Suicidal Attack

[Howard Mahler]

Playing against the computer.

Charlemagne is located between me and Louis.
Charlemagne has about 1/3 the power of me and about 1/2 the power of Louis.
Louis and I have had a defensive pact for about 20 or 30 turns.

I have always been at peace with Charlemagne.
I have been at peace with everyone for over 100 turns.
Charlemagne is cautious towards me.

Charlemagne attacks me.
He gives it all he has, but it has no chance of even partially succeeding.
I have both more units and a big tech edge.

This was a situation where if Charlemagne did not do something to stir things up, he was definitely going to lose. Attacking me might have given an extremely slight chance of Charlemagne doing better, and an almost certain chance of being quickly wiped out.

This is the type of thing some players would do, although it makes little sense for most real world leaders.

I have seen this type of thing before.
I wonder whether the AI is programmed to try a "suicidal" attack when it is very far behind.

Have others seen this occasionally?

Note I was not upset nor am I complaining.

 

[Sisiutil]

The only thing about it I find mildly surprising is that it's Charlemagne. His AI programmed personality usually seems to know better than what you describe. I have, however, often seen such behavior from Genghis Khan, Shaka, and Montezuma. Especially from Monty! I've been in the Industrial era, with Rifles aplenty, and he's come at me with a stack of Horse Archers. He's a nut.

 

[Derakon]

Someone once told me "Monty wants to see blood. He doesn't care if it's yours or his." This was in response to my anecdote of Monty declaring war on me and sending one axeman and one chariot to the party.

 

[Scoottr]

Maybe Charlie was bought off to declare war?

 

[G-Max]

Especially from Monty! I've been in the Industrial era, with Rifles aplenty, and he's come at me with a stack of Horse Archers. He's a nut.

Someone once told me "Monty wants to see blood. He doesn't care if it's yours or his." This was in response to my anecdote of Monty declaring war on me and sending one axeman and one chariot to the party.

I've seen such behavior from him as well. After I waged two wars against him, during which I demonstrated my tactical and technological superiority by annexing or razing a combined half of his cities, we had an uneasy peace for a few dozen turns, then he DOWed on me. He wanted revenge, I guess. At that point, I declared him an existential threat, and systematically razed all of his cities except Tenoch, which I annexed.

It's best to just wipe him out on sight.

 

[Sisiutil]

It's best to just wipe him out on sight.

This.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

The only thing about it I find mildly surprising is that it's Charlemagne. His AI programmed personality usually seems to know better than what you describe. I have, however, often seen such behavior from Genghis Khan, Shaka, and Montezuma. Especially from Monty! I've been in the Industrial era, with Rifles aplenty, and he's come at me with a stack of Horse Archers. He's a nut.

Charlemagne is a member of the League of Warmongers (i.e. Shaka, Monty, Ragnar, Toku, and Alex). He is known to DoW even if he's severely behind.

However, I don't think he is as crazy as Shaka. On a couple of occasions, I wiped out several stack of his with minimal loss and brought the power ratio to 2.0 and he would still be at "Refuse to Talk" mode (he needs a high war success to talk to?). Then of course, after I made peace with him, he'd immediately DoW on someone else the next turn.

 

[revengeofmakno]

Charlemagne is a member of the League of Warmongers (i.e. Shaka, Monty, Ragnar, Toku, and Alex). He is known to DoW even if he's severely behind.

Really? I've never seen Charlemagne do it although that in itself doesn't mean much. I have seen Louis do it often enough that it couldn't have been on a bribe. Genghis is definitely part of that club.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Charlemagne is a member of the League of Warmongers (i.e. Shaka, Monty, Ragnar, Toku, and Alex). He is known to DoW even if he's severely behind.

However, I don't think he is as crazy as Shaka. On a couple of occasions, I wiped out several stack of his with minimal loss and brought the power ratio to 2.0 and he would still be at "Refuse to Talk" mode (he needs a high war success to talk to?). Then of course, after I made peace with him, he'd immediately DoW on someone else the next turn.

I think you just got a few bad rolls from Charlie. He's moderately aggressive and can attack at pleased. But he isn't on a par with the big 5 psychos you mentioned. Nappy is also a member of Unified Psychos Inc. If you can get into the same religion as Charlie he gets to friendly quickly.

A lot of the AI's will DOW even if severely behind. I find the craziest for that is Monty. I've had him DOW when I had 4 times his power and he couldn't reach me (Astronomy) but I could reach him.

You describe Shaka perfectly. I find him to be the most dangerous AI.

 

[johnfalcon99977]

I think every leader with the "aggressive" or "expansive" Traits love to attack people twice their strength, with a few exceptions...

And also, Shaka and Monty are basicly the same, except Shaka can be a true danger, he builds HOARDS of units, heck he managed to get by me on the power scale with units from the last age. Montys just attacks you with what he has, making him just annoying.

 

[mariogreymist]

I once had Isabella attack my mech infantry and modern armor with her Longbows, maces, trebs and knights.

It didn't turn out well for her.