Okay so we all know one of the big changes to Civ 5 is that the AI is actually trying to win now. This is the reason for backstabs and other such tactics. This is both great and annoying since the AI is more competative (leaving its pathetic 1UPT tactics aside) but also a bit less predictable.
I'm curious about why the AI doesn't try to avoid losing. What I mean by that is when the human player is close to winning, why doesn't the AI try and stop them? Now maybe it does this more on higher levels but I would have thought it would do it on lower levels too. Here's why I bring this up:
The game I just finished was King, Large, Continents, 11 civs, 20 CS, all vic conditions on. It was my first time in any civ game trying the OCC. I picked Ramses with the intention of going for a cultural vic.
I got a decent start with marble available, not coastal, a couple of hills and a bunch of forests around me.
Due to all of my bonuses, I was able to get a massive portion of the wonders and through most of the medieval and renaissance eras, I was ahead in score. It wasn't until the end of the renaiassance that a couple of the AIs got the tech lead on me and started to run away with some conquering.
I repelled a couple of attempts by Alex to conquer me and Suleiman just wouldn't give up until he was being crushed by Alex.
By the time I had completed my fourth policy, Alex (who bordered me on two sides with multiple cities and one side with a single city) and Wu (who was on another continent) were ahead of me in tech and had armies that could have crushed me. Darius (also on my continent and bordering me on another side with two cities) and Kathy (on continent with Wu) had armies that were larger than mine. The other civs I could have repelled.
All civs left in the game were Friendly with me (Suleiman was the ony one who didn't like me and that's only because I denounced him a couple of times) and I had trade relations of some kind off and on with all of them (OB with all of them, with some RAs and me selling my luxuries plus a few luxury trades or purchases to maintain WLTK in Thebes). There had been a couple of disagreements over CSs but no grudges.
So I have about a dozen units for defensive purposes in fortified locations in case Alex or somebody else tried to wipe me out before I could complete the last tree or the Utopia project. But alas, it never happened. I completed the final tree and built the Utopia project without a single DoW. Alex moved a couple of tanks to my borders a couple of times but never massed a large number of troops.
For the record, this is my third cultural vic (1 Prince, 2 King) plus I've also had a diplo (Warlord or whatever is before prince) and a science (King) vic. In all of those, the AI never tried to stop me. Didn't attack me when close to finishing required buildings and didn't try to steal CSs from me. I also have a couple of domination vics but not counting those since the AI couldn't stop me if it wanted to.
So its great that the AI tries to win now but it would be nice if it would actually try to keep me from winning. Attack me, attack CSs just do something to try and stop me from winning!
I'm curious about why the AI doesn't try to avoid losing. What I mean by that is when the human player is close to winning, why doesn't the AI try and stop them? Now maybe it does this more on higher levels but I would have thought it would do it on lower levels too. Here's why I bring this up:
The game I just finished was King, Large, Continents, 11 civs, 20 CS, all vic conditions on. It was my first time in any civ game trying the OCC. I picked Ramses with the intention of going for a cultural vic.
I got a decent start with marble available, not coastal, a couple of hills and a bunch of forests around me.
Due to all of my bonuses, I was able to get a massive portion of the wonders and through most of the medieval and renaissance eras, I was ahead in score. It wasn't until the end of the renaiassance that a couple of the AIs got the tech lead on me and started to run away with some conquering.
I repelled a couple of attempts by Alex to conquer me and Suleiman just wouldn't give up until he was being crushed by Alex.
By the time I had completed my fourth policy, Alex (who bordered me on two sides with multiple cities and one side with a single city) and Wu (who was on another continent) were ahead of me in tech and had armies that could have crushed me. Darius (also on my continent and bordering me on another side with two cities) and Kathy (on continent with Wu) had armies that were larger than mine. The other civs I could have repelled.
All civs left in the game were Friendly with me (Suleiman was the ony one who didn't like me and that's only because I denounced him a couple of times) and I had trade relations of some kind off and on with all of them (OB with all of them, with some RAs and me selling my luxuries plus a few luxury trades or purchases to maintain WLTK in Thebes). There had been a couple of disagreements over CSs but no grudges.
So I have about a dozen units for defensive purposes in fortified locations in case Alex or somebody else tried to wipe me out before I could complete the last tree or the Utopia project. But alas, it never happened. I completed the final tree and built the Utopia project without a single DoW. Alex moved a couple of tanks to my borders a couple of times but never massed a large number of troops.
For the record, this is my third cultural vic (1 Prince, 2 King) plus I've also had a diplo (Warlord or whatever is before prince) and a science (King) vic. In all of those, the AI never tried to stop me. Didn't attack me when close to finishing required buildings and didn't try to steal CSs from me. I also have a couple of domination vics but not counting those since the AI couldn't stop me if it wanted to.
So its great that the AI tries to win now but it would be nice if it would actually try to keep me from winning. Attack me, attack CSs just do something to try and stop me from winning!