Query: Taylor made AI Armies?

[Drakan]

VERSION: C3C

I have played only a few games against AI armies. It seems as though in C3C the AI is not making much use of them.


The other day I was playing a Hot Seat with a friend. He played as the Indians and I played as the Persians. We were each in huge continents and we had wiped out our neghbouring countries so that we were left as the only two World Superpowers. I saved the game during my turn.

The other day when I reloaded the game as the PERSIANS (I had save the game during my turnplay as Xerxes)-without my friend- I was surprised to find out the CPU had taken over the Indians.

This made me think. Imagine playing a hot seat against yourself in two huge continents. You play simultaneusly with two civs (i.e. Germans and persians) and you wipe out all the AI civs that inhabit each of these continents. So you end up with two huge Superpowers in each continent. In each civ you'll have the Military Academy built and running. Imagine building 30 or 40 armies, fortifying the continent and then reloading the game and leaving the CPU to take control of such an overwhelmingly powerful civ. It would be the most challenging game you have played in your lifetime with the civ series.
Sounds crazy?

QUERIES:

1) Can it be done as I am saying? I haven't done it myself.
2) Has anyone taken the effort and endless pain to attempt such a feat?
3) Is there no other way -without mod's and the likes- to wage a war against an AI civ which has more than 30 Modern Armies waiting to mince you up pronto should it occur to you to attempt a D-Day landing on their shores?

 

[Pook]

I've only ever seen two AI armies ever, and I've been playing C3C since it came out (playing Civ I/II/III since 1996). Elvis said he saw one once in a supermarket parking lot, but I don't believe him.
You're right, the AI doesn't make good use of armies. Until the AI gets a lot smarter, I doubt that will change. You could certainly set up a pangaea game where your AI opponent had 30-40 armies, but what's the point? Any competent military strategist would annihilate the AI. To make it more challenging, you could be outnumbered 3 to 1 or or 5 to 1, then try it.

 

[dgfred]

I have read, but I do not remember exactly, that there is a bug that the AI
will not use MGL to make armies, but will rush something . The AI
does use them in the scenarios though.

 

[dresdor]

AI armies generally are few in number and made out of whatever units they have handy. I saw a Chinese made of two Riders and a spearmen that was obliterated by a single calvary unit. Don't know what the spearman added except for extra hp.

 

[nullspace]

Yep, in Conquests the AI doesn't use leaders to build armies. I tried to make a mod in which the AI used armies, but it didn't work out well. I made a few small wonders that allowed the production of armies and reduced the cost of armies a whole lot. The AI built the wonders, but they weren't very good at building armies, and very bad at filling them. The AI only built the armies once in a while, and never built any while at war. I guess the army does not count as a combat unit. Once an army is built, it just sits in its city until a unit happens by to fill it. Usually by the time the third unit arrives to complete the army, the first unit is obsolete. Also, the AI is happy to mix attackers, defenders, slow and fast units in the same army. It's pretty disappointing that the AI totally doesn't undersand how to fight with or against armies. It's a huge advantage for the human player.

If the AI does happen to acquire a well-balanced army, then they can use it well. So I think Drakan's idea would work out if it can be done.

 

[The Last Conformist]

What does work is making improvements or wonders spawn armies. You could, for instance, have the Palace spawn one every 50 turns, with one extra from the Mil Acad every 20, say.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

1) Can it be done as I am saying? I haven't done it myself.
2) Has anyone taken the effort and endless pain to attempt such a feat?
3) Is there no other way -without mod's and the likes- to wage a war against an AI civ which has more than 30 Modern Armies waiting to mince you up pronto should it occur to you to attempt a D-Day landing on their shores?

Have you heard of the Always War gaming style? Any nation you meet, you must declare war on that same turn. It's been won a disgusting number of times on Monarch, higher too, but that is rare.
Fairly close to what you describe in terms of being overwhelmed by enemies. If you don't get a 5:1 kill:loss ratio you're screwed.

If you can make me a savefile for Vanilla Civ3, I'll happily win it for you. Artillery in the hands of a human always devastates the computer. Just dump it under an army of infantry, on a mountain, and invade from there.

Use Explorers to pillage the bleep out of everything they have. Then dump another invading force on the other side of their continent, pillage there too, and soon all their fancy armor will be stuck wthout roads, unable to respond to wherever you invade!

 

[t3h_m013]

also 2 continents with 1 super powerful AI would be pointless as a) they wouldnt make a single decent attack on you due to their crap d-day planning and b) itd be v. hard to attack them... youd need a huge force

 

[Chieftess]

You could do something like give all AI an era none tech that allows a building for them to build an army every X turns. That's one work-around.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Start the A.I with Modern Era technology and then play...that would be an interesting variant