A.I. becoming impossible!

[Gumbolt]

Definate improvement on bolts game. I am concerned your building no military units!! Need to chop out some defence. Although Bolts game is now doing better on the power graph.

I think what you have done with city layout shows how bolt could of built up the empire more. Cities 4 squares apart and more infrastructure. Still the Koreans are looking dangerous. You have turned round the game though.

 

[Honkoid]

Hehe, yes it's a weak point of mine, that I'm running very low on military at times.
But it was not Wang that I was afraid of, but Alex. I played a few more turns by now and to my surprise Wang vassaled to Charles shortly after the save here. And shortly after that Charles declared on me. Problem was not only his not overly huge, but still threatening stack, but also that he gifted lots of mililtary tech to Wang! I could have hold my own with heavy whipping. Luckily Sury agreed to backstab Charles. For free!

Later on I did lose that northern isolated city again to Alex and suffered heavy losses in this war against him, but finally I took it back.

As you said my military was low, and I kept it too low for a long time. The widespread borders of the french empire and relative lack of strong production (partly because I underestimated some city cites) didn't fit my usual playstyle very well. But I managed and my economy is in overdrive now. I'm tech leader on the continent and think I might grab Rifling or steel with liberalism, although it's still a long way. Since Wang broke from Charles and surrendered to Sury, the next war will probably be against the whole continent, but I expect a massive tech advantage. This isn't emperor after all

 

[Boltrider]

Thankyou VERY much guys. I am overwhelmed by the generous offer of support and overall `brotherhood` of this forum!!!

Your advice about city spacing is of course spot on and has since been rectified by me (must NOT capitilise on the extra expansion of CREATIVE trait... it obviously does NOT pay off!)

I wish I had saved the ORIGINAL start save from autosave because everything is now back to normal for me simply by altering the ORDER that I installed the game patches. I am running Civ 4 patch 1.74 as well as BtS patch 3.13.

But by installing the 1.74 patch last as opposed to BEFORE the 3.13 patch the game has returned to what I know and love. All challenges intact and gameplay `practical`.

Have not had the time to research this theory but that is ALL I did and now games have returned to what I am used to.........

 

[Wolfshanze]

If you think you'll go bankrupt with anything more then half a dozen cities in the middle ages, you're not playing the game right at all.

You need to build cottages, markets, banks & harbors early to get your economy going.

By 1000 A.D. it's not uncommon for me to have a dozen or more cities... and I'm not bankrupt (and running a 60% science usually)... I'll take a dozen cities at 60% over four cities at 70% any day of the week. More cities = more science.

As has been stated many times already (and you're not acknowledging), the only person "cheating" at Warlord level is YOU the human. You get bonuses over the AI at Warlord level. To play "fair" you need to play Noble level... the AI only begins to "cheat" at Prince level and above... the only player cheating at Warlord level is the human (ie: YOU).

Once again, it's obvious you're not building your cities correctly if you're having problems having more then a few cities... you're not paying attention to the economy and frankly you deserve to be crushed if you can't build more then four cities successfully by 1000AD. Cottages... markets... banks... harbors... this will keep your economy going.

It also doesn't hurt to maintain a military presense... the AI senses weakness and gangs-up on the weakling civs. If you had a larger empire and/or a stronger military, it would think twice before attacking you.

"Pre-emptive military strikes" are also your friend... sense a neighboring civ getting too big for their britches? Take them out before they take you out!

But by installing the 1.74 patch last as opposed to BEFORE the 3.13 patch the game has returned to what I know and love. All challenges intact and gameplay `practical`.

Have not had the time to research this theory but that is ALL I did and now games have returned to what I am used to.........

Ick... so playing on Warlord where you get cheats over the AI, and with 1.74 patch (lobotomizing the AI) is "fair"? It's like playing against a 4-year old.

Keep playing the AI... don't ever play against a human with those "tactics" of yours!

 

[DraconisRex]

I have thoroughly enjoyed Civ since its first incarnation on floppy disks, and have probably notched up collective game time measured in many months not hours. The fact that the A.I. `cheats` is now an undisputed fact, but has never been an issue with me. Since the last patch or two though, I have found it impossible to play a game even on a rather demoralisingly low `Warlord` level!!!

It seems whatever wonders/resources I secure, the A.I. does at some stage come at me with a STUPIDLY huge army. This is followed by another and another until all the other A.I. nations are joining in on the kill at some stage or another - even ones I have carefully groomed as allies!!

My question is this; are there any mods out there that `restrict` this non-sensical behaviour and unrealistic A.I. behaviour a little. Even better, that force A.I. to conform to the same rules as us lowly players?

You're probably not building enough army. So they're going after you. Use the graph function and check it for "Power." If you're not keeping up with your future enemies, you're low-hanging fruit in the orchard of life.

 

[DraconisRex]

I think Boltrider's complaint is more that from a role-playing perspective allies shouldn't always make a cold-hearted calculation to grab what they can just because they can (i.e. would Canada ever try to conquer Minneapolis just because it thought it could get away with it).

I found Vanilla better to play with an eye towards roleplaying. In the expansions/patches the AI plays better to win. I don't think there is a solution besides reinstalling and not taking the patches.

If I ran Canada...

 

[Wodan]

I suppose they could launch an invasion across the great lakes. Land somewhere north of Chicago. They'll need to use their navy, of course.

Wodan

 

[dankok8]

@ Boltrider

The best way to learn is to play a game where you can compare your progress with others.. Go to Strategy&Tips and play Noble's Club V: Hannibal on Noble difficulty. He's financial so it should help you economy and you can really expand. Then, check the spoilers of people who have gone a similar distance and see how they did (it doesn't matter if they played a higher level). Better in some areas .. worse in others etc.

 

[Honkoid]

Your advice about city spacing is of course spot on and has since been rectified by me (must NOT capitilise on the extra expansion of CREATIVE trait... it obviously does NOT pay off!)

Your idea to send your first two settlers near to Wang's capital was actually a good idea! You secured a huge amount of land for later settling doing that. Additionally you secured the only gold resource in reach. Hadn't you done that, you would not have been able to get that large without war.

The real problem was poor execution.
You chose suboptimal city sites and didn't improve the cities you had properly.
Your workers kept building farms, where food was abundant and citizens already in strike and you neglected cottages.
Your cities themselves put too much effort in wonders and other buildings with low priority.
Your tech focus was completely neglecting the immediate needs of your economic and military situation.

Although for someone on your level it might be more advisable to generally settle close in the beginning until you get a better understanding of the game mechanics.

 

[boon]

Another good idea if youre not comfortable with choosing optimal building sites during play when you start open up the world builder and check out the resources around you, use the landmarking tool and make tags at the first 3-5 sites you want to settle. Remember that you always want a copper/iron resource asap, getting horses is also more or less a necessity(you can do without them but sometimes on harder difficulties it helps to have a few chariots in your stack.)

Also depending on how crowded the map is you may want to wait like 10-15 turns for the city to grow so you dont auto-raze it. This saves you 300 hammers (if your not expansive) to spend on other units/buildings. Thats around 3 swordsman and an axe which will replace what you lost taking the city itself if its well guarded. The only problem with this strategy is sometimes you get sub optimal city placement because the AI settles where they spawn(ive never seen them move).

Also i pretty much end up running 2 scientists in every city with a library(gives you 15 beakers if your running representation) and i skip most wonders except the GW/mids if i have stone and the oracle if i feel like founding a religion--VERY rarely will i build all three, on most games at prince or above i usually get the mids and i only get the GW about 1/2 the time. I dont think that ive ever gotten all three of those on prince or monarch ever, i may be able to do it with a rediculously good spawn (ie 2-3 gold/silver/gems/copper/iron plains hills and 2-3 food resources that end up at 5 food each plus a stone--also i'd need a marble at my second city). I almost always build the great library simply because of the boost it gives to research(+12 beakers and on representation and 15 with a library if i remember right, so running 2 scientists and building a GL nets you 30 beakers which is a good chunk of your early game research) i also aim to get music/liberalism first if im playing prince or below. At monarch i usually aim for liberalism and ive yet to even win a game at emporer or above since the barbarians usually bog me down pretty bad if i dont build the GW and if i build the GW i lose time that should be spent on producing a settler and whipping an army out.

Unless your going for an early domination/conquest win id also suggest running a deficit research from trading your techs for gold. just remember not to give away techs that lead to wonders that your currently building or military techs that you havent built enough units to have an advantage with.

Im sure that its been pointed out that you shouldnt overexpand but if your warmongering sometimes overexpanding doesnt really hurt you as much as it should since when im whipping an army out my population usually doesnt exceed 4 or 5 anyways and i usually win via stacks of praetorians/chariots/macemen

Also dont be afraid to regen your spawn if you get half desert or spawn in the tundra, if your having trouble playing at that difficulty you should try to find a decent start so you arent getting outdone by the AI from the start.

One of my biggest problems was that when i first started playing i got into the habit of building what was recommended usually and ended up building stuff when i really didnt need it.