Lure AI onto vulnerable terrain with worker bait

[Stefanskantine]

I declared war on Ramses to steal a worker early in an Immortal game. I successfully stole the worker, but made a bad move as I was attempting to maneuver the worker and my warrior back to my territory. Thanks more to my blunder than any tactical brilliance on the ai's part, Ramses pursuing warrior had my damaged warrior pinned on -33% marsh. I couldn't move to a better tile due to the ocean, terrain, and ZOC, and I was slightly damaged while he was full strength and sitting on a forest hill.

I figured it was all over for my little slave raid. However I tried one more trick out of desperation. I moved the worker to a neighboring -33% marsh tile to see if I could bait him there to recapture it. Sure enough he bought it! Next turn I attacked and destroyed his warrior, recaptured the worker and then absconded back to my territory.

Anyway I'm not sure if the "bait" would work in other situations. But it seems like the ai priority for capturing workers may be out of whack. A small thing I know, but I figured I'd mention it.

 

[Post Monkeh]

i've done this a few times to lure enemy troops into my territory to gang up on them. one thing to watch out for - a couple of times the worker was disbanded once it was captured so only do this if you're willing to permanently lose the worker.

 

[alpaca]

This works sometimes, sometimes not. It's often worth a try to save another unit if you're willing to sacrifice the worker but the AI will only capture it if its their own worker, otherwise they will immediately disband it. I think it's fine, you could probably lure a human into this, too, on occasion. I know I sometimes get too greedy stealing workers

 

[Stefanskantine]

Generally it may be fine but in this case it was kind of obviously exploitive. I had basically 0% chance of winning, by tricking him onto the neigboring tile I had 100% chance. And of course by recapturing it he was going to lose the worker eventually anyway, along with the warrior as I destroyed it.

 

[alpaca]

Generally it may be fine but in this case it was kind of obviously exploitive. I had basically 0% chance of winning, by tricking him onto the neigboring tile I had 100% chance. And of course by recapturing it he was going to lose the worker eventually anyway, along with the warrior as I destroyed it.

Testing it out a bit I think I have to agree. The AI seems to have a much higher priority re-capturing its own workers than capturing yours (which totally makes no sense) and with their own workers you can often do annoying stuff like luring archers into the open, kill the archer and re-capture the worker.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

A nation has a higher priority of rescuing its own citizens than kidnapping foreigners. Yeah, that ain't logical. The AIs should all play like North Korea.

 

[alpaca]

A nation has a higher priority of rescuing its own citizens than kidnapping foreigners. Yeah, that ain't logical. The AIs should all play like North Korea.

From a gameplay point of view, no, it's not logical. Slave workers work just the same as your own. By the way, when the AI captures one of yours, they always commit atrocities and kill the bunch of civilians.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I see disbanding as more of letting them go their way, not being under your command anymore and them relinquishing their equipment.

Anyway, I'd suppose the AI disbanding them is them assuming you'd do the same thing rescuing them. Also (may not be intended), it may be to prevent you from building workers to use as reusable distractions.

 

[Slowpoke]

Honestly workers should just be outright killed on conquest.

-Gets rid of stealing from city states
-Gets rid of this crap
-Makes rushing harder

 

[robvollman]

I noticed this, but it didn't click until I read the forum.

I attack this Barbarian in an encampment near a city. To my surprise, the Barbarian then left his encampment to go capture a work of mine building a farm in a Grassland. I took the encampment, and it was easy to swat aside a wounded Barbarian in a grassland (and get my worker back).

The fool should have said in his fortified encampment.

 

[alpaca]

I noticed this, but it didn't click until I read the forum.

I attack this Barbarian in an encampment near a city. To my surprise, the Barbarian then left his encampment to go capture a work of mine building a farm in a Grassland. I took the encampment, and it was easy to swat aside a wounded Barbarian in a grassland (and get my worker back).

The fool should have said in his fortified encampment.

Hehe yes, barbs are notorious for it. Paeanblack even invented the "barbarian storage unit" to store settlers in order to save on maintenance