Interesting -- AI is ignoring units' strategy tags!

[Smellincoffee]

Yesterday, I got to watch a big ancient-era war. I was playing as the English, and I was steadily building up swords and archers (playing an Infantry variant). I had a lot of spearmen fortified in the warzones, so I was watching the various battles as they happened. At first, the Incan-Babylonian alliance seemed to be winning, but the Maya managed to turn the Babylonians against their ally, and the war became all the more interesting. One thnig I noticed, though, was that Mayan spearmen were attacking after their Javelin-throwing counterparts had weakened the Incans. What's more, they usually won. Now, I do this all the time. If there's a 1 HP archer/longbowman out there and my defensive unit in a city can kill him, I kill him and go back to the city. But I thought the AI never went outside the strategy specified in the editor. I checked in the editor, and those spearmen were set to defend only.

Is this new with C3C, as I've never noticed it before, or is my AI simply being desperate? (By the way, I conquered the Inca in five turns and the Mayan in seven. 60+ medieval infantry and longbowmen will do that for you.)

 

[Lord Parkin]

No, the attacking Spearmen strategy has been used by the AI from the very first civ3, even though it's unchecked as an option in the editor. I think they only do it with their "sentry" Spearmen, not the ones inside the cities. They also only attack if their enemy is very weak (yellow or red health), as far as I know. (Otherwise they just use sentry Spearmen for pillaging). They do NOT prioritise Spearman attacking - in other words, if they've got enough proper attack units, they won't attack with Spearmen.

Hope that clears it up.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I guess I never noticed it before because the AI has never fought a large-scale war so early in the game. Typically AI wars I see involve ten troop engagments at the most. Thanks!

 

[Gengis Khan]

The AI sees everything in combat as a percentage chance. If the spearman has an advantage, the AI will attack with them. That's why the AI will very rarely attack armies, there's a very low chance that a single unit can take them.

 

[Smellincoffee]

So the strategy flag is just something to lull us humans into a false sense of security?

Seriously, though, I wonder how important it is to the AI when factoring in how to use units..

 

[Gengis Khan]

I think the strategy flag is more for determining when & why they build the units, if Japan needed some D units they'd build pikes even if they had Sams which have the Offensive tag(IIRC), but have a higher Defensive rating..

 

[Smellincoffee]

Okay, that makes more sense. Thanks!

 

[binyo66]

Originally posted by Gengis Khan
The AI sees everything in combat as a percentage chance. If the spearman has an advantage, the AI will attack with them. That's why the AI will very rarely attack armies, there's a very low chance that a single unit can take them.

@gengis
Once I was playing Emperor, PTW 1.27f. I took babylon city which had uranimum. I placed An Army (full healty, 4 Elite Armors), several injured MA, and 1 full healty MI. Next to that city was exbabylon city guarded by 1 MA, and 1 MI. Surprising, babylon tried to take the city with Army inside back .. and with only a regular Cav . Is this something to do with resources? (Note : babylon hadnt entered modern era yet at that time, he should have not known yet if there was an uranium)

 

[DreadCthulhu]

The enemy civs ALWAYS know where the resources are, no matter what their tech level - that's why if you see them building a city in the middle of the desert or tundra, you should take it; it probably has oil.

 

[Halcyon]

The AI will rarely attack when it feels that it cannot win - except when the defender is in a city. They'll happily attack your Mech Inf army with warriors, then.

 

[JMK]

Reference PTW (Deity)
I often see German (AI) using spearman (Free Unit) for scouting and attacking barbarian, but honestly that's about it, when AI sent spearman to you it is for pillaging purpose not to use as attacking units.

 

[alamo]

What I don't get is why the AI attacks with Infantry before using the cav. The 10 defense is much better than the measly 6 offense, so why waste a unit in enemy territory?

 

[Tomoyo]

It's because the AI moves all of its units in the order in which their unit ID numbers specify.