Increasing Upgrade Cost Hurt AIs?

[cgannon64]

In a recent game I invaded America. They only had about 7 cities (they were cramped by myself and the Aztecs) so I expected the war to be short. However, the war was much easier than I thought, because my Knights were fighting spears, not pikes!

This leads me to wonder...has the increase in upgrading cost from 2x to 3x hurt the AIs? While it may not have been the case this time, this is a pretty large increase in the cost of upgrading. I found it hard to upgrade my spears - I only did about half of them - so I could see how the AI would have problems as well.

If this causes the AI to stop or delay upgrading units, I think it should be reduced, to 2.5x or maybe even back to 2x.

 

[Dearmad]

7 cities isn't a lot... I wouldn't expect them to be able to afford any real upgrades even at 2x. I know- I've BEEN that 7 city civ vs. the AI and I still had a few Pikes left over in 1910!! Grrrr... that game hurt.

 

[Puppeteer]

Originally posted by cgannon64
They only had about 7 cities (they were cramped by myself and the Aztecs)

Are you sure they had iron? If they didn't have iron then a spear is the best defensive unit they can have until Gunpowder, and if they have no saltpeter then it's spearmen until riflemen.

In my current game America has been without iron, too.

 

[cgannon64]

I'm not sure if they had Iron.

Anyway, I have a slightly better example of a war (same game) against Carthage. They had about 10 cities, and for most of the war they were using Mercs. Only near the end (the last 3 cities or so) did I see a Musketeer pop up, and even then it was usually only one in a city. The most ever was two in their capital, IIRC...