Dumbest AI moves

[Wacky_Warrior]

I think most players of Civ, sooner or later, will see the AI do some impressively dumb things. That said, you can (if the moon is just right and you really believe) see it do something that easily establishes a new standard for stupid. I'm watching William van Oranje do that now, and it inspired the question behind the thread.

I'm playing prince (my second game at this level), epic, archipelago and I'm Elizabeth. My strategy for this game is to get an oil-fired navy as fast as possible and just kill everything with it. I fought one early war (from which Suleiman never recovered), but haven't actually conquered anything. I now have frigates and Privateers, and decided I needed the additional income so I sent out the privateers to do what they do best. None of the other Civs have anything better than caravels, so my privateers are safe for a little while.

I have one sitting off Amsterdam (he's been there a few turns) and the longer I watch this the more I laugh. WvO only has a single city to work with and apparently he's decided to defend it with... triremes. He now has 16 of the little buggers hiding in there. Along with one longbow, a mace and a galley. Yes, I'm assembling a fleet to relieve WvO of the responsiblity of managing this city .

This is, by a big amount, the dumbest thing I've ever seen the AI do. I'm sure, though, that people have seen better, and I think it will be fun to share our stories of just how stupid the AI can be.

Cheers.

 

[danjuno]

Err, wrong forum. Anyways, while we wait for a mod to move this to the correct one, I will share my experiences. You see, I was palying as Louis, and my nextdoor neighbor was Bismark, seeing via WB that he only spawned with a scout and his warrior would take a few turns to build, (Remeber this is right off the bat, so no bronze working yet.) so I decided to attack him with my initial warrior. His scout was right next to the city when I got there, so I clicked the end turn button to see what would happen. Next turn: Bismark's scout ran away, and Berlin was toast!

 

[Absolute Zero]

I don't think this is really a "stupid move" by the AI - probably a glitch - but the AI's exploring units sometimes behave very strangely. They move back and forth between the same two tiles infinitely.

 

[georgjorge]

Sitting Bull was at war with me, and suddenly a Galleon of his appears in a spot where I never ever would expect it. I only got a single Warrior there and couldn't get other units over in time, so I think the city is lost. Then he unloads his Galleon...

Three catapults

 

[CHEESE!]

Toku once invaded me (isolated on one large continent) with... 16 trebuchets. Nothing else.

 

[remake20]

Err, wrong forum. Anyways, while we wait for a mod to move this to the correct one, I will share my experiences. You see, I was palying as Louis, and my nextdoor neighbor was Bismark, seeing via WB that he only spawned with a scout and his warrior would take a few turns to build, (Remeber this is right off the bat, so no bronze working yet.) so I decided to attack him with my initial warrior. His scout was right next to the city when I got there, so I clicked the end turn button to see what would happen. Next turn: Bismark's scout ran away, and Berlin was toast!

Scouts can't attack, so he had no reason to stay.

 

[CHEESE!]

He could at least have put up some defence.

 

[ori]

Moderator Action: moved to Civ4 GD

 

[diegovelasco45]

I don't know if it is the dumbest: I've seen diferent AI's settling on one corner of my territory with no resources nearby but the ones inside my culture... are they trying to stablish a beachhead or just annoy me?

 

[Fraxander]

i got one....Aztec bringing 3 galleons fill with knights and musketmen and declare war on me.cause he think that one of my city is lightly guarded with only 2 infantry.but his 3 galleons became 2 as he didn't know i have a destroyer at his back....that's the worst ever encounter i have with an AI declaring war when bringing out-dated units to attack me...in the end,my 2 infantry kill all his knights and musketmen with no problem.with aztec retreating to his cave hiding crying hahahaha

 

[hutdweller]

Ok, I think I've got one that takes the cake. This just happened to me, and I was gonna post a separate thread, but then spotted this one.

In this game, Montezuma and two other civs share a religion and are on a separate continent from me. Monty is the builder and the head of apostolic palace.

Monty's been pissed at me all game, and finally decided to attack, and brought one of his buddies with him. So I get two war decs, along w/ a bunch of ships showing up off of my coast. Trouble.

Next turn: AP resolution, stop the war *against* the Aztecs. Resolution brought forward *by* the aztecs. Of course I vote for it (I have 1 city w/ their religion), thinking no-one else will. But next turn it passes. Unanimously. Just as Monty's ships are about to unload, he's got a cease fire.

I assume this is a glitch, yes? Can't think of any real reason this would be a good idea for the AI.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Ok, I think I've got one that takes the cake. This just happened to me, and I was gonna post a separate thread, but then spotted this one.

In this game, Montezuma and two other civs share a religion and are on a separate continent from me. Monty is the builder and the head of apostolic palace.

Monty's been pissed at me all game, and finally decided to attack, and brought one of his buddies with him. So I get two war decs, along w/ a bunch of ships showing up off of my coast. Trouble.

Next turn: AP resolution, stop the war *against* the Aztecs. Resolution brought forward *by* the aztecs. Of course I vote for it (I have 1 city w/ their religion), thinking no-one else will. But next turn it passes. Unanimously. Just as Monty's ships are about to unload, he's got a cease fire.

I assume this is a glitch, yes? Can't think of any real reason this would be a good idea for the AI.

Sadly, the AI logic behind AP and UN resolutions in vanilla BtS (as opposed to BtS with better ai mod) is little more than "skeleton" code. They might as well be picking things at random and would probably do better.

So yes, that is quite stupid.

 

[CHEESE!]

I love it when the AI is in WHEOORN on you, and then asks for tribute. You agree. The next turn, AI unloads its Galleons and there's a stack of 10 knights or whatever on your shores, not knowing what to do.

 

[remake20]

If not really dumb, but I had an AI attack my stack that was about to invade them, and they got whooped.

 

[huh?]

In my game last night, I am set up on a nice little "corner" of a Pangaea map. Around me there is little or no land left to settle. I have Brennus to my South and Southeast. I have Peter to my East and Northeast (my North around to SW is water). Brennus is cautious and hasn't demanded anything. Peter is annoyed and made some demands that I rejected.

Normally, I see the tides of war rolling, but this time each time a demand came in, I bumped up my military production. I was expecting something from Peter; therefore, I assembled my troops in my city closest to his borders (which happens to be my military city).

All of a sudden Brennus declares on me. Does he move towards my weaker cities along his border? Nope. He movest towards the city that I have been assembling my troops. So there is his stack in my BFC. Everything has roads, so my mext turn I am able to kill everything of his on a plains tile. I retreat back to my city to heal. His next wimpy stack comes and I repeat it.

I sue for peace, since I really didn't feel like marching to his lands and Peter is still annoyed. The very next turn, Brennus declares on Peter. If either asks me to join the war, I will.

 

[remake20]

Actually the stack attack was dumber that i made it look. It was outdated units attack units with bonuses against them on a forest hill. No joke. I had pikeman and they were attacking with HAs.

 

[Akkon888]

AI researches Buddhism as first tech (he has mysticism)

(10 turns later) Buddhism has been founded in a distant land!

(5 turns after Buddhism) *VEDIC ARYAN EVENT*

So it turns out to be against the Buddhist. Now I did not know exactly what happened, but one civ was destroyed a few turns after Vedic Aryan, and another was destroyed two turns after THAT civ. My guess is that the Buddhist was Monty and he warrior rushed another civ before losing his own.

Watched replay, sure enough, that is the case.

 

[mariogreymist]

I was playing the other day and had WvO bring a bunch of troops into my territory, load them off his East Indiamen, then DoW...sending his troops back across the ocean. I Roflcoptered.

 

[remake20]

Dow??

 

[bakshi]

Dow??

Declaration of war?