Get the AI to actually plan attacks, and intercontinental invasions.

[snoochems]

I love civ. I love taking over a continent, and then planning my assault on other continents. Huge scale invasion are cool. I mean, at the minimum, 20 transports, and a bunch of aircraft carriers.... mmmmm.

Pity the AI is so dumb.... you can always count on the AI to never have a decent attack strategy, especially for intercontinental warfare.

usually, by the time huge intercontinental invasions are happening, the world is advanced enough for bombers, and railroad. When initially deploying your army of several hundred tanks on an enemy continent, you use up a whole turn to just get off the boats. I don't know if that's the plan in civ4, (i hope they think of another way). So, your tanks are just sitting there, and thanks to railroad the enemy can just move all there offensive army and wipe you out before your next turn. So what do you do??? You take out the railroad around your own army first, meaning that the enemy can't reach you in that one single turn.
Does the AI think of this? No. Even if it did, there invasions usually only consist of a hand full of units anyway.
And when you're attacking, as SOON as you land on there continent, the AI sends every offensive unit they have after you. WHY! It's so easy to take advantage of! Take a transport with some obsolete units off to some remote part of the enemy continent, and then deploy them. Wait a couple of turns as all the enemy force goes after those three spearmen, and then BANG, invade them with your real army, as there entire force is out wandering the country side looking for your spearmen. How stupid can they get?

Another thing that bugs me is the fact that in Civ3, it didn't seem the AI put much thought into a war. Seriously, if you go to war with someone, you usually plan for it don't you... BEFORE the war is started. Can't they get the AI to do that too? Too many times have i had a AI just declare war on me, and then watch there troops come out of there cities etc. Shouldn't they already be on there way before they declare war? you know, so they can keep the element of surprise?

There are so many more things that’s I would LOVE to see fixed up in Civ4, in regards to AI warfare. But I’ll stop there for now.

 

[kulgan]

Nice snoochems. The AI is rather stupid I agree, and it cheats. Increased building speed a decreased running costs is not fair. The level of government should determain the costs for the AI just the same as it does for the player. Likewise changing governments should have the same effect on the AI as it does for the player and if there is an embassy, we should hear about the change in government style.

 

[snoochems]

kulgan. Good to see another brisbanite around.

yes, i live in brisbane too. Go the lions!

 

[kulgan]

And an Atomican.

 

[Hephaistos]

I totally agree with snoochems, but the AI does plan wars as I like to see it.
It's not much but often I see a buildup of forces at the border a few turns before
they declare war.

 

[snoochems]

Sometimes though, there "planned" attack is like a couple of cavelry and some cannons. meanwhile, my cities are protected with ten tanks to each one of the ancient "cavalry".

Seriously, a planned attack is something that they think that they have a chance of winning. So, in the above situation, they should seek the help of other civs. And if that still aint enough, get more civs on there team. The other civs should see you as a threat as your so much more powerful. The attack then should be planned out as if only one civ is in control of all the units of the other civs in there alliance.

It would make the game so much more fun and challenging. Knowing that, while you're a peaceful civ, because you're the most powerful, others are probably secretly planning a jiont attack to knock you off your perch.

 

[painkiller]

I agree. The A.I. i stupid when it comes to making war. I land paratroopers somewhere far from where I plan to land my main force and ofcourse they chase my paratroopers.

I've never ever seen a wellplaned attack from the A.I.

 

[Dell19]

I don't know how clever I actually want the AI to be... Some improvements would be nice but it should still be the human player that has a slight edge when it comes to tactically preparing and fighting a war. The last poster describes diversionary tactics where it would be nice for the AI to divert some of its forces but not all of them. So the AI considers the overall battle far more but can still be fooled into making slight mistakes,.

 

[Garbarsardar.jr]

@Dell19. I partially agree but think how many times you faced the sad feeling of preparing your "big war" in great detail and the the AI collapsing after loosing a couple of cities and you destroy the 2 or rarely 3 SoD it throws at you?

 

[snoochems]

Stuff that... i wan't my AI to kick arse. Not from 'cheating' but from being smart.

A game like Civ is fun, even if you are loosing.

 

[painkiller]

The AI should have a set of offensive & defensive strategies to choose from. It should ofcourse analyze the battlefield and attack & defend itself accordingly.

If I have 300 tanks near their borders I will ofcourse go on the offensive sonner or later, but the AI doesn't seem to understand that. In many games they even declare war on me when my tanks outnumber theirs 5:1. How stupid is this.

Then there is the problem with nukes. Well it's not actually a problem but the AI acts as a pacifist and that's the problem. If I'm near a conquest/dominatíon victory I usually nuke the AI back to the stoneage to sort of speed up my offensive. The AI that I just nuked have ofcourse a couple of nukes themselves but they simply wont use them. If you hit me then I'll hit back..

 

[Dell19]

If I have 300 tanks near their borders I will ofcourse go on the offensive sonner or later, but the AI doesn't seem to understand that. In many games they even declare war on me when my tanks outnumber theirs 5:1. How stupid is this.

They don't specifically know how many tanks you have and where they actually are. The computer may be taking a risk that your military is on another continent or that if it waits another 10 turns the AI will be outnumbered 6:1.

 

[DogmaDog]

Hmmm.

I think it would be hard to teach the AI to fight well.

I think it could definitely prioritize it's strikes better, though...I often see the AI attack with weaker units before stronger ones, or attack before bombarding. It should at least be able to have a priority...conduct attacks in order: naval bombardment, land bombardment, air bombardment, strongest attackers attack, weaker attackers attack, defenders fortify on attacker stacks.

Don't throw a longbowman at a city defended by riflemen, especially when cavalry are available and haven't moved yet.

DogmaDog

 

[painkiller]

The game is interesting as long as I'm not a superpower. After conquering 3-4 nations the game simply becomes to easy since the AI can't mount a proper attack. Later on when railroad i introduced it becomes more or less impossible for the AI to attack or even land a force on your lands because you can move across the nation in one turn. I understand when some say that they don't want the AI to become to good since not all are warmongers like me.