure.

 

[Gudinsdiv]

An interesting trick the cp played ina game I had was to move through my allies territory and appear on my border. I was playing Russia and the Romans decided to have at me. When they declared war I didn't expect to see them right away.
However, remember that they will move their units into position BEFORE declaring war so as to suprise you. Also, your allies could care less for your safety. You'd have to get your border ally to close his borders with the adversary, and generally they will only do this at a ridiculous price--that is, your newest technology; which they will turn around and use against you the first chance they get!

As stated above, ALWAYS produce units.
Don't be happy with two or three good defensive units in your cities.
Have three defensive, three offensive, and two seige.
This won't happen overnight, of course, but build towards it. Don't get caught up building markets, stables, and forges ASAP when you could be buidling units--WITHOUT THE UNITS YOU LOSE IT ALL ANYWAY!
But with heavily garrisoned cities, you can easily muster a substantial force to meet an attack.
LIKEWISE, as soon as you begin moving those rear units towards the front, BUILD REPLACEMENTS RIGHT AWAY!

 

[Michelasso]

The AI definitely "cheats" at higher levels... but that's the only way to make them competitive with a human player. Even with the cheating the AI is not that good. So if they want to keep throwing spawned legion armies at my wall of archers/pikemen that's fine with me (thanks for the upgrades), especially since the AI hardly ever attacks with more than one army at a time... I actually like the fact that they cheat sometimes. It makes you have to defend all of your cities, as you really should.

It's not really a cheating. It seems that the AI has the inverse of the MP handicap. +20% on producing units for Emperor, and +40% for Deity. I am not sure if that applies to everything else as well (like buildings, tech and so on).

 

[Smirk]

The best defense is a good offense. I've yet to run into any AI problem that couldn't be solved by catapults, and I've yet to be seriously tested in the late game. Its mostly me holding off full domination to play some of the other victory conditions.


At any rate, don't put extra defensive units in a city next to a hill, put a unit ON the hill and defend it. Better yet have an offensive unit there to preemptively attack any incoming units. But even better yet, have an offensive army in your enemies territory on his hills.

It may also be that you are choking up all your production building defensive units. There are limits to movement so you can defend what needs to be defended and leave the rest empty, there is no bonus for stationing units in cities like on other civ games so do it only when necessary. The AI does this, so if you don't you have an advantage. Just be wary and know which cities do need defense.