The smartest thing the AI did to you

[Polish]

I had an open borders agreement with China. I was rushing 4 horsemen and a GG through to help a CS on the other side and was a little strung out. China says, “I think I will never have a better chance to beat you!” And jumped me right there in the middle of the OB agreement—no notice, not expulsion from territory, no nothing! Just dead horsemen. Probably not the best move in the long run as I don’t get mad; I just get even;-) But it was remarkably effective in the moment for an AI that is not supposed to understand the basics of combat.

 

[Badtz Maru]

Not long after discovering my continent, Elizabeth rapidly bought alliances with all the maritime city states on my continent, keeping me from regaining my full growth rate I had before. I had been fighting a long war with Montezuma and had allowed my relations with them slip due to money shortages, and most of them were in the "Friends" level when Elizabeth made contact. After the war was over I couldn't get back to Allied state with my favorite maritimes, even though I spent enough to get well into the blue, so Elizabeth must have dumped a lot of money on them - she was bringing in 70 a turn in 1600 AD.

 

[Jharii]

Napoleon, in two separate games now, has opened up a can of whoopass on me. He seems to like to rush his Musketeers and wreak havoc on his neighbors.

Strangely enough, he has been the only AI civilazation that has put up a solid military challenge. Darius has once, actually, but that was on King difficulty level.

 

[Jharii]

Not long after discovering my continent, Elizabeth rapidly bought alliances with all the maritime city states on my continent.

Elizabeth definitely seems wired into catering and appeasing city-states. Every game, it seems, she is really focused on them.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

Elizabeth definitely seems wired into catering and appeasing city-states. Every game, it seems, she is really focused on them.

In my present game (where she dominates), she has been gobbling them up as peanuts. I (playing as Darius) am the only one who tries to groom the city states instead of annexing them. Everyone else gobbles/gobbled them up. By now only me, Liz, Soleiman and Catherine are left. It's like the Kilkenny cats. Though I suspect Liz may be going for diplomatic. However, due to the somewhat broken diplomacy in Civ V, she may turn hostile to me, her old friend, once Soleiman and Cath have been taken down.

One feature in Civ V I don't like is the feeling that one had better win before everything breaks down. There's no feeling of a future after victory, which every previous avatar of the game had, and which added spice to playing.

 

[Morningcalm]

I had units surrounding a city, but my Great General was undefended, and sitting in a spot in front of the city and in front of my ranged units (due to an oversight about his movement points). I expected the AI archer would stay in his capital and shoot my troops. Instead, the archer marched out to kill my Great General. The city fell easily after that regardless, but it was a smart move nonetheless. If I was in such a hopeless situation due to my dumb AI programming, I'd at least make that one smart move.

 

[CarloTheCurious]

Large/Earth/Immortal, Siam declaring war on me a few turns after pulling out of our war against Greece.

Although I did think their preceding comments about me being a warmonger were a bit much, considering they invited me to join the Greek war in the first place...

 

[SomethingWitty]

King level on an archipelago map. I prioritized rationalism, order, and freedom ahead of patronage. I was going for a spaceship victory, when Persia picked the United Front policy and built United Nation. They used their golden age income to chip away at my CS allies and my economy ended up hemorrhaging trying to keep up. They won a diplomatic victory when my spaceship was half built.

I didn't think much of United Front until I saw it used effectively against me. IMO, complaints about AI are exaggerated.

 

[GoneGalt]

Elizabeth definitely seems wired into catering and appeasing city-states. Every game, it seems, she is really focused on them.

I've somewhat noticed this myself. The reason I bring it up here though is due to how she timed an alliance with a city state in my last game. I was at war with her and had a horseman passing through a city state. During the turn the unit was in the city state territory she allied it, and then I promptly lost the horse to the mini army Stockholm had. I still ended up winning the war, but I couldn't help but laugh at the well played hand.

Side note: At the risk of looking very ignorant, is DOW "declaration of war" or "denial of worker". I've been trying to figure out what it means from context but still unable. Leaning towards the former though.

 

[Bandit17]

Gandhi leaving a general in a lost city (to the Chinese) so that no other civ could take that city w/out a dow on Gandhi! It was brilliant! I couldn't take the city to finish off the evil Chinese because I couldn't afford a new war with Gandhi at the time so I sued for peace. Next came Monty who after reducing the city's defenses was forced to sign for peace. Than came the Ottomans and so on... Finally Gandhi got on his feet again and retook his lost city and I'm sure that general was handsomely rewarded! Brilliant ai scripting I say!!

 

[Mad Hab]

I founded a city in a perfect defensive spot: over a hill, only flatlands ahead, and a river 2 hexes away. I prepared my defenses, declared war on Alexander and slaughtered everything he throwed at me with my archers and catapults. Until... he stopped sending troops!

He somehow noticed he was in a no-win situation and started to fortify on the other side, waiting for me to take on the offensive...

Ok, it was at Deity level. But from what I heard on these forums, I thought he would continue to march his troops to death until my troops had 10+ promotions each.

Cheers,

Mad Hab

 

[Kissamies]

Wu Zetian once convinced me to go fight the Russians on the other side of the world and then stabbed me in the back while my armies were away.

 

[Bandit17]

Large world map on King. I was playing my fav Arabians and had just unified all of Africa under my banner. I was preparing for an invasion into the Middle East against the Romans butbefore I attacked the Romans attacked me! I thought ok, smart move to gain a little innitiative but your still going to die. Next turn the Iroqiuos in Eruope come sailing across the Med to invade me. The turn after that the other two major Asian powers Dow my butt and begin sending troops through Roman territory. It quickly turned into a defensive world war for me that lasted for a long while. I took my hat off to Augustus for his well organized league united to attack me.

So far in my experience though these moments of ai "brilliance" are still very rare.

 

[mattcrwi]

I was attacking a city and out numbering the AI but I was waiting for a second rocket artillery to attack one of their larger cities. I did not know they had a attack helicopter and they used it to get behind my lines and take out my reinforcement artillery. I couldn't reach the helicopter because there were hills and rivers in the way and I only had tanks and artillery. They then used their helicopter to jump between my tanks and kill my last rocket artillery! Delayed my conquest by about 20 turns.

 

[mattcrwi]

King level on an archipelago map. I prioritized rationalism, order, and freedom ahead of patronage. I was going for a spaceship victory, when Persia picked the United Front policy and built United Nation. They used their golden age income to chip away at my CS allies and my economy ended up hemorrhaging trying to keep up. They won a diplomatic victory when my spaceship was half built.

I didn't think much of United Front until I saw it used effectively against me. IMO, complaints about AI are exaggerated.

Its awesome to know the AI can do that but the problem is that it only happens when there are physical borders between nations like the water boundaries found in an Archipelago map. Otherwise it ALWAYS breaks down into conquest.

 

[whomybuddy]

they 4v1 me on immortal/huge/British. Lucky that I have over power 3 ranges longbow man. I crush every single one of them but my economy and research are shattered. I later give up playing more because bowman can't win against musketman because they only do 2 dmg to them =!

 

[Dermo]

I was going for the Bollywood achievement in a game last week, had a really decent starting spot behind a mountain range. So I blocked off all the passes with fortifications and units, with a row of siege engines in back to bombard any attackers.
This worked great for most of the game. Alex sent wave after wave of units into the mountain passes, so I had some heavily upgraded defenders and artillery (which was two rows deep at this point. with the extra range promotion so I figured I was pretty safe.
A couple turns later a wave of gunships flys over the mountains and obliterates all my artillery.
It went downhill quickly from there.
Kudo's to the AI for that one

 

[zonk]

to OP: I think that was intentional. Someone had exact same experience.
Check screenshots here: http://www.playxp.com/civilization/view.php?article_id=2187743

I can confirm that use of culture bombs is one area the AI excels...

I think it's an idiot in most other realms (except diplomacy, where it's too sociopathic to tell), but it's like an idiot savant with culture bombs.... I've actually had 3 different variations of this -

The first was very much like the above shot, except worse -- a citadel on a hill perfectly positioned to guard a 3 tile wide pass into my empire. I see the AI plop what looks like a worthless city at the other end of the pass -- then two turns later, culture bomb themselves into possession of my citadel.

The second was a fairly similar situation, but in this case -- there was just a slim one tile wide pass that I used to move gifted troops to allied city states, as well as other units into the other side of the continent. The AI culture bombed the slim neutral territory pass out of existence.

Finally - the AI had all dyes except one, which belonged to a city state (which I allied with). After multiple repeated attempts to conquer it (foiled by my neutral troops getting in his troops' way), he finally made peace... settled a city nearby... and culture bombed the dye resource into his territory, giving him a monopoly.

Perhaps that's the answer... just give Great Artists attack and defend values -- because the AI definitely seems to know precisely how to use!

 

[Bandit17]

I can confirm that use of culture bombs is one area the AI excels...

I think it's an idiot in most other realms (except diplomacy, where it's too sociopathic to tell), but it's like an idiot savant with culture bombs.... I've actually had 3 different variations of this -

The first was very much like the above shot, except worse -- a citadel on a hill perfectly positioned to guard a 3 tile wide pass into my empire. I see the AI plop what looks like a worthless city at the other end of the pass -- then two turns later, culture bomb themselves into possession of my citadel.

The second was a fairly similar situation, but in this case -- there was just a slim one tile wide pass that I used to move gifted troops to allied city states, as well as other units into the other side of the continent. The AI culture bombed the slim neutral territory pass out of existence.

Finally - the AI had all dyes except one, which belonged to a city state (which I allied with). After multiple repeated attempts to conquer it (foiled by my neutral troops getting in his troops' way), he finally made peace... settled a city nearby... and culture bombed the dye resource into his territory, giving him a monopoly.

Perhaps that's the answer... just give Great Artists attack and defend values -- because the AI definitely seems to know precisely how to use!

I laughed pretty hard after reading this

I had an ai civ get a monopoly on spices after I had just bought off the last cs with the luxury. The ai already had a nearby city, I bought off the cs and was pretty satisfied at my new happiness level (as I really needed it) and a few turns later I could'nt figure out where that happiness went! Finally cities began begging for spices again and than I saw what evil had been done!

 

[McRoos]

The AI did not do one clever thing in my game.
When I as at war with Montezuma, it run a worker into my territory.
Now is that smart or not !!