I thought I saw an army. I did! I did!

[BlueStar]

This is so exciting I have to post it. Just started back playing the game after a few years away. I picked up a copy of the Complete Civ 3 and have been checking out some of the MODs contained there in. I am playing one of them now, not sure which but one that changes a few combat values and mentions improved armies.

Well low and behold if I didn't witness something I had never seen before-an AI army in action! I am playing as the Vikings and preparing to meet an attack by the Greeks-when all of a sudden my ally Egypt, shows up with a army and attacks the Greek force.!

The army contained a cavalry, a rifleman and two chariots. Quite a sight to behold for a long time player. I have spotted another army, made up of two riflemen holding a French city,( I have just invaded France), which hasn't done anything but swat at me as I move by it-but still-quite an improvement.

 

[Everkane]

I used to spot AI armies in Civ Vanilla, I'm not sure in Play The World, but never in Conquests. I think I've read something about AI doesn't build armies in Conquests (without mods of course), but I'm not sure.

 

[Kirejara]

Hi,

I have posted this picture before in "Interesting Screenshots".

I enabled the building of the military academy without existing army in Conquest. The KI regulary build the academy, but this was the one and only time they have actually build an army with it.

I did not have a war with the Zulus before I finished the game, so I can not say if they used it for offence or defence.

The selected units however are similar weird as those seen by Bluestar.

PS: Just noticed that Bluestar KI army included four units. Modified game or more than one an army with Pentagon?

 

[timerover51]

This is so exciting I have to post it. Just started back playing the game after a few years away. I picked up a copy of the Complete Civ 3 and have been checking out some of the MODs contained there in. I am playing one of them now, not sure which but one that changes a few combat values and mentions improved armies.

Well low and behold if I didn't witness something I had never seen before-an AI army in action! I am playing as the Vikings and preparing to meet an attack by the Greeks-when all of a sudden my ally Egypt, shows up with a army and attacks the Greek force.!

The army contained a cavalry, a rifleman and two chariots. Quite a sight to behold for a long time player. I have spotted another army, made up of two riflemen holding a French city,( I have just invaded France), which hasn't done anything but swat at me as I move by it-but still-quite an improvement.

I have posted a couple of scenarios with changed combat values and improved armies, along with easier to get Heroic Epic, Military Academy, and Pentagon, so could you check which scenario you are working from so that the modding community can follow up on this?

 

[BlueStar]

I have posted a couple of scenarios with changed combat values and improved armies, along with easier to get Heroic Epic, Military Academy, and Pentagon, so could you check which scenario you are working from so that the modding community can follow up on this?

Yes-I will, soon as I can.

 

[BlueStar]

Took me awhile to get back to this. Was wrong about the blurb on the mod saying anything about improved armies-I got it mixed up with another one. Anyway the one I am playing is Player 1 mod.bix, "Based on v1.04 PtW patch." I have played mostly Conquests, don't think I ever played PtW.

A couple of things I have noticed about this mod is that privateers don't create slave ships-ever. And that marsh terrain is unworkable-cannot be cleared by workers. But the Armies! I have spotted two more armies in action. Both fielded by my ally, Egypt.

The first landed in enemy territory in support of a settler. It then moved inland, attacked a Chinese city defended by a rifleman. After that victory it destroyed another rifleman defending a Chinese horse colony. After that it retreated to recover. That army was a 7-5-2, 3 cavalry and 1 infantry.

While this was going on another army landed, this one a cavalry, a guerilla, and two chariots. I am following the action with my own army as an observation corps.

I am looking forward to eventually going to war with Egypt and seeing how that plays out. Great game!

 

[timerover51]

As it is a .bix file, are you playing PTW, or playing the .bix file under Conquests? Also, could you post a save here so that I could look at it and see what was done?

 

[BlueStar]

As it is a .bix file, are you playing PTW, or playing the .bix file under Conquests? Also, could you post a save here so that I could look at it and see what was done?

Sorry-have no way to post save. I am using Civ 3 complete and the mod is one in the Civ content. That's about all I know. The second army with the two chariots was destroyed by a cavalry attack after it had been damaged in an attack on a city. The first army has recovered and is advancing.

 

[Moosezilla]

When you do you will see a paperclip above for "Attachments". click on it. browse to your save game. click on upload.

 

[Kirejara]

This is the second confirmed sighting of an AI Army. And Ekaterina uses it definitely for offensive.

But no need to worry. I am in a locked alliance with Russia and my Troops (including three Armies) have landed one round before the Russians.

So Leptis Minor is all mine!

 

[MrRandomGuy]

I hadn't ever seen it before either until a couple of months ago.

Once I had the vanilla map editor create a huge continent map for me. The result was 2 continents with a few islands dotted around them. The continents were nowhere near close enough to meet the other world until navigation.

After taking control of my continent I sent a scouting party for the other civs, then built up my army and invaded the number 2 civ. When I started mopping up the rest of the New World Continent, I got a nasty little surprise. Germany had not one, not two, but THREE armies made up of cavalry.

Germany was still a weak civ with about 5 or 6 cities and couldn't dream of withstanding my endless supply of tanks. I'm sure those armies are the only reason Bismark was able to stay in the game for that long - as the French were eliminated in a long time war between them and the Babs (I think, can't remember it's been a while) shortly after I found the New World.

Looking at the playback confirmed that Germany was in trouble, but the strange part is I never could figure out who Germany was at war with as neither side managed to capture a city. And by the time I got there the war between whoever they were with had been completed.

 

[Lanzelot]

Germany had not one, not two, but THREE armies made up of cavalry.

Germany was still a weak civ with about 5 or 6 cities and couldn't dream of withstanding my endless supply of tanks.

Hmm, they must have had more cities in the past, because each Army requires 4 cities. So they must have had 12 cities at one time.

 

[Lone Wolf]

The reason for such armies is well known - even if you give an AI an army, the AI doesn't understand the fact that armies add +1 movement in C3C. It still has the code telling it that you don't merge in an army a unit that has less movement points then the army itself.

Therefore, if it merges a Cavalry first, it will never finish merging units in the Army - it will say to itself "a-ha, the Army has 4 movement, therefore I need a 4 movement unit to merge there as not to harm its mobility".

That's the famous unfixed "Conquests AI army bug".

Mods that add buildings which, like the War Academy, automatically produce armies for the AI, and many units with different movement speeds mitigate this problem - the AI will have Army units and the possibility of it managing to merge suitable units is increased.

 

[MrRandomGuy]

Hmm, they must have had more cities in the past, because each Army requires 4 cities. So they must have had 12 cities at one time.

That's right I remember now. Whoever was at war with them destroyed their cities instead of capturing them.

 

[timerover51]

Mods that add buildings which, like the War Academy, automatically produce armies for the AI, and many units with different movement speeds mitigate this problem - the AI will have Army units and the possibility of it managing to merge suitable units is increased.

Based on this, as I have the Heroic Epic available to be built once Literature is researched without requiring a Victorious Army and it auto-produces a Leader every 5 or 10 turns, depending on how I set it, I should be seeing AI armies? I also have the Military Academy set to auto-produce Leaders, but that does require a Victorious Army, as does the Pentagon, although the Pentagon auto-produces Armies. As I tend to play on larger than 160 X 160 maps of either archipelago or continents, it might be a while before I encounter any. So far, I have not.

 

[Yoda Power]

Based on this, as I have the Heroic Epic available to be built once Literature is researched without requiring a Victorious Army and it auto-produces a Leader every 5 or 10 turns, depending on how I set it, I should be seeing AI armies? I also have the Military Academy set to auto-produce Leaders, but that does require a Victorious Army, as does the Pentagon, although the Pentagon auto-produces Armies. As I tend to play on larger than 160 X 160 maps of either archipelago or continents, it might be a while before I encounter any. So far, I have not.

Another problem with the AI is that it doesn't understand how to use Leaders. It has to directly get an Army from the wonder to actually use it, not just a Leader. If the AI somehow managed to build the Pentagon in your mod they would likely get and use Armies.

BTW: There is a way to sort of overcome the problem with the AI loading into Armies that we used in MEM II. Restrict the transport to one. Instead give the Army additional hitpoints (I give them six, i.e. two regular units). That way you have an effective Army usable by the AI. Though the Pentagon effect of adding more units to an Army should then be removed.

 

[Kirejara]

In my game the Russians have build all their Armies by themself. There is no autoproduction of Leaders or Armies.

The reason for such armies is well known - even if you give an AI an army, the AI doesn't understand the fact that armies add +1 movement in C3C. It still has the code telling it that you don't merge in an army a unit that has less movement points then the army itself.

Therefore, if it merges a Cavalry first, it will never finish merging units in the Army - it will say to itself "a-ha, the Army has 4 movement, therefore I need a 4 movement unit to merge there as not to harm its mobility".

This picture is from the same game. In the endgame the Russians have got three Armies. The last two are identical with a pair of Cossacks and a Knight (I have seen the other simultan on the Celtic Islands).

So it seems that they first put in the Knight (Army movement: 3) and then the two Cossacks wich have the same movement as the Army. This is not so bad...