Naval AI is horrible

[zonk]

You know... I clearly remember on my first time ever at [BtS] that Justinian came one fine day and declared war on me from his palace at the other end of the ocean. A few turns later, and to my surprise, galleons appeared on my eastern coast pouring knights and musketmen on my territory, while airships bombed all my defensive units. That time I really felt the AI had mounted an excellent naval invasion and felt clearly challenged until I finally had to forfeit the game. It never happened again.

Yes - one was quite wise to either have sentries or be sailing around yourself... I play IV/BTS on archipelago a lot -- always fun to be patrolling around, see a big naval AI stack, then shadow it while sneering at the PC "Now... where do you think YOU'RE going?"

I'll give this to the AI in IV/BTS, too -- there were times when I spotted these armadas, noted it was clearly heading in my direction, rushed over my naval forces -- and it would change course and go after someone else instead.

 

[SuperJay]

Yeah, it's bad. Real bad. Heck, I'd love it if they'd actually build ships on Archipelago maps. Even if they sucked at naval tactics... at least let me see something other than my own ships moving across those expanses of ocean.

Or just remove the archipelago maps altogether, or make them MP only. As it stands, there's no point to even having that map type in the game.

 

[orrutxo]

My trireme has killed 5 infantry in no more than 3 hexes round! Why does the IA continue sending troops to that area without escort???

 

[Doctor Phibes]

My trireme has killed 5 infantry in no more than 3 hexes round! Why does the IA continue sending troops to that area without escort???

It has no concept of escort, plainly. If it was possible to stack units, then it might be able to manage it. [See discussion earlier in this thread].

 

[ohioastronomy]

I view oceans as buffers which allow for trade and effectively peaceful game play after the initial phase of turning your own continent into a barren wasteland.