AI sense of proportion

[Rammstein]

It is interesting to note that the AI is simultaneously a genius in some respects and a complete numbskull in others.

It knows exactly which cities are poorly defended and where to find them. It knows where resources will pop up and where an enemy has just landed troops. But is has no sense of proportion.

You've seen this, I'm sure, I just wanted to point my finger at it and chuckle. In my current game, I have the northern part of a large continent, the Aztecs have the southern. In the very north, the Mayans placed a tiny village before I could get there. Size 2, poorly defended and completely useless. What happens? The Aztecs declare war on the Mayans and start to cross my territory to remove this eyesore.

I'm a bit weaker, and they are annoyed with me, so I dare not throw them out. Instead of using the right amount of force, they start to hustle their entire army across my land - at least 50 units. All for this little dump way up north that in the end is taken with two knights. Then they start to withdraw again.

Halfway home, they somehow get to know that the Mayans have landed a settler on some forsaken spot on the continent, and the entire mass of units scattered about my territory suddenly shift course.

In the end, I granted them an ROP just to have them move a little faster.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, it's not a complaint or anything - just an observation. It seems weird to me that they lack this ability. Maybe it is a suggestion for C4. Give the AI at least a hint of a sense of proportion.

 

[Rammstein]

Hmmm this should have been under General discussions, sorry about that.

 

[man o' war]

lol i've had the same experience... only this time to my advantage. I owned one large continent. After waging an effective war against the Greeks, I chucked them of the corner of my continent that they owned. I then proceeded in a couple of galleons to their homeland. Within the first couple of turns, I captured a few good cities. My plan was to then slowly secure the rest of the land. In a suprise move, however, the Japaneese, who were winning by far, also took advantage of the situation by declaring war on the Greeks. Their fast army of cavalry quickly destroyeds the greeks, leaving my watching in awe. This left them wiht an even larger continent, apart from 3 or 4 reasonably good cities that I kept in the north.

A few turns on, the Japaneese, who were really on an invasion spree by now, saw my few cities as a security risk. They declared war on my and quickly sent their absolutely massive army towards my slither of land in the North.

By a stroke of luck, I had some troops in transport travelintg around the south of their continent. I quickly landed these men, taking them by suprise. My casualties in the north were huge, and I lost all three cities (as expected). Fortuneately, they left no army in reserve at all - remembering that this is a big continent, I managed to take 7 or 8 of their southen cities in the time it took them to take 3 of mine. I then took advantage of another of the AI's weeknesses, and negociated a hugely attractive peace deal (just as their troops were about to smash into my poorly-secured new land), resulting in:

Me loosing: -around 10 cavs, 15 riflemen (their casualties were about the same)
-three average cities

Me gaining: -8 GOOD cities (including their capital)
-around 7000gp
-a couple of settlers
-international respect

If only they kept a couple of their troops in reserve! I wouldn't have stood a chance!!

 

[Bagatur]

In result of war I had one tiny city on big island owned by Mongolians. It was surrounded with tundra forests and was my only footstep on Mongolian island. When time to invade MOngolia came I set up huge landing force - around 180 units, even more, tho. When I declared war and landed all the troops near one huge city, going to capture it next turn, Temujin sent all his forces towards my tiny city, thus losing one turn to get them back, because forest in my teritory. I mean he really sent his whole amry(I stopped to count when they reached 50 units) to capture city defended by single infantry. Well, ny landing forces were protected by several armies(AI does not attack armies, if they arent wounded and not in town). Just wondering what will hapeen, I reloaded and landed all the troops excluding armies. It was same. Agains my main landing force was sent single infantry unit ) while all Cavs and deprecated units + some infantries went againt towards tiny city. Genghis Khan had rails everywhere, so its complete dumbness what AI did.

 

[smackster]

I love it when the AI starts to wander en-masse through your land, as you can generally herd them into a corner, for destruction at your leisure. I will often bring workers and obsolete units over just to help in the herding process

 

[SpikeIt]

An amusing thread.

In my latest solo game I'm on small landmass, which I now share with one Hittite city to my south. Having just ended a war with the Hittites, I'm moving a settler down there to claim an open space. As this is proceeding, the Byzantines, on a much larger landmass to my west, demand gold and then declare war. Two dromons move around the southern tip of my land mass where I still have some wandering troops and the open spot my settler is landing towards.

Thinking Theodora is going to land a few middle age troops to cause trouble ( I haven't been able to hook up iron yet - a spoil of the Hittite war), I'm readying my troops. Being unprepared for another war, I'm not even close to being able to launch an offensive onto her landmass. Well, the dromons pull up and... drop off a spear/settler pair.

Thanks for the slaves. First blood spilled - Byzantine. At least 6 turns have passed since and still no other troops landed. Gotta love the AI.

 

[Rammstein]

You could exploit this, as smacksters comment implies - just make them wander off with their entire army to a far-off corner and then strike at the heart of the empire. Hmmm, maybe there is more to this thread than just amusement. This is actually something that should be corrected.

 

[smackster]

You could exploit this, as smacksters comment implies - just make them wander off with their entire army to a far-off corner and then strike at the heart of the empire. Hmmm, maybe there is more to this thread than just amusement. This is actually something that should be corrected.

I'm thinking this is a tactic rather than an exploit. Not that firaxis are going to change anything ever again anyway, but I wouldn't want them too. We need to keep a few tactics in our bag of tricks.

smackster

 

[Rammstein]

Maybe you are right.

 

[SpikeIt]

I don't think I would consider taking advantage of this an exploit. Its really just poor AI. Should it be fixed? Its not really broken, just dumb. It would be unrealistic to expect this type of behavior to be fixed. I would expect Civ 4 to be "smarter" though. I consider this all amusing because as you're playing and see this behavior, well, you can only just sit back and laugh.

 

[smackster]

There is a similar lack of proportional sense from the AI when you attack them on their land. I'm in an SG and currently have about 80 tanks ready on the Egyptian border. They off course do know that they are there, but have not moved a single troop in preparation for the inevitable.

 

[Markus5]

Yep. I've got a small stack of War Charriots sitting on the border. In a turn or two I'll demand even more tribute from the Germans. They need to think about defense, and I thought they were when a spearman stood right in front of the stack. But, then he walked off escorting a settler. The cities are defenseless. When your borders meet, you should start changing a bit of the expand-at-all-costs tactic. They haven't.

 

[Cu Chulainn]

As Spain sharing an island with Scandinavia and English. A failed spy attempt sends England to war with me. I pay the Vikings to run distraction while I mass produce infantry and arty. Using my superior tech I sweep England in ~10 turns. Then, seeing as the entire Viking army is now within my territory, I declare on them and slaughter their entire attacking force in one turn leaving easy pickings in cleaning up their defenders. Taking an island should never be so easy.

The AI thinks like Krikket in Hitchhikers guide. Once it decides to destroy something they become obsessed with it and devote every last resource to the cause until the war is over.

 

[smackster]

The AI thinks like Krikket in Hitchhikers guide. Once it decides to destroy something they become obsessed with it and devote every last resource to the cause until the war is over.

That is not totally accurate. I find that the AI seems to make a city defensive calculation, and protects cities with a certain amount of defenders based on city size, capital etc. When you attack they will always leave each city with that minimum defence. This is worth noting when you compare military strength, as you can use all yours and they will only use a portion of theirs.

In one game example, the AI had 65 Modern Armour, and I could only muster 20. When I attacked in desperation (trying to get their space ship), their initial turn of retaliation only showed about 20 of the MA in attacks. As I took each of their cities I found the rest of the MA providing additional defence. Clearly if they had used all 65 I would have been toast in one turn.

smackster

P.S. I got that space ship of course

 

[Shortyman]

If you don't want any units to travel through your land and you have a small border with them, then just make a wall of units all across the border and they will never get into your territory. If you want to start a war with them, then let them come in to your territory and ambussh them.