Does the AI "Cheat"?

[Clueless]

Let's say that I have a civ with a narrow isthmus in the middle. Now, at one end of my civilization, an AI civ starts a settler/spearman combo into my territory with the intention of starting a city in the unclaimed area near the other end of my civ. If I move one of my units onto the isthmus, blocking it to traffic, the AI will pull back their settler/spearman combo, even though there is no way it can see that I've blocked the isthmus. If I move my unit off the isthmus, the AI's settler/spearman combo will start into my territory once again. (Sometimes it's fun to do this for awhile just to tie up those spearman/settler combos.) I've noticed this same behavior with the AI's ships and straits. If I block the straits, the AI won't even bother to send a ship up to check that it's blocked. It will just know this and send its ships by another route.

Does the AI "cheat" in this instance by knowing things it shouldn't normally know, or am I missing something here?

 

[punkbass2000]

Yes, the AI knows the whole map and where your units are.

 

[thetrooper]

You'll have to live with it. The AI knows all this. Cheat? Doesn't matter really. The AI pays support for those two clowns jumping back and forth - that's a solace.

 

[morchuflex]

Yes, it's a "cheat", but you can exploit it: block the way and watch enemy units return back home. Open the gate: there they come again! Block it again and so on... You can keep their settlers busy forever this way, thus slowing their development. It's an exploit, of course. But is an exploit worse than a cheat?
BTW, some people on this forum (like our revered Arathorn) get angry when you talk about the AI "cheating". You'd better find another term if you don't want to be frowned upon. I suggest "subtly bending the rules" or "playing a different game under the same name".

 

[Zakharov]

The AI knows everything about the map from the start of the game, including the location of all future resources. Ever wonder why the AI settles a city in the middle of a desert far from the rest of its empire? It's highly likely a saltpeter icon will appear next to it when you discover gunpowder.

 

[Arathorn]

This is actually an AI "cheat". The AI does get some knowledge the human player doesn't immediately get. At one point, there was a full list. I don't remember it all, but some of the benefits the AI gets (on all difficulty levels) are:

- Full map knowledge -- including all units and all resources, discovered or not (this is the biggest and the one the OP mentions -- has applications to attacking backline cities, knowing city defenses, etc. too)
- Happiness info -- the value of certain luxes depends on how many you have and how many marketplaces you have and such. The AI knows this. Your advisor kinda knows this. The human never gets free access to this info.
- Rep-breaking info. It's possible to get some rep info about the AI civs (e.g. "The French have betrayed our good friends, the Americans."), but you can't get the details the AI has access to (type of broken deal, notably).

The AI never plays with quite the same handicaps/limitations as the human. Of course, it's always handicapped by being a program, not a thinking person, so I think the advantage is strongly on the human's side!

Arathorn

P.S. When the heck did I become revered?

 

[thetrooper]

When the heck did I become revered?

Reverend Arathorn. Blame yourself

 

[Willem]

Yes, it's a "cheat", but you can exploit it: block the way and watch enemy units return back home. Open the gate: there they come again! Block it again and so on...

Another option: When you're at war with a civ, remove all forces from a city and leave it defenceless. The AI will head for that city. It's a good way for leading it's forces into a trap.