Aggressive AI in Warlords?

[Skudor]

I'm a nice guy, so I rarely start wars in Civ. So I prefer the AI to declare ware on me so that I can whip them and grow my empire. Warlords is great for that. In vanilla Civ I'd feel comfortable playing the builder and reacting to wars as they came. In Warlords that's not an option. If I'm not ready when the AI attacks, I'm doomed. It definitely seems more prone to war, although it may be mainly the usual suspects.

They come in force, they pillage, they raze cities.... I've prematurely ended two games after receiving a total whipping... on NOBLE.

 

[Watiggi]

I'm a nice guy, so I rarely start wars in Civ. So I prefer the AI to declare ware on me so that I can whip them and grow my empire. Warlords is great for that. In vanilla Civ I'd feel comfortable playing the builder and reacting to wars as they came. In Warlords that's not an option. If I'm not ready when the AI attacks, I'm doomed. It definitely seems more prone to war, although it may be mainly the usual suspects.

They come in force, they pillage, they raze cities.... I've prematurely ended two games after receiving a total whipping... on NOBLE.

Focus on your power rating. Or possibly more importantly, build an attacking army (big enough to say take out several of your neighbours cities or their entire empire) and then go back to building. They shouldn't touch you. Well, at least that has been my experience. Upgrade this army when the chance comes but just keep it sleeping in the middle of your empire or something. That's what I do.

 

[Skudor]

Thanks. I'm learning from my mistakes - plenty of military units, including city taking stacks ready to go. Going much better - although I'm probably not quite powerful enough in my current game as the chinese declared war, followed by a lone Chinese knight trotting into my lands (a pikeman took care of that problem). Am now busy pillaging China. Wouldn't normally do that... but seeing as the AI is playing rough... rough it gets. Half my empire consists of the Mongolian ex-Empire (now a Celt poodle). And I have my eye on the Vikings' horses . All good fun.

 

[parachute4u]

Played two games one monarch and two games on prince so far. Large map, epic speed.

Because you IMO always need to take out the neighbor, that is closest/has better land than yourself I did that in every game. Apart from that I tried to play peacefully. The only game, when that worked, so I was allowed to choose my wars (by declaring myself), was the game I built a ton] of missionaries, converting 4 out of 5 civs on my continent. It sure hurt my economy, cause my whole empire was building missionaries instead of structures for quite some time. But I managed to pacify my neighbors and isolate Izzy (being the only buddhist on the continent). I discovered the second continent with Peter and Augustus on it, who did not have any religion, so they got sent some missionaries too. Everyone kept being peaceful until the modern age. When free religion was in sight, I used my diplomatic bonus to start a war for land and cities, before finally adopting free religion and winning by space race.

The other games had quite some fighting. I usually choose one or two civs that like each other (and like me at the same time) to make friends with. That means I have to gift them techs if they ask for them and I have to
join their wars if they ask me to join. But that's ok. Never got backstabbed by a civ, that got every help they asked for...

 

[Watiggi]

Thanks. I'm learning from my mistakes - plenty of military units, including city taking stacks ready to go. Going much better - although I'm probably not quite powerful enough in my current game as the chinese declared war, followed by a lone Chinese knight trotting into my lands (a pikeman took care of that problem). Am now busy pillaging China. Wouldn't normally do that... but seeing as the AI is playing rough... rough it gets. Half my empire consists of the Mongolian ex-Empire (now a Celt poodle). And I have my eye on the Vikings' horses . All good fun.

What I do is when I get copper connected, I quickly build about 5 City Raider Axemen and maybe a Spearmen. When Iron becomes available, I build another 5 or so City Raider Swordsmen. When Horse becomes available, I build a couple of Chariots for the stack and a couple for the Barbarians. When Horse Breeding comes, I build 3 or 4 Horse Archers. A couple of them for my attack stack ('conquest stack' I have coined it). When I get Construction, I build at least 5-8 or so Catapults. I keep doing this as I get more units and upgrade the stack as appropriate. I stack them all together. If the stack gets a little too big, I build 2 stacks and even them up.

The numbers really isn't important though, just so long as you feel comfortable taking down a neighbours empire with it, regardless of whether you do or not. I just feel a lot safer having an attack stack ready. I mean, the best defense is offense afterall and the best way imo at stopping an annoying war prone neighbour is to take his cities. With this setup, I quite often find that Monty is always annoyed with me but never attacks me. I assume this is why. Maybe there is a calculation which factors in whether I am capable of doing damage to their empire or something. Also, if this is relevant, I play on noble.

 

[Murky]

I'm currently playing as Augustus on emperor level and it does seem like some the AI personalities like to go war just as soon as they have some kind of perceived advantage.

In my current game I am up against Tokugawa, Ragnar, Genghis, Huayna and Roosevelt. I eliminated Wang Kong early on and I think Genghis eliminated some other civ that I didn't get to meet. Soon as Ragnar had his UU he declared on me even though I was ahead in score. He did have Roosevelt as a vassal but Roosevelt was very weak. The funny part was that I only got to see a single berserker the whole time. He was using war elephants and horse archers instead. He also sent some Trebuchets to their doom.

The AI seems more aggressive but it still isn't great at war.

 

[Lance of Llanwy]

I'm currently playing as Augustus on emperor level and it does seem like some the AI personalities like to go war just as soon as they have some kind of perceived advantage.

In my current game I am up against Tokugawa, Ragnar, Genghis, Huayna and Roosevelt. I eliminated Wang Kong early on and I think Genghis eliminated some other civ that I didn't get to meet. Soon as Ragnar had his UU he declared on me even though I was ahead in score. He did have Roosevelt as a vassal but Roosevelt was very weak. The funny part was that I only got to see a single berserker the whole time. He was using war elephants and horse archers instead. He also sent some Trebuchets to their doom.

The AI seems more aggressive but it still isn't great at war.

From my limited experience, it does seem to prosecute it better...or maybe I should've had better defenses in my newly captured Persian lands. But I don't think I've ever seen it bring a clump of swordsmen together and actually take a city like Cyrus managed yesterday. Man...I've been getting a lot of strange little continents...long and narrow, with ridiculously long peninsuli. The AI does seem a lot more frisky though...especially the "usual suspects"...

 

[Murky]

From my limited experience, it does seem to prosecute it better...or maybe I should've had better defenses in my newly captured Persian lands. But I don't think I've ever seen it bring a clump of swordsmen together and actually take a city. They do seem a lot more frisky too...

In my game Ragnar's first stack was a Berserker and two Horse Archers. This was followed by a War Elephant, a catapult and trebuchet. He then sent single war elephants around to pillage a few border resources. It was pretty easy to wipe out those invaders.

 

[suspendinlight]

Does is seem to anyone else that the "iWarRand" has been increased quite a bit? The AI constantly seems to be planning wars a lot now. I see a lot more of the message "We have enough on our hands right now" when the AI is not at war, but planning a war. This seems to last for as many as 50 turns at a time though, making it more difficult bribe the AIs to fight the wars you want them to.

 

[Innawerkz]

From my limited experience, it does seem to prosecute it better...or maybe I should've had better defenses in my newly captured Persian lands. But I don't think I've ever seen it bring a clump of swordsmen together and actually take a city like Cyrus managed yesterday. Man...I've been getting a lot of strange little continents...long and narrow, with ridiculously long peninsula. The AI does seem a lot more frisky though...especially the "usual suspects"...

It certainly does. I play on Monarch mostly and find the AI will wage a much more effective war then before. Less suicide attempts & more siege equipment brought into play. I've had Vassals who were behind in tech help me win wars faster by bringing their own siege equipment up and lowering the defenses enough for me to take it. War allies never did that in Vanilla.

The AI declares more: Against me & other AI.

 

[itkovian]

My suspicion is that they added a new modifier to their behaviour...i.e The Great Warlord leader type. Now they get rewarded for warring in an additional manner and that makes their desire to war just that much greater.