Late Game Conquest

[Seek]

They'll have to actually change the AI - they don't even seem to send units over.

I see them do it occasionally. In one recent game I was at war with Hiawatha who was to the south of me along the same coastline. Hiawatha was also at war with Catherine on the other continent. After a small lull in which I didn't see any of his units coming at me by land I spot a decent-sized army in the water (3-4 ships, 6-8 land units including cannons and a GG) with only my caravel to defend! "How clever", I thought, "he's going for a sneak attack against my lightly defended northern part of my empire!" However, this was a force meant for Catherine and I was able to essentially crush it before it even reached her borders.

Moral of the story: The AI can and will send the army, but are pretty terrible at making it do anything for them.

 

[Thalassicus]

The capitals part is all or nothing (a single true/false flag in the file). Population and land area are variables we can set to any 0-100 value.

 

[albie_123]

They had population / land area variables in-game already? Not surprised.

I'm going to play some more games with aggressive AI's to see what population percentage / land percentage is the sweet spot.

 

[Txurce]

Moral of the story: The AI can and will send the army, but are pretty terrible at making it do anything for them.

The capitals part is all or nothing (a single true/false flag in the file). Population and land area are variables we can set to any 0-100 value.

I'm going to play some more games with aggressive AI's to see what population percentage / land percentage is the sweet spot.

The AI will conquer no more than its own continent plus some islands, so the % has to be based around that, or it won't work. My instinct is to make the land amount lower than then population end, so it's more feasible (land can be finite for the AI) but eventually possible (pop rises over time).

This can only be tested by Thal, or else released in a beta, so I'd suggest the latter.

 

[rhammer640]

I also haven't seen the AI be as effective as it is post v132. Arabia had is capital captured on turn 72 and on my continent spain was a war with japan and over time took all of its cities. Rome took a few of germany's cities as well as a few of greece's. Before this i never really saw the AI being very effective at all let alone taking 4-5 cities.

They are also upgrading their units effectively for the most part. On turn 222 the highest AI gold value was 484 so they are spending their money somewhere. AI is still terrible at tactics v human as a few ranged units are usually enough to wipe an entire early/mid game AI army.

I def think things are headed in the correct direction however. I think having to worry about another civ on a distant continent winning a conquest victory will encourage earlier exploration to be sure.

 

[Txurce]

I def think things are headed in the correct direction however. I think having to worry about another civ on a distant continent winning a conquest victory will encourage earlier exploration to be sure.

Good point.

 

[orangecape]

I should note that at some point Firaxis did make the AI have some sort of strategy for long distance invasion over water. They will make a flotilla of 2-3 ships, 1 GG and ~10 or so other units and move them in a tightly packed formation to their target. I have seen them attack both enemy AIs, me, and CS using such tactics. It doesn't work against the player very well if it gets spotted but it is a *massive* improvement over how things were at launch - the AI is giving a real try at it now.

I don't think they usefully reinforce their invasions though so continuing assault on another continent is unlikely. They can force you to maintain a standing army but they likely can't ever win without a steady stream of troops to cover their losses and they don't seem to have that sorted out at all.

I must say though the first time I saw the gigantic mass of units with a GG and naval escorts headed to my coast I was completely shocked and really worried!

 

[Txurce]

I have exactly the same viewpoint. Unfortunately all those very enjoyable improvements failed to increase the odds of the AI winning via Conquest above zero.