Stack of Doom doesnt worry the AI?

Hi all,

I'm currently gathered a "stack of doom" in a tile within my borders. This tile happens to be right next to a rival Civ's city which is defended by 1 longbowman and 1 spearman.

In my stack is 5 catapaults, 5 macemen, 2 knights, 2 crossbowmen, 3 Longbowmen and a couple of Swordsmen....and yet the AI doesnt seem the least bit bothered they are currently sat right on the edge of his city?!

Is the AI not worried about losing the city or failing to register me as a threat? We dont have the best relations, in fact they are in the negative and his status towards me is "furious". You think if the AI was clever they would have organised a better defence?

What factors come into the AI's decision making? Surely any AI would appreciate that a huge stack of soldiers outside one of its cities is a slighty concern?!

 

What's your diplo relation with the AI?

 

The AI never seems to worry about seeing a stack o' Doom

 

The AI does however take into consideration your power rating. If you slowly build your power up the Ai will do the same, meaning he will get more units.

Maybe the AI had more units and they are currently stationed elsewhere? Also, you may want to bring more siege than that.

 

Especially so if you share a border.

But the AI doesn't enforce a border with a civ it is friendly toward, because it wol't attack you, it doesn't expect you to attack it. Which is why I asked about diplo.

 

I think that as a rule, the AI chooses how many defenders to put in a city based on how important the city is to them. I suspect that that comes mostly from population, buildings, resources, etc.

I would imagine that a more complex strategy would be tough to program well enough to satisfy human players. Imagine if you could get the AI to move its forces anywhere you wanted, just by parking a stack near some low population tundra town, and then blitz through the undefended heart of his empire with a smaller group that he didn't see. Fun to pull off once or twice, but it would get old if that's how wars were always done.

 

TaDa!

 

Oh, OK.

That's weird then, even in default BtS the AI is supposed to add extra defenders in cities along a border with a civ it doesn't like (I believe this is improved in betterAI, but can't remember).