Thoughts on War and the AI

[WOPR]

I was playing a game as the Babylonian Cultural Masters (standard size map, Pangaea, 5 billion years old, Warlord difficulty), eventually winning a Cultural Victory, and during the game I noticed an interesting phenomenon.

I had a large empire early on, and made an effort to keep my armies strong and upgraded, but some idiot did try to attack me from time to time. The interesting thing I noticed is that these attacks almost always occurred as soon as the AI had managed to produce large numbers of that civ's Unique Unit. Case 1 was the surprise attack in the Middle Ages by hordes of Japanese samurai. Case 2 was the even nastier World War between myself, the Persians, the Russians, -and- the Americans, which appeared to start at just about the same time the Russians developed Cossacks.

Is the AI smart enough to say, "I can produce my unique unit now -- time to start flexing my muscles?" Has anyone else seen this apparent correlation? If it's the case, it would provide an additional hint that Civ X may be about to attack you.

:tank: :tank: :tank:

 

[eyrei]

I would imagine that the AI is programmed to start a war when its UU is available, so that it will trigger a golden age. Since the AI is incapable of forward thinking, it doesn't do this in a way that the war will necessarily end quickly. It doesn't 'think' : "Let's start a war, win a battle with out UU, and then pursue peace as soon as possible. After the first turn, the AI begins to think of it just as it would any other war. Unless in a very precarious situation, I will start a war at some point simply to get a victory with my UU.

 

[LaZZyCaKe]

Well... can't say if it is true, I'll check this out as soon as I can manage to play .... but it seems logical... I do the same thing

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

seen that, too. ´Did you ever play tiny world, 16 civ, Persians?

Oh, I love my Immortals!

but this shows a serious flaw in the AI: it is bent on attacking the strongest civ (i.e. the human) to keep you from winning instead of going for a limited war with a small civ, get the GA, use it to catch up with you and then go for you... Would be a lot smarter... After all that`s what i do and it works every time.....

 

[Hobbes]

Does the AI go to war to achieve certain results such as a golden age? My answer would be yes, they will even go to war to get a victorious army. I was playing the Persians on deity level and the Japanese were my neighbors, when out of the blue they call up and demand a map and gold. As I had been stockpiling immortals I told them to get lost. They declare war, send an army of swordsmen at my nearest city, fight one battle with the army and win, and call up and ask for peace, looks like they wanted to build HE.