Program gets an advantage in combat?

[Kris Rhodes]

Does the program get an edge in combat? It seems to me that the program is regularly able to take cities of mine defended by, for example, five musketeers behind city walls, using only a couple of knights. Or, more recently, he kept demolishing my defenses (usually three riflemen behind city walls) using single armors.

Meanwhile, if I try the same against him, I don't even make a scratch.

So am I imagining things?

(I am playing on prince level...)

-Kris

 

[TTG]

There are several factors that could play in here... First of all is obviously some bad luck.

Secondly, you should know that the difficulty level only effects how the barbarians fight.

Next, are your units Veterans? Veteran units are units that have one at least one battle or were created in a town that has a barracks (ALWAYS BUILD BARRACKS. FIRST.)

Another possibility could be terrain. Your opponent may have cities that are on terrains such as hills that offer extra defense, but I doubt it...

Another possibility is bad execution on your part. When attacking a city or something else that is well defended using a unit like a knight or an armor (that has several movement points), only attack once per turn. Additional attacks suffer a penalty. It could be that your opponent is remembering this but you are not.

If none of these factors has contributed to it, then lets just look at the odds, shall we?

Your riflemen have a natural defense of 5. Fortified makes it 7. In city walls triples, so 21. If your opponent is attacking with an armor, that's an attack of 10. So the odds are 10:21, or about 2:1 against. That means 1 in 3 times, your opponent will be successful. The probability that he will win all 3 in a row is about 3.3%. So every once in a while, this could happen. Of course, if he has 2 armors, the odds are much better, at 6.5%. If it's happening repeatedly, though, it's either just bad luck or one of the factors I mentioned above.

The short answer is: No, the program does not get an edge in combat. Good luck with your game!

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Civilization I Master of masters

 

[Kris Rhodes]

Thanks for your answer. It was pretty helpful. Perhaps I am just misreading the odds...

One question - do you mean to say taht the barbarians are the only thing that change from difficulty level to difficulty level, or did you only mean that the only *fighting* that is affected is that of the barbarians?

Thanks...

-Kris

 

[stormerne]

I think TTG means that the only fighting stuff changed by the difficulty level is that relating to barbarians! Naturally there are other changes when you change difficulty, otherwise there'd be little point in playing anything other than Emperor!

Thanks TTG. Glad you're still around!

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[TTG]

Yeah that's right stormerne

To Kris: There are other things with the difficulty levels as well. I just realized I had a ref chart for that lying around, finished, so I emailed you a copy and also one to thunderfall so he can post it on the site.

Cheers.

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Civilization I Master of masters