Has anyone ever seen this before?

[Aceman101]

This is very strange. I was very surprised when an AI privateer sailed past my cities. I thought the AI's don't make privateers, at least I've never seen them make privateers. I've got screenshots:

AI privateer.

Spoiler :

See that galley in the picture? The AI privateer decides to attack that:

AI privateer destroyed the galley.

Spoiler :

Yes, the privateer destroyed my galley. Is it usual for the AI to make privateers?

EDIT: The spoilers only show the pictures of a privateer. It's not interesting if you've already seen an AI privateer.

 

[Yoda Power]

I've seen several AI Privateers over the years. It isn't unusual at all I think.

 

[Aceman101]

Oh. It seemed pretty unusual to me because I've never seen any AI privateers before. I've been playing vanilla for years, but only recently got complete. So it could be possible that somehow the AI's build privateers sometimes in complete, but not in vanilla.

 

[Delphi456]

I've seen AI privateers also.

That's a pretty awesome looking world map. Any chance you know the seed?

 

[Bardak]

My games are always full of AI privateers (C3C patch 1.22).

 

[lucashp]

Yes so do all my AI's its pretty stupid...

All they do is destroy all your boats that are near your cities doing nothing that you should have disbanded along time ago.

Something I find odd, After you use a privateer to kill it, you can enslave it with a 1/3rd chance. Then you right click on it and it shows you (Civilization here) Privateer. Hopefully that can be enough proof to kill them.

And I have a question, The privateer can bombard!? How!? It cant load cannons or any bombard units, and doesnt have the icon Bombard, and pressing B on the keyboard doesnt work

 

[Yoda Power]

Privateers can't bombard.

If they could the ai would use them to bomb all your coast tiles back to the stone age.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

If they could the ai would use them to bomb all your coast tiles back to the stone age.

Dunno how true that is. In my mod i let the Barbarian Galley have Bombard and i never saw it use that ability.
But then again the barbarian AI must be different from civ AI ...

 

[civverguy]

I've seen the AI makes a couple privateers in my game but rarely attacks my ships.

 

[Aabraxan]

I've seen them before, but I've only had one game in which the AI made more than a couple of them.

 

[Othniel]

I've had a bunch of games where the AI makes fleets of privateers. I remember one 80% archipelago map where the seas seemed filled with privateers. Of course, I happened to be playing as the English. My hordes of Men O' War were enslaving the Privateers in droves.

(What is the plural for a Man 'O War? Men O' War just doesn't seem right...)

 

[Ginger_Ale]

(What is the plural for a Man 'O War? Men O' War just doesn't seem right...)

I think it's Men O' War (similar to Man-at-arms -> Men-at-arms). It doesn't sound awkward to me at all.

On topic, yes, I've seen the AI build Privateers, probably because it likes the Hidden Nationality flag. They aren't that effective though.

 

[Aceman101]

Something I find odd, After you use a privateer to kill it, you can enslave it with a 1/3rd chance. Then you right click on it and it shows you (Civilization here) Privateer. Hopefully that can be enough proof to kill them.

Is that true? That would be very useful. And the privateer DID make another one but I didn't right click on it (Just destroyed it with my frigate) .

And I have a question, The privateer can bombard!? How!? It cant load cannons or any bombard units, and doesnt have the icon Bombard, and pressing B on the keyboard doesnt work

It can't bombard but it does have defensive bombard. I.E if it gets attacked it has a chance of bombarding the ship that attacked it before it gets into combat.

I've seen AI privateers also.

That's a pretty awesome looking world map. Any chance you know the seed?

This map is very strange IMO I choose a 60% water (lowest) archipelago map, and this is what I got. That lake above me (Greece) is the biggest I've seen. and now Byzantines boats are stuck because it's closed off but my boats can get through because I have a few cities that are on a small stretch of land 1 tile wide (chokepoint) which leads to the ocean.

Anyway here is the game type:

Note: You need the same amount of seafering civs or else it won't result in the same type of mape. I'll type the seafering civs in bold.

Seed: 92473442

Civs: Arabia, Scandinavia, Korea, Russia, Maya, Babylon, Celts, Byzantines, China, Rome, Greece (Me)

Map

Size: Large
Landmass: Archipelago
Water: 60%
Climate: Wet
Temperature: Warm
Age: 4 Billion Years
Barbarians: Restless
Aggression: Normal

Do you need anything else?

Every little landmass is connected except for Arabia.

Btw, this is the game I was talking about, how I conquered Japan.

Everyone Else: Sorry for making this useless thread. I thought it was very rare seeing AI privateers.

 

[Aabraxan]

Is that true? That would be very useful.

Yes, it's true. Privateers have the enslave ability. I know that, mathematically, privateers aren't effective. Nonetheless, I like to make a stack of 3-5 of them and just sail around the world, attacking my enemies (& sometimes, my allies). You lose some of them, but you also get to replace some of them. It's great fun!

 

[Mirc]

Yes, I've seen AI privateers many times. Not *often*, but many times nonetheless.

 

[LLXerxes]

I just finished a game where whom I guess is Greece (seafaring!) built about four or five throughout the game. Maybe it's because Greece was seafaring, or because their "preferred buildings" include naval units, but I doubt you'll see them from anyone else. Mostly AI's after Magnetism build just frigates, because they have better defense.

 

[Quintillus]

Greece is seafaring? I'm pretty sure they're commercial and scientific, at least in Vanilla and Conquests. Might be different in Play the World, though.

 

[Aceman101]

They are Commercial and Scientific.

I'm playing them now.

 

[sirdanilot]

I've seen the ai buid like 4 or so privateers, but it is quite rare. They might've built more and sent them in another direction though.

I've only ever built one privateer myself and before it was out in the ocean it was already bombed and destroyed by AI ships and airplanes. But that was in vanilla when it had only three movement points.

 

[induktio]

*makes the first post to the forums*

In Conquests (at least), it can be very effective to combine privateers with frigates in the pre-ironclad era. Privateers cost 10 shields less than frigates but have the same attack value. In a game of mine, I kept the ships in one stack, so if the victim civ isn't at war with me, they can't strike back at the privateers.

OTOH if you are at the war, you can use the frigates' bombarding ability to redline enemy ships, so the privateers can enslave them with minimum losses.