The AI has serious stupidity issues....

[Party]

Okay, look at this I was laughing my head off so hard I almost had a heart attack. This was a prince difficulty dual size pangea map. Easy, I know but I just wanted to try out Native American as a civ because I had never played them before. (They rock BTW)
Persia was becoming too powerful for my liking but I was not quite ready to declare war yet- so what I did is I barricaded every single one of his cities with privateers. (great financial boost for me) So what the AI does is freak out and start building as many frigates as it possible can. Unfortunately their placement was less then optimal...




What you are looking at- four of my privateers baracading three of Darius' cities.
Then you have 26 frigates that can't get to them because there is a single land tile between the ocean, city, and the other ocean. And no he can't just go around because the little bay he built them all in is either iced in or landlocked from all sides. Here are some more pics:
In this one note just how stuck his ships are:



Close up.


Eventually I did declare war, captured Persepolis and did of course did the one thing the AI was too stupid to- build a fort between the city and the water and sent warships through the newly created channel. It was a slaughter. Four destroyers all with with at least combat three and a few assorted ships of the line along with two ironclads effectively sank his entire fleet which by that time just in that small body of water was almost forty frigates. He lost that war, and how!

Just for the heck of it here is the graph from after the game was done, you can see exactly when I started the barricade and just how much it screwed him over.



So what do you all think?

 

[Walliard]

Oh man, that's hilarious! Gotta love how far AI has come.

 

[Jastrow]

Worst part is that he CAN get at your privateers with his frigates. All he needs to do is build a fort one square north of the city on the bay.

 

[r_rolo1]

^^A thing that clearly had not passed through is algorithym ( I'm somehow reluctant to call it "mind" ). The placements of forts to act as naval passings cleary was not coded in the BtS AI.... ( never saw a AI using well placed forts to naval advantage )

 

[Synobun]

Forts create a passage for ships?

 

[Party]

Forts create a passage for ships?

In BTS they do!
If you read what I wrote above you'll see that I did just that latter on...

 

[KMadCandy]

that's classic! i do love watching the graph when i'm tormenting them but haven't declared war . yarrrrrrr!

 

[TheWilltoAct]

Lol! Owned

Well played

I like what you did with the privateers too... softening things up before the war even begins! Cool idea

Oh, one question though: how many great generals did that give you???

 

[Party]

I like what you did with the privateers too... softening things up before the war even begins! Cool idea

Oh, one question though: how many great generals did that give you???

Two.
I attached both of them to destroyers for the heck of it, the game was as good as won by then.

I love using privateers, I try to fit them into every game. The trick is to race all the other civs to chemistry and then get the baracade going as quickly as possible before the AI can counter it. If you do it right their cities will be starving, their economy will be in the gutter and your you'll have the edge if you do choose to go to war. However once frigates are built in large enough numbers your baracade will fall apart fast.
In the case above, however, I was able to hold the blocade with privateers until Persia was all but in ruins.

That's why I love BTS so much, between spys and privateers, there are so many oppertunities to cripple your rival without declaring war.

 

[TheWilltoAct]

Two.
I attached both of them to destroyers for the heck of it, the game was as good as won by then...

...That's why I love BTS so much, between spys and privateers, there are so many oppertunities to cripple your rival without declaring war.

haha nice

Yeah I agree, it's nice to be able to put the hurt on your rivals without going into all out war.

 

[Dracleath]

This is one thing that irritated me, once when I was preparing for war with Caesar he built a nice little navy of 3 or 4 battleships, the only problem was that they were in a 4 tile lake.


I thought it odd because I hadn't thought you could even build ships in lakes.

 

[TheWilltoAct]

This is one thing that irritated me, once when I was preparing for war with Caesar he built a nice little navy of 3 or 4 battleships, the only problem was that they were in a 4 tile lake.


I thought it odd because I hadn't thought you could even build ships in lakes.

Well, though I've never made any use of it myself, it does seem like a neat little feature... though one of those that, unfortunately, the AI does not understand how to use properly

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Ships in lakes are invulnerable if you don't have open borders pre-war (and sneak a ship in, not that that would be a good plan) since you can't move a ship through a city with units in it I thought.

EDIT: I'm talking a coastal city with a small lake next to it here, not a big lake with other cities that have access to it.

 

[rabidveggie]

If he didn't want to make a fort he should have stepped up on global warming. I like Privateers to. In an online match I tried wheeling them a long way around the map in a 6 player match to blockade a city next to me while trying to make it look like the other guy was doing it. I don't think it worked tho.

 

[TheWilltoAct]

If he didn't want to make a fort he should have stepped up on global warming. I like Privateers to. In an online match I tried wheeling them a long way around the map in a 6 player match to blockade a city next to me while trying to make it look like the other guy was doing it. I don't think it worked tho.

Was worth the try though right

 

[Shylock]

In BTS they do!
If you read what I wrote above you'll see that I did just that latter on...

Maybe I could make a Panama Canal with Forts.

A thing that clearly had not passed through is algorithym ( I'm somehow reluctant to call it "mind" ). The placements of forts to act as naval passings cleary was not coded in the BtS AI.... ( never saw a AI using well placed forts to naval advantage )

Yeah because it's an exploit not really meant to be used.

 

[aslindy]

I think someone else said they tried the Panama Canal idea, but it doesn't work. You can't pass the ship through adjacent forts.

 

[r_rolo1]

^^Yes you can... but both need to be next to a water body ( sea or lake )

 

[gdgrimm]

Hmmm. The AI may have eventually upgraded that to one seriously large wolf pack of Subs.

 

[Walliard]

Yeah because it's an exploit not really meant to be used.

It's not an exploit, it's a documented feature.