Fall Patch - AI Land Combat

[Askia Muhammad]

Has anyone else noticed the AI becoming significantly better at waging land wars since the most recent patch? I will say that unless I'm rushed by the AI early in the game I still can handle them relatively well but I've noticed that they are attacking each other and are making meaningful gains much much more frequently than before this patch.

The group I play an online match with each week has also generally noticed this. I guess I'm wondering if these are isolated incidents or if the AI's capabilities for land combat have actually improved.

I've played three games (admittedly small sample pool) since the patch and in each game the AI has managed to conquer at least two of the other civs completely and when they do it they do it very fast. There are no drawn out wars. I've witnessed an AI Mapuche conquer a 7 city Pericles empire in under 30 turns for example. I typically play on Emperor if that matters.

They seem particularly deadly with heavy cavalry units recently. My friend faced an AI Genghis who had his units receiving over +20 combat strength each and the AI actually managed to take three cities from him even though he had modern anti-cav units and the AI was still using cuirassiers.

 

[Ownsya]

You're not alone in these observations. There was a long discussion (minor celebration) of the AIs improvement with the Spetember patch in this thread: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/congrats-firaxis-ai-you-finally-outsmarted-me.649652/

 

[WillowBrook]

I've now played enough since the patch that I can say I've observed clear improvement in the AI finishing off city captures when one AI civ has clear military superiority over another.

 

[Jimdigriz]

Damn this is gonna make me actually start playing again after a gap of more than a year! (I know..Im ashamed!)

And its on the Xbox soon too which means double trouble...

 

[Victoria]

Yesterday Monty attacked Geneva and I let him take it, took it off him... and one of his cities.
30 turns later he attacked again do I declared another protectorate, and after all, I had xbow.
...
Out of the jungle can 2 bombards 2 field artillery, 3 swords and a Cuirassier and a general who took a re-walled Geneva in 2 turns then turned toward me. I decided to go to bed but will play on tonight. (England deity)

To me the biggest shock was Geneva rebuilding its walls.

 

[PhilBowles]

I've just played the first session of a post-patch game, and it seems siege units have been buffed significantly - as has the AI's tendency to build them. As Macedon I've spent much of the early game trying to take out Sheffield - which is in hills with a fairly narrow path to access it. I keep being beaten back by catapults that now have the ability to kill Hetaratoi in two turns of firing (or two catapults-worth). They're also far harder to kill when attacked than they used to be.

 

[V. Soma]

These are good news!

 

[acluewithout]

Capturing Cities has got hard on high difficulty, outside of single-minded overwhelming early rushes before walls.

Mountains create a tonne of choke points - even if the AI can’t actively use them, they still blunt your attacks; Swords really suffer now from having no Medieval upgrade, leaving you with little option for capturing Walled Cities in the Medieval era - Knights and Coursers can’t use Rams, Swords and Pikes get killed by Crossbows; ah, Crossbows, that’s the other problem - AI gets xbows very early, and they just murder everything, even muskets; AI is good at levying City States, which are dangerous because they tend to have upgraded units, plus cross bows added to that starting walls that shoot at crossbow strength, production bonuses have really buffed AI unit Spam, and the AI is marginally better tactically.

And, on top of all that, if you capture anyone’s city or a city state, you get slapped with an emergency.

...Yup. Love it. Just what I wanted.

More please.

 

[Prester John 2]

Yes, that's my impression as well. And not just in the ancient and classical age. Even in the renaissance they put up a fight and try to position their units well.

 

[Tabarnak]

I also realized this in mp games. Especially when the emperor AI is better than the human who left. Or when people quit because they get stomped by them. But you can still catch settlers and workers easily.

 

[Tech Osen]

To me the biggest shock was Geneva rebuilding its walls.

I still notice a lot of AI cities not building any walls. In my current game I'm in the Atomic Era and Arabia's capital has no walls.
I conquered my entire continent, wiping out Brasil, Mali, The Netherlands and Norway and only a handful of those 30 odd cities had walls.
Considering I am playing Scythia focused on light cavalry it made things very easy.

 

[Victoria]

Yes it is sad but true, the AI is acting more human now

 

[bitula]

I recognized, that if the AI has a sizeable army it also performs better tactically. When it has only few units somehow its tactics go wrong, notably it "suicidically" ventures out with single units just to get killed. I think this really could be patched: would be better to keep those few units in and near their cities to defend. I would suggest FXS the following fix for higher difficulties:
1) Create a MINIMAL_ARMY_SIZE parameter, which AI should build unconditionally -> no RP factor should override this in the behaviour tree.
2) Stop dispersing small armies: if an army is too small keep it near cities to defend. Do not send out individual (except for scouts and pillaging cavalry) units into the unknown (territory out of visibility range). They for sure will get killed - nothing can be achieved with this tactic.

 

[Victoria]

Do not send out individual (except for scouts and pillaging cavalry) units into the unknown (t

Yes, and the other side of the coin is, if they are strong, hide and pick them off as they come out to play. TBH, this side of intelligence is harder to deal with by an AI as it has no memory.

 

[Tech Osen]

Yes it is sad but true, the AI is acting more human now

Well, Tamar is always very pleased with me...