AI Aggressiveness vs AI troop levels

[whyidie]

One game in I've had my fill of wars. Do think its somewhat reduced, but they happened. My concern was with the number of units the AI brought. Seemed less than they brought in GnK.

What has been your experience so far with BNW :

AI is much less aggressive with DOW ?
AI unit levels are lower than before ?
Both ?
None of the above, its pretty much the same in both categories ?

 

[Selereth]

My neighbour Ethiopia had a HUGE army, with at least 10 of those special units (I forget what they're called but they replace the riflemen) and 4-6 cannons. This is in the Industrial era, mind you. He DOW on Portugal who was south of us but he never actually attacked the closest city, he just marched his troops around at the edge of Portugal's borders. Now granted, it may have had something to do with the fact that my territory was somewhat in the way since two of my cities were separated by two of Portugal's hexes but we had open borders, so I don't know why he never sent his massive army down there to smash Portugal. In the end I simply went down there with my own army to take out Portugal as they were getting in the way of my unit movement between cities ( their territory was sandwiched between two of my cities, and I had to go around the long way).

 

[whyidie]

My neighbour Ethiopia had a HUGE army, with at least 10 of those special units (I forget what they're called but they replace the riflemen) and 4-6 cannons. This is in the Industrial era, mind you. He DOW on Portugal who was south of us but he never actually attacked the closest city, he just marched his troops around at the edge of Portugal's borders. Now granted, it may have had something to do with the fact that my territory was somewhat in the way since two of my cities were separated by two of Portugal's hexes but we had open borders, so I don't know why he never sent his massive army down there to smash Portugal. In the end I simply went down there with my own army to take out Portugal as they were getting in the way of my unit movement between cities ( their territory was sandwiched between two of my cities, and I had to go around the long way).

Good to hear, if it turns out my game was a reflection of the game I rolled and not something that will impact every game, I'll be quite pleased. With AI not being terribly good at tactics, if they brought less units than GnK that would be take some adjustment for me.

 

[Snuffleupagus]

All these posts about aggressiveness (or lack there of) - makes me wonder if all the new additions means that there is more variability from game to game based on the game's setting.

So some games have no AI initiated war due to proximity and trade route set-up, while other games are not affected.

 

[whyidie]

All these posts about aggressiveness (or lack there of) - makes me wonder if all the new additions means that there is more variability from game to game based on the game's setting.

So some games have no AI initiated war due to proximity and trade route set-up, while other games are not affected.

Thats the conclusion I'm drawing as well. You nailed it here and in the other thread as well, I'm optimistic.

 

[Aristos]

...there is more variability from game to game based on the game's setting.

EXACTLY my observations.

 

[ahawk]

I voted both. On Emperor, at least, I see fewer troops coming even from the war-mongers. Had an Attila rush come at me, and it was just two rams, two horse-archers, and a couple of warriors. Even stranger, it came later than normal.

My theory is that unit numbers are lower in the early game at least because there are now a bunch of other things to build (cargo ships, caravans, caravansaries, and the various artist guilds by the end of the early game).

And as for aggression, the AI now has trade-routes as a reason to not simply walk in and bash neighbors. If you are the only civ in range, they may be reluctant to fight you simply because they'd then have no trade routes for a while.

 

[Callonia]

Plus, the fact you'll be basically broke until markets get set up and there's no free gold on rivers and coastline anymore X_X

 

[msawchuk]

The ai definitely has the potential to be very aggressive, but it often doesn't use it. I had one game as Byzantium where I was on a very safe looking peninsula that came out from the southeast of the pangaea, and the civ that was north of me was Venice, who had a low production start, so I was not worried about him, and I made very few units. All of a sudden I see a couple of Assyrian units come out of no where. They had to embark to get to my land because Assyria was separated from me by a sea since I was on the peninsula. Assyria brought around 10-15 units and was able to take my capital. This was the first effective assault like this that I've ever seen. On the other side of the ai's warmongering tenancies, I had a different game on a standard size archipelago where I was friends with the whole map for the entire game after about turn 150. I got in no wars, and I saw fewer than five ai wars. I even saw Catherine vote for me for the World Congress host elections, but sadly, I thought that I had no chance in the elections, so I voted for her and Venice won.

 

[dexters]

AI agressiveness is determined by the leader. Warmongers will find an excuse to war. You can't make a poll about 'agressiveness' and not consider leader/flavours. You'll get wonky results.

The thing with Civ5 is not all AI are cookie cutter, different leaders mixed together will produce different game narratives.

Granted my 1 game of BNW saw Montezuma play normally. This could be related to the more friendly nature of BNW games some have noted or it could just be RNG roll pushing Monty towards a more pacifist stance.

The other AI's warred and ate each other up often enough. 3 civs were killed off by the AI by the time I won

 

[sveint]

War !

 

[JustinianIV]

It's funny, after the last patch (the one that came out just before BNW) I played two games of GnK on Emp, and I noticed the AI being much more bold in their attacks. They saw that I was gaining a tech lead, and then they took turns DoWing me. What was surprising was how little provocation they needed mixed in with the fact that one of them only had about as many troops as I did. The others only slightly more. It stank of real life desperation.

I thought this would be a sign of a new type of aggression in the AI.