In a recent war with the AI, I used the common resource denial stragety to defeat the Romans. On the first turn of the war, I sent over a bunch of destroyers (DDs) to blast away the road to his only rubber supply. After a few turns I was steam rolling cavalary and riflemen with my infantry and tanks, despite being at the same tech level.
The problem is that Rome never even TRIED to rebuild his roads and reestablish his rubber supply. I kept 1 DD next to his rubber source in the event he tried to rebuild, but it never happened. He had the workers. When I captued Rome (3 or 4 tiles north of the rubber), I got over 20 workers (no I didn't raze the city to get the workers, he had that many there).
The funny thing is, when I kept bombarding the French's coal supply, they kept rebuilding the roads to it! I could't keep the road destroyed long. It took constant attention to ensure that the connection remained cut.
Why did the Romans not even attempt to rebuild? Surly they recognize the value of stragetic resources. He sent his bombers after my coal source...it took constant attention to keep the coal flowing (from that source anyway). Further, his first attack seemed to be direct at my rubber supply 2 tiles from our boarder. I think the reason he would not even attempt to rebuild his roads was that it was too close to my forces. It appears that just as the AI will attack human player workers, he seeks to protect his own with a similar insane (and self-destructive) fevor. His rubber source was only 4 or 5 tiles from our common border (though it was behind mountains). Caesar wouldn't dare send his precious workers (or mine that he got from razing one of my cities) to reestablish that supply.
Firaxis: Could you please fix this in a patch. My conquest of the roman empire was entirly too easy when he didn't even try to reestablish his rubber supply.
Modders (including myself): what if we made a "combat engineer" a worker unit with a small defense (so it can't be captured). The combat engineer would not cost any population (and hense can't be added to a city), and could only build roads (maybe rails) and fortresses. Apart from the value to the human player this would have for front line engineering, would the AI use it? Would the AI then send his combat engineers into medium to high threat environments to do important tasks?
The problem is that Rome never even TRIED to rebuild his roads and reestablish his rubber supply. I kept 1 DD next to his rubber source in the event he tried to rebuild, but it never happened. He had the workers. When I captued Rome (3 or 4 tiles north of the rubber), I got over 20 workers (no I didn't raze the city to get the workers, he had that many there).
The funny thing is, when I kept bombarding the French's coal supply, they kept rebuilding the roads to it! I could't keep the road destroyed long. It took constant attention to ensure that the connection remained cut.
Why did the Romans not even attempt to rebuild? Surly they recognize the value of stragetic resources. He sent his bombers after my coal source...it took constant attention to keep the coal flowing (from that source anyway). Further, his first attack seemed to be direct at my rubber supply 2 tiles from our boarder. I think the reason he would not even attempt to rebuild his roads was that it was too close to my forces. It appears that just as the AI will attack human player workers, he seeks to protect his own with a similar insane (and self-destructive) fevor. His rubber source was only 4 or 5 tiles from our common border (though it was behind mountains). Caesar wouldn't dare send his precious workers (or mine that he got from razing one of my cities) to reestablish that supply.
Firaxis: Could you please fix this in a patch. My conquest of the roman empire was entirly too easy when he didn't even try to reestablish his rubber supply.
Modders (including myself): what if we made a "combat engineer" a worker unit with a small defense (so it can't be captured). The combat engineer would not cost any population (and hense can't be added to a city), and could only build roads (maybe rails) and fortresses. Apart from the value to the human player this would have for front line engineering, would the AI use it? Would the AI then send his combat engineers into medium to high threat environments to do important tasks?
