List of AI Stupidities

[funxus]

Ace, the senate combined with the UN can also be used to your advantage. If you only empty all the cities you want and have the capacity to take in one turn (i.e. not capturing them), they can't ask for peace. Then you have one unit per city standing by to capture them, and when all the cities are captured, you talk to them and sign a peace treaty (N.B. a peace treaty and not a cease fire). Since you have a treaty, they can't attack you without damaging their rep, and if they do attack, they usually only attack with one unit (e.g. a partisan) and then let it be.

To cancel the treaty, you tease them into breaking it. Move units into their territory and ask them to leave your territory. After a while, they are bound to break it, and hopefully it's during your turn and not theirs. When this happens, your units are repaired and already ready to do the exact same thing again with the next set of cities...

This can take some more time than fighting in fundy and only works in late game, but you seldom have to worry about counter attacks and you're also the good guy.

 

[Ace]

Are you playing classic 2.42 or MGE?

 

[jadelicia]

Originally posted by Ace
A favorite ai trick is to take one of your cities and than ask for peace. This can be very frustrating if one is in democracy and the senate "overrules you" and accepts the ceasefire. This, of course, leaves the ai free to regroup and sneak attack you a turn or two later.

I see....that's an interesting strategy. The Chinese sneak attacked on me a few turns ago in one of my games. I had some engineers near their city and they didn't attack those though...
Also, they are still "enraged" and at war with me, but even though my cities are nearby, they won't attack me and they won't talk to me ("we've had enough of your ceaseless chatter. begone!"). In fact...they've only attacked me once...the actual sneak attack. Go figure!

 

[Ace]

The ai won't attack if it figures the odds are not in its favor. Typical computer type, everything by the numbers....

 

[jadelicia]

They're attacking now. They must have needed some time to get mobilized. You'd think they'd get mobilized and THEN make the sneak attack...oh well.

 

[Katlover97]

The ai won't attack if it figures the odds are not in its favor. Typical computer type, everything by the numbers....

My enemies know I can beat them if I try, and they still attack me.

 

[scloopy]

My enemies know I can beat them if I try, and they still attack me.

If that were true the Vikings would not have wasted so many units against one city. They declared war because I would not give them what they wanted and keep attacking the same city over and over again.

 

[Katlover97]

I'm as stupid as some of these ai's! I usualy focus all of my power on one city. Is this justifide if it's their capital city?
And that's another thing! I also build all of my wonders in my capital city.
This is simply because it has the most working citizens and the capital city is
always more protected.

 

[funxus]

Katlover, a disadvantage of building all your wonders in the same city is that if you lose it, you lose a lot more than just a city. However, very very seldom do I lose my capital to the AI...

I assume you've heard of SSC. I.e. try building all of the sci and trade wonders in a city with a lot of trade, and maybe also HG. If you have a city with good production, try building King Richard's there, if you're building it anyway. The wonders with no special effect for the city it's built in, build them anywhere, preferably in a city with good production.

Also, spread the wonder-building to many cities by building caravans/freights, which also is a good way to help the wonder with cash, without rush-buying the whole wonder. Once you've accumulated enough caravans, move them to a city that is ready for it, i.e. well-protected and not in desperate need of something else.

 

[Ace]

On the other hand, if you build all your wonders in one or two cities, they are easier to protect and if you do lose your number one city, you have lost the game anyway. It is a risk, but with proper planning, you can reduce the risk to almost zero.

The best way to do it is the way you like. After all, the game is for your entertainment! (or addiction, as the case may be )

 

[Specialist290]

Also, there's nothing wrong with focusing your attack on a single city as long as you have enough strength behind your attack to take it and you can make sure your opponent can't effectively counter it. That's the main mistake the AI makes: they attack in a piecemeal fashion, and their pathetically small assault forces can be mopped up rather easily.

 

[ElephantU]

If you do focus your attack, make it on such a critical point that the enemy's structure will fall apart with it's loss. The capital city is such a point, as its fall will drastically affect the bribery costs and corruption levels of surrounding cities, but in the later game the AI civs can "transfer government" if they have >1000 gold in their treasury. A better strategy might be to try to take out several cities at the same time (by emptying them with ship or air attacks before capturing with land units), STARTING with the capital and using bribery when the city looks like it is decently sited or has a key wonder. The difference is really just in the advance planning. A wise man once said "Amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics".

 

[Katlover97]

Also, there's nothing wrong with focusing your attack on a single city as long as you have enough strength behind your attack to take it and you can make sure your opponent can't effectively counter it. That's the main mistake the AI makes: they attack in a piecemeal fashion, and their pathetically small assault forces can be mopped up rather easily.

I realy try to do this, but I'm impatient. To bad for me, I never wait long enough to build sufficient armies!

 

[ElephantU]

OK, here's another AI stupidity:
When they get Explosives, whether by research, gift, or trade, the AI civs take centuries to convert Settlers to Engineers (unless one of them has Leos, of course).

 

[Specialist290]

That one seems to apply to just about every unit the AI builds. I've seen them using Caravels when they should have traded them in for Transports long ago.

 

[ElephantU]

I lost a Sub to a Caravel once - in AD 1500...

 

[jadelicia]

A Sub to a Caravel??? That's pretty sad... I guess they could have dropped rocks on you

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Was the sub damaged? The attack to def would have been the same, but the sub has more hit points and fire power.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

I lost a Sub to a Caravel once - in AD 1500...

Wow, that's pretty improbable. Even if the Caravel was vet (sub not vet)and the Submarine was in port cutting its FP to 1 (that's what happens in port, right?), the odds are somewhere well below 1% of the caravel winning. Now if the sub had 50% damage, the caravel was vet, and the non-vet sub was in port, the odds go all the way up to 14%!

You sure it wasn't a frigate? the odds go up considerably for them...a vet frigate can take out a healthy non-vet sub at sea about 1/3 of the time.

 

[ElephantU]

I'm sure. My sub was not vet, and I had seen the caravel around for quite a while so it was probably vet. What galled me at the time (I was pretty new with Civ2, but had already discovered CFC and read the Combat threads) was how unlikely it should have been, both from the stats and from reality. A wooden hulled ship with no ASW weapons or sensors against a steel sub? I thought at the time that the sub should have been invisible to the caravel, but I saw the thing make a beeline to attack. I have long since learned the reality of AI omniscience. And I stopped building subs...

Too bad there is no "upgraded" sub like there is for fighters and bombers. I think of "Stealth" as really "Jet power"; for subs there could be "Sub" and "Nuke Sub". Oh well.

Anyway, my point was to emphasize the value of replacing units with better ones, especially Engineers. The best thing to do with Settlers is gang them in 3s and found a new instant-celebrating city. Replace Triremes and Caravels with Galleons as soon as possible in order to reduce the number of units with attack >0 away from home cities. For the rest, it is a matter of having as few "support" shields as possible being wasted on older, less capable units. But when all is said and done, perfectionist beancounter tendencies must not trump strategic realities of a particular game.

Then again, unsupported units are priceless...