AI Culture Victories

[obsolete]

I tested out BtS today. The jump from warlords to this version is much bigger than that from vanilla to warlords.

One thing I noticed in the later stages of the game was an AI just stopped teching. At first I thought he was in anarchy, then I thought it was a bug, or that I just didn't read the spy details right.

Then when it got it's third leagondary culture city and won a cultural victory on me, I then realized it MUST have been pouring all that money into culture instead of research. Something I'll have to be much more careful about in the future.

BTW, the AI during battles seems to be just as dumb as in warlords. I don't get what the hoopla was all about

Here's just one of the many examples of stupidity... Player A declares war on Player B. There is immediately a vote held, 'Do we want to stop the war?"

Yup... you guessed it. Player A who started the war, then votes on his enemy's side to stop the war he just declared. WTH

I was also able to obliterate rediculous amounts of AI stacks due to some horrendous planning on the AI's part.

That said, the only spy thing I didn't really figure out yet, is what are those little red spy symbols that appear next to the leader names on the right hand side of the screen?

This one was Monarch, next game I'll step up to Emperor.

 

[sigmakan]

I believe the icon signifies that you have more espionage points then they do(total points not just for a certain civ).

 

[obsolete]

Hmm, I guess that would mean there should be some sort of mathematical advantage to having more?

I also understand that if I have a spy sitting in my city, and another spy enters, I have an added advantage in catching it. Though I'm not sure yet of all the mathematics behind this.

 

[carl corey]

There is an advantage to having more espionage points than the AI has toward you: all espionage missions will cost less for you and more for him in that case. I'm trying to perfect my espionage game right now, and I feel that concentrating your espionage points on one AI is probably the best choice. You don't want to spy on the closest neighbour, he's going down anyway. So the best is someone farther away, who also has a high technological profile. That way you can get him down a bit if he's too much ahead (unhappiness in their cities - not sure why the AI goes for unhealthiness instead...), or steal a tech from them - pretty expensive though. I've yet to play a game in which espionage was the main focus, mainly because on Monarch I almost always tech fast enough to not need it, but it could prove interesting on Emperor.

 

[obsolete]

Well I constantly got my water poisoned. Though it wasn't exactly game-breaking by any means. I'll have to do some more experimentation on this and see how it pans out in the future. I may even re-do my last monarch game over now that I understand better what the hell I am doing.

 

[ButSam]

I lost a culture victory on Noble to Mansa Musa. I was so close to launching my space ship, too! And people complain space ship vic is too easy....

I think it is well balanced. I was Holy Rome, so I could play better defense with my Protective trait and excellent Gunpowder UU. I was in competition the whole game, but lost by probably ~25 turns.

I'm glad the AI actually seeks all paths to victory! I can now get trounced by the AI in many ways. I may have to go to war with someone who is close to legendary culture even if I don't want to...

Sam

 

[Percy]

I was Holy Rome, so I could play better defense with my Protective trait and excellent Gunpowder UU.

Sorry, but isn't the UU of the Holy Roman Empire a buffed-up Pikeman, the Landsknecht ?

 

[ButSam]

Oops you are right

I do recall it made a big difference though during that intermediate time between Axes and Gunpowder, sealing my defenses quite well for that timeframe.

Everything was good for me (close to others, but still good). I even took over Napolean, my only other rival on the continent that started there, and had a ton of cities and resources. It was a tough loss, but it was very good to see that I now have to care about the AI's progress on all victory conditions, not just military + spaceship.

Sam

 

[futurehermit]

yep, had issy pull off a cultural victory on me. i was 1 TURN from a space race victory i tried to send a stack to raze her last city going legendary, but was too late definitely have to watch for that now.

 

[madscientist]

I think the AIs may watch this too. I was playing a Monarch game/marathon speed and Ramses had 30,000 culture points. Cyrus declared war and took 2 of those cities.

 

[cabert]

yep, had issy pull off a cultural victory on me. i was 1 TURN from a space race victory i tried to send a stack to raze her last city going legendary, but was too late definitely have to watch for that now.

you should have spent a few spy points on her cottages
or pay for a few turns of revolt...
It's not expensive at all .

 

[Scaphism]

Just curious, but how many Culture points should your cultural cities be outputting by the late 18th century and beyond? And what are the big techs for Culture later in the game?

I don't really go for cultural and don't know what to look for if the AI is going to go for cultural now.

 

[futurehermit]

you should have spent a few spy points on her cottages
or pay for a few turns of revolt...
It's not expensive at all .

I realized way too late to do anything. I didn't have any spies over there or anything. I thought I had the win. I was wrong

 

[obsolete]

For the same price of causing poisoned water, and same price of causing unhappiness, isn't the PW choice almost always the poorest? I know the AI keeps going after that, and it doesn't hurt me much at all.

Typical dumb AI moves...

And now... I found out the hard way that subs don't carry spies anymore. Great... How else are you supposed to sneak them onto enemy continents?

 

[Cabay Jet]

Attack subs now carry spies and great people.

In a game I'm playing, I had Hauyna the infidel declare war on me and perform an amphibious assault on one of my cities. As if the -50% strength penalty for attacking from the ocean wasn't enough, the majority of his stack was comprised of trebuchets which, as you all probably know, have been nerfed in BtS and can no longer destroy units and thus take over cities. He only had 3 units capable of taking over in the stack, and he wasted a pike man on one of my crossbow men before he attacked with the trebuchets. If he had been a human, I would have laughed myself silly for poorly using his stack. He could have taken the city on that turn if he had used his units correctly.

 

[obsolete]

I also noticed the stupid AI using his siege weapons at the end of the attacks. I'm still shaking my head at when I was criticized for insulting the AI in Warlords, and told to upgrade to BtS for a 'smart' AI.

Sorry, I just don't see the improvement.

Big thumbs down on it for me....