The Four Horsemen of Armageddon always targeting me?

[MasterCorran]

Okay, I played a few game sessions where I deliberately try to raise up the AC counter as the Sheaim just to get the Four Horsemen (Stephanos, Buboes, Yersinia and Ars Moriendi) to appear in Erebus and mess up my neighbours for fun.

The first time it didn't work out so well. I was mostly fighting against the Clan of Embers in a one-on-one war and, throughout that war, the Horsemen continually popped up right in their territory. I was expecting that the Horsemen would wreak some real havoc in their lands. Then I remembered that the Clan had the Barbarian trait and, well, you can guess the rest.

Learning from that mistake, I decided to include a few more civs who didn't have that trait in my subsequent play sessions. Even despite doing that, the Horsemen still ignored my neighbours and made a beeline for me instead, attacking my units and cities. Not that they ever proved to be much of threat to me but, man, they sure are annoying. Don't know about the Avatar of Wrath but I really don't want to risk a confrontation with him after seeing his stats.

The main question I want to ask is: why are they always targeting me? Some of them spawned much closer to my neighbours than to me and yet they seemed content to destroy my nation instead of the other civs. Can anyone explain this behavior?

As a side-note, I'm almost always the civ with the highest score if that makes any difference.

 

[avalonnn]

Are you the only good civ left at that point? Do all of your opponents have the "barbarian" trait?

Also, in one game where I thought the barbs were targeting me, I fought through them and found that they'd destroyed a civ before they reached me ...

 

[Breunor]

I often find they target the same player; it may have to do with the rules on how/where they spawn. It also may have something to do with the score. I thinkthe horsemen were suppsoed to be a 'rubber - band' mechanic.

Unfortunately, I don't know for sure.

Best wishes,

Breunor

 

[MasterCorran]

Are you the only good civ left at that point? Do all of your opponents have the "barbarian" trait?

Also, in one game where I thought the barbs were targeting me, I fought through them and found that they'd destroyed a civ before they reached me ...

I play as the Sheaim with the Ashen Veil religion and my goal is to crank up the AC to the max (well, almost) so I'm pretty sure that I'm as evil as I can get. Not all my opponents have the "Barbarian" trait. I included some good-to-neutral civs like the Bannor, Lanun and Amurites to name a few. Doesn't make much of a difference though.

I often find they target the same player; it may have to do with the rules on how/where they spawn. It also may have something to do with the score. I thinkthe horsemen were suppsoed to be a 'rubber - band' mechanic. ...

That might explain a few things. As I said, I'm almost always the civ with the highest score so maybe that might be why they're always going after me.

Okay, another question. Anyone here got as far as a '100' on the AC counter? I never gotten to this level yet but I want be prepared, just in case. What happens when you reach this level?

 

[Jarrema]

Okay, another question. Anyone here got as far as a '100' on the AC counter? I never gotten to this level yet but I want be prepared, just in case. What happens when you reach this level?

believe me, you do not want to know

Now, being serious: at AC = 100, Apocalypse comes. More than half living units are killed outright, half of your cities population is killed.
I believe, that it is less dangerous that Avatar of Wrath at AC = 90, when half of your living land units (not heroes) turns against you
If, at AC=100, you still have your worldspell as Sheaim, you will probably win (among other things, 100% fire damage to units in cities... only fire-resistant units will survive).

 

[deanej]

I believe AC 90 just gives units enraged, which no longer turns units into barbarians, just makes them controlled by the AI.

 

[saathei]

I believe AC 90 just gives units enraged, which no longer turns units into barbarians, just makes them controlled by the AI.

Yep, they act just like lunatics when they have their fits - under AI control until they find something to kill. Not so bad for your powerful units, major bummer for your cheeky archmages who go get themselves killed.

If you are working on jacking up the AC, make sure you keep a lot of non-living units around (ie, demons, angels, undead). After the AC hits 100, you'll be able to just mosey into empty cities and scoop up a Domination or Conquest victory super quick.

 

[DaveGold]

The horsemen and Hyborem seem to get spawned on land in unclaimed territory. I'm guessing that a random location is generated and if it's inside national borders the spawn point is moved to the closest point just outside the border. This would explain why Hyborem always turns up in a really annoying place, such as just 3 spaces away from your relocated capital, doh!

 

[Jarrema]

The horsemen and Hyborem seem to get spawned on land in unclaimed territory. I'm guessing that a random location is generated and if it's inside national borders the spawn point is moved to the closest point just outside the border. This would explain why Hyborem always turns up in a really annoying place, such as just 3 spaces away from your relocated capital, doh!

It also explain why horsemen are typically spawned next to the largest civ in the game...

 

[MasterCorran]

I believe AC 90 just gives units enraged, which no longer turns units into barbarians, just makes them controlled by the AI.

I played through another session as the Sheaim again which thankfully turned out better. Yeah, you're correct on that point. Once I reached 90 on the AC, some of my units went crazy... and killed the Avatar of Wrath and his minions the moment they spawned. Serves him right for enraging my units.

But the best part of that game? I defeated the Bannor, the last civ to remain standing besides me, and won a conquest victory. Through cultural warfare!

Their last city, Trinity, converted to my cause after my capitol, which had legendary culture, built a Beast of Agares to raise up the AC counter. When the revolt finally settled, Trinity couldn't hold back the rushing tide of Sheaim influence and the remaining citizens of Trinity flocked to my cause, abandoning their pathetic leader, Capria, to join in the glory of the Sheaim empire!

Didn't even have to go to war with them. Couldn't say the same for the others though.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The code for the Four Horsemen, the Avatar of Wrath, and the beasts Gurid and Margalard is:

    def addUnit(self, iUnit):
        pBestPlot = -1
        iBestPlot = -1
        for i in range (CyMap().numPlots()):
            pPlot = CyMap().plotByIndex(i)
            iPlot = -1
            if pPlot.isWater() == False:
                if pPlot.getNumUnits() == 0:
                    if pPlot.isCity() == False:
                        if pPlot.isImpassable() == False:
                            iPlot = CyGame().getSorenRandNum(500, "Add Unit")
                            iPlot = iPlot + (pPlot.area().getNumTiles() * 10)
                            if pPlot.isBarbarian():
                                iPlot = iPlot + 200
                            if pPlot.isOwned():
                                iPlot = iPlot / 2
                            if iPlot > iBestPlot:
                                iBestPlot = iPlot
                                pBestPlot = pPlot
        if iBestPlot != -1:
            bPlayer = gc.getPlayer(gc.getBARBARIAN_PLAYER())
            newUnit = bPlayer.initUnit(iUnit, pBestPlot.getX(), pBestPlot.getY(), UnitAITypes.UNITAI_ATTACK, DirectionTypes.DIRECTION_SOUTH)

For Hyborem it is

pBestPlot = -1
                iBestPlot = -1
                for i in range (CyMap().numPlots()):
                    pPlot = CyMap().plotByIndex(i)
                    iPlot = -1
                    if pPlot.isWater() == False:
                        if pPlot.getNumUnits() == 0:
                            if pPlot.isCity() == False:
                                if pPlot.isImpassable() == False:
                                    iPlot = CyGame().getSorenRandNum(500, "Place Hyborem")
                                    iPlot = iPlot + (pPlot.area().getNumTiles() * 2)
                                    iPlot = iPlot + (pPlot.area().getNumUnownedTiles() * 10)
                                    if pPlot.isOwned() == False:
                                        iPlot = iPlot + 500
                                    if pPlot.getOwner() == iPlayer:
                                        iPlot = iPlot + 200
                    if iPlot > iBestPlot:
                        iBestPlot = iPlot
                        pBestPlot = pPlot

Unowned plots are favored, but they certainly can appear in the middle of owned territory.

 

[Morkonan]

One thing I've noticed is that some Horseman seem to occasionally get stuck in a pattern of targeting the same city, over and over. Not collectively, but individually.

So, in my experience, if a horseman attacks a city it's likely he is going to do everything he can to move to attack it again. (If he repeats this behavior once, it seems he'll do it all day. If he doesn't, then he seems to go /random all over the place.) I had a game where the first horseman spawned, moved to attack a city, was valiantly defended against by a few units and then he moved off to recover. He kept coming back to the same city even though there were other choices just as easy to reach. When he was killed and respawned, he crossed half a continent just to attack that same, out of the way, 3 pop no-nothing city.. Very determined little bugger. But, predictable in that game, thankfully.

In another game, I successfully lured him away from an ally so I could defeat him for some very nice exp. But, I had to chase him down to do so even after leaving "bait" units for him to kill. It seems that once he began attacking that faction, he wouldn't stop until I really ticked him off. Though, all he was doing at that point was killing their units in the field, not attacking their cities.

The only real problem I have with the Horseman are their movement ranges coupled with flying. They are extremely difficult to corner in a set-piece battle, the optimum way to finish them off.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Apparently the Barbarian civ AI, like the AI of other AI civs, is programmed to pick only one of the civs with which it is as war on whom to concentrate its attacks. It also tends to pick a target city to go for and ignore the better, closer targets.