Anybody else keep getting rushed by the AI?

[kamex]

First game on Emperor, spawn near Trajan who forward settles on me then immediately denounces me for having less land...

By turn 50 or so hes got 10+ warriors on my two cities that fall easily. I only have 3 warriors and 2 archers. The AI seemed to understand the new siege mechanic which impressed me. But combined with the constant barbs I was pretty much set up to fail that game.

Next game (King), met Monty turn 58. Turn 59 he declares war and sends three of his UU which are hard to defend against with early units. I fought him off, but he would not make peace until I built walls (then he immediately offered). So AI must consider walls as a factor. I've since started to beeline them after second city.

Any body else get rushed often for almost no known reason?

 

[Brackenspore]

You're Napoleon: great commander.

 

[Lord Katana]

finished three games.. first one on king.. egypt rushes me 5 warriors. and spain declares war on egypt too for good measure. Second game (emperor) no AI near me, so i'm save. Third game immortal, japan forwards settles in like turn 10, then rushes me with 5 warriors... thanks for the two cities.....

So yeh... rushing seems like something the ai is fond of while there are no warmonger penalties....

 

[Disgustipated]

It happened even on my warlord game.
Also happened on my deity game, but that was expected so not shocking to me.

I'm thinking the AI is programmed to attack you. My last game it was Dordo who attacked with a bunch of warriors and a slinger or two.

They especially like to do it before you get Early Empire and they just waltz right up to your cities.

 

[Eyeoftiger]

This is happening in every game of mine too. I have to focus my early research on archery and then ultimately masonry to get walls up. 4-5 archers will usually hold them at bay until walls come online.

 

[GT_OKEZ]

If you know you're spawned next to Monte or Trajan then gear up! Trajan wont like you for being slower than him (something you cant help on Emp or higher) and Monte hates you for having luxuries he doesn't have which happens a lot. On my second round of production which is usually a slinger ... I usually build 2 or 3 if near a warring Civ like Trajan or Monte.

Side note : If you're Russia then Trajan will be less likely to hate you and might even like you. I think his agenda is triggered by how many tiles you have in your borders.

 

[rrrwww]

map type has alot to do with this. a continent, and even pangae map are much more dense compared to an inland map, for example.

in any case, by turn 50 you should have several archers.

on empror and higher, beeline archers and dont even make a second city unless good initial start. declare war on monty yourself. several archers should take care of him, depending on terrain

personally i dont even make a second city anymore on emperor if there are close neighbors

 

[esoba]

Yep, my current game I (Rome) was right next to Greece (Pere) and the barbarians were out the most fiercely I have yet to see them. Both horse and warrior rushes, which nearly took out my capital in the first 25 turns. Then Greece declares war and warrior rushes me. Dude had like 5, so he must have only been building units. Luckily I held both attacks off long enough to beeline for Legions. Then stuff got real, real quick. Needless to say, Hoplites don't work so well against well trained legions .

 

[VTMatt]

I'm only on my second game, but haven't had the AI give me any early trouble. The closest civ in the first game was Brazil, my current game it's England.

I was peaceful virtually the entire first game, and have been so far in the second, though England, my "friend" has been massing chariots at my border. She hasn't been doing anything with them though, so I've been keeping pace with my own, stronger army facing off with her.

The most aggressive I've seen the AI so far has been denunciations from far away civs based on their agendas. Maybe that will all change when I spawn next to the wrong civ though!

 

[Chuma]

They make an early push on the higher difficulty levels it seems.

Although I have seem people in the preview build steamroller all the other civs by using the Vikings and pillaging all the costal cities. They had frigates by turn 100 and skipped most of the non-nautical improvements.

 

[esoba]

They make an early push on the higher difficulty levels it seems.

Although I have seem people in the preview build steamroller all the other civs by using the Vikings and pillaging all the costal cities. They had frigates by turn 100 and skipped most of the non-nautical improvements.

The vikes are definitely going to be the next civ I try after I finish my Rome game. Pillaging sounds amazing, especially with those policy cards that double rewards.

 

[Disgustipated]

They make an early push on the higher difficulty levels it seems.

It happened on my Warlord game. Although it didn't happen on my Chieftan game. Point is don't take AI players for granted, they will attack in the early game. Good thing is I prioritize military now because of the barb threat, so it's usually not a big deal. Biggest problem in both my Warlord game and my Deity game they attacked when I was dealing with barbs. I barely avoided losing my city in my Deity game.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Yeah, I think the AI will basically always rush you in the early game unless you have a massive military. I started a game last night as Germany. Pericles was my closest neighbor. He praises me twice for leaving city states alone, agrees to a declaration of friendship and exchanges diplomat delegations. Our relationship was the green smiley face with no negatives. But then he sends 2 warriors, 2 hoplites and 4 chariots right up to my border. Sure enough, on like turn 40-50, he declares a surprise war against me. I had 2 archers, 3 warriors and a spearman and I chopped forests to rush ancient walls in my capital. So I was able to fend him off pretty easily. I think the lack of warmonger penalties and a perceived weak military (relative to the AI that spams units) makes the AI pretty much always go for a surprise war.

 

[randomwalker]

look from the AI's side:
-no walls, smaller army = easy target
-every other civ is stronger
-no warmonger penalty

= it's a no-brainer really. Unless they have an agenda that says otherwise.

i don't think they look at tech or upgrade capabilities, only at the units you actually have on the board.

(First game was fun though, as i just got archery done and stonehenge buildt the turn before the war. Upgrading my slingers to archers with extra +10 strength from belief turned the tide quickly).

 

[greygamer]

It has happened to me 50% of the time (2/4)
America rushed me with approx. 10 warriors which I chewed up with Horsemen/Horse Archers
Sumeria rushed with 3 War-Carts and captured my capital (I only had 2 slingers and a warrior) *I had no Horses or Iron

The lesson is if you have a close AI (especially if they can make an early UU) go full military get Archers and Spearmen and Walls if you can.
Gilgamesh is particularly dangerous due to War-Carts being strong (30), fast (3 movement) and available from turn 1 ...so don't trust him

 

[Nathair]

frigates by turn 100

TFW you discover you're just terrible at this game.

 

[knightblaster]

It happens pretty much in every difficulty setting. You will get rushed, period -- seems a staple of the AI in Civ VI.

 

[isau]

Yes this does happen. Here's a partial explanation of why, based on what I can observe.

When you first meet a civ, if you check the diplo panel, you'll often notice a penalty called "First Impression" (to see it you need to have a relationship with the civ). It'll often be -4 or -5 and will hold steady for a long period early in the game. This appears to represent a drain on your relations. If you see negative values (red text) on this screen, the civ is becoming more and more angry at you.

You can offset this partially in a few ways:
- Give gifts
- Open borders once that becomes a thing
- Send a trade route
- Send a delegation for 25 gold (often the only option early)

The most important thing here is the longer you let a bad relationship linger the harder it will be to repair. If you start off with -5 First Impression, by turn 10 your relationship has decayed by 50 points. If you care to slow this down, you can offer a delegation the moment you meet a civ for the +3 relations. This will slow down their rising anger toward you significantly and could ward off an attack. You have to send the delegation super early or else the relationship will quickly decay to the point they will no longer accept it.

AI relationships appear to require much more attention in Civ 6 than in previous games. If you see negative numbers on the diplo screens and care enough about the relationship to address it, you should act quickly. A -5 total relationship that stays that way for many turns isn't holding steady--it's getting worse.

 

[Chuma]

I suspect I will need to buy a guide to this game or something. The last one I got was for CIV III and was an actual book.

 

[stealth_nsk]

It happens every time, but if you keep this possibility in mind, that's not a big deal. I'm playing on King now and could repel early game surprise attacks effectively. However, I understand what so far I was able to repel mid-game attacks only due to AI being behind in military upgrades. If it will be fixed, I'll probably need even more military.