New patch 20 December

[EmilyMoby]

Until the AI is fixed so it doesn't spam Apostles and Barbs surrounding your city by turn 15 this game is no longer fun nor should it be played. Only managable road block to religious spam is play on Islands but it only slows the onslaught. Last game Rome build 58, yes 58, Apostles and Missionaries.

A lot of times when the AI does this, it isn't using the units to spread religion that much. That's why they seem to build up sometimes, because the AI doesn't always use their spread ability and they just accumulate.

Try declaring war on the AI that does this. Build up some units first, and place them around your cities within reach of all the religious units. Units with more movement points, like horsemen, are best, but you can use whatever. Denounce the AI, then declare a formal war when it becomes available (I think 5 turns later), or if possible, declare a holy war against the AI under the casus belli option.

Once you declare war, just start mowing down those religious units. It's not an attack, so you can kill one with each move (hence why units with more movement points are better). It will reduce that religion's presence for each unit killed. (I don't know if the extra belief that says your religion's pressure never drops due to losses in theological combat prevents pressure drops from being run over by a horseman, but the AI doesn't seem to ever take this belief anyway).

The satisfaction from killing 50 missionaries and apostles is worth the pain of having a religious AI spam units at you. And if you can manage to get the right to declare a holy war (I don't know exactly what triggers it, but the AI has to convert your cities to some extent, and you may or may not have to ask it to stop first), you won't have much of a warmonger penalty.

 

[EmilyMoby]

Also, to add more ideas, you can also stop religious spam by surrounding your cities with units to tile-block the AI from spreading its religion.

And if you have your own religion? you can use an apostle to start an inquisition, then use another to evangelize the belief that makes your religion's pressure never drop due to losses in theological combat (although this is not strictly necessary, just makes it easy, because it is slightly more work to really make sure you keep your units alive), and then park an inquisitor on a holy site and have another waiting in the wings. It will heal 3x the faith of that holy site every turn. If the AI manages to kill it by slamming multiple apostles into it at once, just bring the next one out. Or if his health gets too low, move a military unit on top of it to give the inquisitor time to heal, or switch it out with another (but it will take a turn before the healing kicks in). The AI will end up killing its units and since yours heal so much (30-40 ish?) every turn, you will lose fewer units than the AI, and its pressure will drop.

I once had Peter throw so many apostles at a single inquisitor parked on a holy site that it converted two or three of his cities that were nearby. He denounced me for it, of course, but kept doing it. (Sigh. This really should be fixed so that instead of "you converted one of his cities," the denouncement message says "he kamikazed too many religious units into your unit, in your territory, and now he's irrationally mad at you because his people switched over to your religion as a result of his actions.")

 

[Mort_Q]

I once had Peter throw so many apostles at a single inquisitor parked on a holy site that it converted two or three of his cities that were nearby. He denounced me for it, of course, but kept doing it. (Sigh. This really should be fixed so that instead of "you converted one of his cities," the denouncement message says "he kamikazed too many religious units into your unit, in your territory, and now he's irrationally mad at you because his people switched over to your religion as a result of his actions.")

Yah, that one's kind of annoying. I ended up breaking my promise (not like the AI ever keeps theirs) 'cause of something the AI did. I wonder how hard that would be to fix?

 

[Cymsdale]

The whole promise concept is stupid anyway. Just remove it.

 

[Thormodr]

Hilarious hyperbole! We shouldn't play a perfectly playable, enjoyable game because you have trouble coping with religious attacks?

It has been perfectly playable and enjoyable for me.



If you can't beat their religious attack, try a lower level.

I don't mind losing a religious battle.

I rather dislike getting swarmed by religious units, even when my cities have been converted, to the point where I can't even move my own units due to the carpet of apostles. That is frankly annoying.

Religious units should use an interface like spy units so that they are out of the way and not clogging up the map.

 

[Thormodr]

I still like 1UPT. Makes me actually have to think about how to attack cities rather than just moving a blob of units towards the city. They shouldn't throw out 1UPT just b/c the AI can't handle it. They should just make other adjustments, like reducing the effectiveness of ranged --- I'm still enamored with the idea of making ranged all but useless if a unit has less than 75% health, or giving AI an even higher combat bonus and maybe even more HP on higher difficulties. Not hard.

If you think that stacks are just moving a blob towards a city then you fundamentally misunderstand stacks.

1UPT is still a disaster because the AI is, to this very day, still utterly befuddled by it. That AND the fact that it fundamentally changes so many things in the game to accommodate it. You need to change production values, tile yields, bonuses, etc. to keep away the dreaded carpet of doom.

It's a bad and inelegant solution to the problem that should be ditched for Civ VII. I am in favour of limited stacks/armies. That would be a good compromise.

 

[EmilyMoby]

Yah, that one's kind of annoying. I ended up breaking my promise (not like the AI ever keeps theirs) 'cause of something the AI did. I wonder how hard that would be to fix?

Maybe they can throw it in the same patch as the fix for breaking the promise to move away from their borders. When you have open borders with an AI and are inside their territory, or otherwise have no way to avoid being near their borders as you move by them to get away, it isn't breaking your promise to continue to be near them for a few turns.

 

[Miir]

I've never noticed the AI not attacking my cities. If I have a city that is not well guarded, they will throw every unit they have at it until it falls, including suicide attacks.

I've honestly never noticed AI attacking my cities, and they have never conquered any for sure in my 4-5 deity games. I see people claiming to loose cities to AI, but I can't see how that is even possible? Maybe its because I play aggressively, so the AI is always on the defense, I dunno...

And its not like I only have well guarded cities (even though I always have walls), in the first few games I was often thinking that a city was lost, since the AI had nearby units and I had none or few, just to see the AI run past the city without doing anything.

To be totally honest and maybe sound a bit elitist, I don't see how its possible to loose a game of CIV6 at all.

 

[Morgawr]

Have you been playing this mod? AI is a possible threat until about turn ~100. The circumstances all have to fall into place - you have to have virtually no military, no walls, and the AI attacks you with their 5 warriors and takes your city and game over. Or even if it's not your capital city, losing a city that early in the game is crippling.

I agree that even on the highest difficulty, three archers are enough to stay alive like 90% of the time. But the good thing about this mod is that w/o it, it's also too easy to conquer the AI in most scenarios. Now at least the AI puts up somewhat of a fight, like attacking my archers with knights, which it doesn't even do in vanilla.

In short, yes it's still very hard to lose a game even on highest difficulty (if you don't call giving up due to boredom/losing GP race/etc "losing"), but at least this mod makes it so that it is not a cakewalk every time to win a game on highest difficulty.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Can one of the patches get the user interface out of pre-beta, please? That'd be nice. I'd at least like a beta level UI, though I prefer good UIs in my finished products. I wish more other people also preferred at least beta level UIs to make it to release. At least bring it up to the standard of the other mechanics...

 

[EditorRex]

As many people have complained, the much-heralded Alert function doesn't have the merit of actually working. Your unit will sentry just fine, but it doesn't wake up. So, would someone at Fireaxis please fix this newly introduced bug in the next patch, please? And while you're at it, it would be great if the game, when cycling through your units, would automatically take you to cities that have the ability to attack intruders. Otherwise it's too easy to miss the fact that barbarians or someone else has popped up unexpectedly near one of your cities. This should work so that any garrison unit on alert in a city comes first in the sequence, immediately followed by the city walls in that same city.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I have found that sentry does work, but differently than in IV or V. Instead of waking up your unit at the beginning of your turn it does it at the end.

 

[truetom]

bah, I just went back to Civ V