Things the AI isn't Doing During War

[Bleser]

I've been a avid Civ5 player since midnight of the day it was released. Like all new iterations of the Civilization series, the game has undergone numerous patches and re-balancing acts. As of this writing, patch .275 has really made for a great game with *relatively* few things left to be addressed in SP mode.

With that being said, war still seems to be a weak point of the AI. However, instead of trying to make the AI smarter with its units fighting my units/cities (which efforst should still be made to do this), why not make them do things that the Civ4 AI did that could ruin your economy? Things such as:

• Pillage my tile improvements.
• Block resources.
• Pillage my work boats.
• Blockade my port cities.

These are seemingly basic things the AI could do during war that it nearly never does. It seems to invade, try to take your cities, and if it fails it falls back and sits on my borders. Why not scorch earth on the way back? Why not use your aimless caravel to take out my work boats? These are small things that would make being at war more painful, which war should be. As of now all I have to do is hold off the invasion force and then counter-attack and take their cities. Pilliaging would distract some of my units, making the AI more formidible in the end.

Thoughts? Has anyone seen the AI do any of these things regularly? I have seen a few minor barbarians do it, but that's it. Hitler's Germany left Russia in ruins even though they themsevles were ruined during the war. Civ5 wars leave the countryside clean and pristine.

 

[Larsenex]

All of these things would be an improvement. I agree with these points as it would make a better challenge...

 

[Karl_Rove]

Yeah, I've never seen them pillage or blockade once. Occasionally they will park a unit on one of my resources, but then they promptly move them the next turn.

I haven't even seen a barbarian unit pillage.

 

[blasto]

Yeah, I've never seen them pillage or blockade once. Occasionally they will park a unit on one of my resources, but then they promptly move them the next turn.

I haven't even seen a barbarian unit pillage.

Barbs definitely pillage, they do it to me all the time. But yeah, I have never seen the other AI do this.

 

[Agent Cooper]

Sometimes the AI completely fails to protect their Generals, like leaving them on a tile unprotected close to a unit of yours. It's just...fail.

 

[drubell]

In my last game Isabella made a pillage. I don't remember what type of tile it was, though I think that it might've been a silver mine.

I think that it would be a good plan for the AI to have strategic resource pillages on a level of priority, but otherwise I think it would be more frustrating than fun if the AI prioritized pillaging over taking a city. Like they're just there to annoy you rather than to threaten you.

 

[civnoob13]

On a game I just quite out of boredom, Caeser declared war on me (big surprise) and didn't even send ONE unit after 30 turns! We are on the same continent, about 10 moves away!

 

[Dai]

Barbs certainly pillage, often annoyingly aggressively. They seem to tend to prefer to pillage things that are in a city's third ring; there may be some AI "avoid idling in the same square if you can be city bombarded from that square" thing going on, or it could be an illusion, but they'll usually crush things in your third ring, particularly special resources. They pillage farms/mines/posts much less often in my experience, and I don't think I've ever seen one pillage a road or a fishing boats.

 

[ColinTH]

• Pillage my tile improvements.
• Block resources.
• Pillage my work boats.
• Blockade my port cities.

Thoughts? Has anyone seen the AI do any of these things regularly? I have seen a few minor barbarians do it, but that's it. Hitler's Germany left Russia in ruins even though they themsevles were ruined during the war. Civ5 wars leave the countryside clean and pristine.

On Deity they pillage all the sea resource work boats as soon as they declare war.
They also pillage land tiles but mostly when they are loosing the battle, I think innitially they believe they should win, and like to take the City and surroundings in as you say "pristine condition!" Strange but I never see them pillage Great Person improvements, thank god for that!

agent cooper - yes, very true, they don't protect their Generals!

 

[Buccaneer]

Colin is correct, you would have to play at a higher level in order to see more of these things. I've had numerous work boats pillaged by the AI during war.

 

[Mods]

I've never seen them raze a city

 

[Montov]

I've never seen them raze a city

That is because they have happinees is abundance.

 

[apocalypse105]

They never play tactical and will never use their troops in a smart way.

 

[Drawmeus]

I've never seen them raze a city

I have, but it's rare. They usually have enough happiness to just annex that city.

 

[chazzycat]

They should be able to recognize certain situations where pillaging would be extremely beneficial. Like early in the game when I'm working off of 1 iron tile, they should absolutely try to pillage it if at all possible. I would love it if some surprise attacks started with a targeted attack on the iron resource, rather than just charging towards your city.

I wonder sometimes if they don't pillage because they are programmed to view the long term, and so they want the resource for themself once they supposedly take your city. It doesn't make a ton of sense, but could be an explanation at least.

 

[Bleser]

Good thoughts, all. Glad to see my observations match most of yours. As others have stated, the AI attempts to take cities and if it can't it just dances around with its hands up in the air, letting your ranged units pick them off. If you can't take my cities, try to harm me in some way!

But the big shock to me is that they do these things on Deity only!? I play on Emperor - no, not the most difficult level, but still difficult nonetheless on the scale (six levels up). I could see "don't pillage" being enabled if you're playing Chieftan or Prince, and as soon as they get the balance, pillage.

Or heck, why not pillage on all levels? That seems really odd to be programmed that way if that is the case.

I've NEVER been in a situation where I built an iron or horse-dependent unit to later have the resource pillaged away - so the coding effort made to reduce their strength based on missing resources has not ever been triggered for me.

Civ4 AI use to be quite good at starving coastal cities - pillage fish, blockade the port. Brilliant. Never seen Civ5 do it. I shouldn't have to move up to Deity to see this kind of tactics...

 

[Horizons]

At this stage I doubt Firaxis could care less about the tactical AI in Civ5.

They're too busy harvesting crops and electing their friends king on Facebook.

 

[Furycrab]

I'm fairly certain I've seen them pillage my improvements and some roads when they seem to be losing and I've seen them wreck my workboats.

Haven't seen them blockade my port cities, but I think it's mostly because I don't play arch maps and navies for me are only a late game thing at which point there isn't all that much point to it... Unless you are wrecking face.

 

[SolemnEagle]

I've lurked here for a very long time, but this is my first time posting.

For the record I played a game on prince as Germany a few months back, I was at war with several civilizations, including the Ottomans who were on the opposite side of the world from me. Anyway Suleiman had been blockading my cities with two Frigates and a Caravel, then much later in a second war, I noticed he was destroying my Workboats with a Submarine. I too have never seen the AI do much besides this. I've rarely had this issue since then, but then since that game I've always had a couple Destroyers guarding my coastlines anyway. I can't really recall any tile pillaging, they may have hit my Luxuries every now and then, but that may have been Barbarians...

 

[JWAT44]

the japanese raze practically every city they capture and then put a new one right on top of it (waste of pop by them big time)