Azers in early game

[Pembleton]

I just played two straight games losing my first city, and thus the game, to Azers. In the first game, two other civs were wiped out before mine. Are they supposed to spawn this early? I haven't had this problem in previous games, and I am using the naval AI mod.

Edit: I rebooted the game, and loaded an autosave and they were replaced by skeletons. Weird.

 

[Tholal]

Azers can be spawned as a potential random result from lair exploration. The AI explores lairs in my mod, so that's why you see these sorts of things more often.

 

[Flipantropo]

yeah its because of dungeon exploration. like 5 out of 10 times it damages cripples infects crushes withers plagues (...) the explorer, 4 of 10 times it will spawn all sorts of monstruosities like strenght 8 ogres, azers, lizards with crossbows...

My advice is to leave the dungeons alone if they are closer to your cities than to other civs´. If they spawn barbarians consider leaving a warrior on top so they cant spawn.

This tactic is the result of losing dozens of games in the first turns, just leave them alone until you can respond to an unpredictable threat.

 

[Pembleton]

I didn't investigate any dungeons. As Tholal said, it was the result of the AI doing so.

 

[Flipantropo]

Then im afraid i dont have any useful advice to avoid that situation
But you can always send your scouts to see if they can explore lairs near THEIR cities in the next game, if you can get any satisfaction from revenge against the AI like i do.
Its weird, i know...

 

[Lone Wolf]

The AI should investigate them less in the early game, then!

 

[Doug Piranha]

Then im afraid i dont have any useful advice to avoid that situation
But you can always send your scouts to see if they can explore lairs near THEIR cities in the next game, if you can get any satisfaction from revenge against the AI like i do.
Its weird, i know...

The problem is that the AIs have a pretty substantial bonus against barbs, especially at higher difficulty levels. If their scouts win a couple combats, they can promote themselves to a point where they can wander the map with no fear, while the player's scouts are being eaten by bears/griffons/spiders.

The AI should investigate them less in the very game, then!

I made this argument a while ago, but Tholal is doing lots of work for free and it's his decision.

I went so far as to write a program that added lair guardians to a worldbuilder file, just so I could play the game without dealing with constant lair pops. The other alternative is to play a custom game and disable lairs, but this makes for a different game, since you don't have to deal with lizards or poison goblins so the shock promotion becomes the one right answer.

 

[Bad Player]

The AI should investigate them less in the early game, then!

I think the AI should use the same tactics against humans that humans use against AI. So the AI should explore lairs/dungeons that are near opponents early on but not explore lairs near themselves early on.

Everyone complains that the AI is not as good as a human when playing by the same rules, then everyone complains that the AI is too smart...

 

[Tholal]

I think the AI should use the same tactics against humans that humans use against AI. So the AI should explore lairs/dungeons that are near opponents early on but not explore lairs near themselves early on.

This is what they do in my mod.

I think the main disconnect comes from the longer gamespeed settings (a majority of my testing is done on quick speed). I did put in some code to make the AI more cautious about exploring lairs based on gamespeed, but perhaps I didnt give it enough weight.

 

[Bad Player]

Why would you want the AI to be cautious about exploring distant lairs in relation to game speed?

 

[cypher132]

Generally when it's very early game and a civilization is taken out, I'll open WB to see what happened. It's usually Azers from a dungeon or those gargoyles from the Guardian. I tend to delete the offending creatures and put the civilization back because I want to be the one to crush them.