The ultimate pillaging

[KingEd]

In my recent emperor game the evil Americans started in rather promissing location and got ahead of everybody very quickly. Washington manage to build majority of great wonders available in the game, including Hoover Dam.

My war allies Zulus and Germans in a war against Americans kept them busy. My army was not up to full scale invasion just yet, however, I decided to tip the balance in alliance favor by masive pillaging of american countryside.

The force consisting of infantry army, two cavalries and five "explorers" (pillagers, in this case) was selected for the job and was uploaded near Atlanta. Judge the results for yourselfs:

During this campain the force was not attacked directly a single time, it only got into zone control of cavalry units twice. By the time they returned home to our newly established "dye"-city Buto, they managed to pillage some 80% of american tiles. Explorers are great for this as they can move two squares, pillage the tile and return safely one more square, copying the movements of the main protection force. Cavalry can take care of adjacent tiles and occasional longbowmans AI starts to build once capital is disconnected from the rest of the country. (Well, why not to get leader out of it too?)

 

[Sailorstick]

I had to laugh when I saw that one

 

[TerraHero]

nice tactic man

 

[Belisar]

Maybe the Americans were already short on offensive units because of their war with two other nations. If they had offensive capabilities, they certainly would have attacked you. Anyway, a great picture

 

[newbiebad]

The AI is VERY reluctant to attack armies... especially infantry armies. I don't think it really matters whether or not they have a large attacking force. I've seen SoD's walk past my army deep in enemy territory to go attack something else. I love how you used the explorers and cavalry together in this one. Pillage everything within 1-2 square radius and run back to safety of the army. Maybe even pick off some workers... pretty damn evil.

 

[Belisar]

It sure does matter. The important point (which you have already mentioned is: do they have something else to attack or not? They tend to focus on 'cheap' targets.
I use similar tactics for invasions (defensive armies that cover beachheads with huge stacks of artillery) and the AI definitely attacks the stack, even on hills.

 

[AlanH]

This discussion came up in teh GOTM 20 pre-game discussion thread.

An army with three vets has 12 hit points. Each individual AI unit makes its own decision whether to fight, and no individual AI unity will consider it has any chance of killing that many hit points.

Apparently the AI doesn't know how to use a SoD to work as a team and sacrifice multilple units to wear down the army's hit points, so it leaves it alone. I guess it would have to have an army itself before it would consider attacking yours.

 

[Belisar]

I don't want to repeat myself, but my infantry armies were attacked multiple times by AI units (tanks). Maybe there is a certain threshold for the chances if the AI will attack or not, but they definitely attack armies.

 

[bewareofgnomes]

all i have to say is that the ai is ********. washington could be working an icrediable 5 cattle, but in stead they are working 3. sorry for the off topic

 

[WildFire]

Originally posted by bewareofgnomes
all i have to say is that the ai is ********.

Most definitly. In my huge map, the capital of a civ is using 1 cattle out of three and they settled around the other two cattle so that they couldnt use either of the other ones.

 

[ltcoljt]

I like the way KingEd thinks. When and if the PBEM kicks are patched out, I would like to be on his side in a 2 versus 2 game.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I've always figured that pillaging wasn't worth it in the later stages of the game, bar for disconnecting resources. I guess I have to reconsider that opinion now! The pic is awesome, BTW. You should've sent it in as a Screenshot of the Week.