Tremble in Fear at my Mongol Horde

[Louis XXIV]

I'm playing the Mongols and indiscriminately trying to kill everyone (I'm playing on a large map trying to get the "win on a large map" achievement). I declare war on Greece and start winning. Suddenly, Rome and Russia also declare war on me. I usually like to roleplay a bit and, in my mind, it seemed like a last ditch alliance to prevent me from becoming a giant superpower. As it went on, I fought a war on three fronts. Then I moved to finish off Greece. Right before I did this, both Rome and Russia came to me offering me lots of free stuff for peace. I took this as a sign that they had abandoned their ally. I accepted their peace and wiped out Greece two turns later.

Now the diplomatic AI usually gets knocked around here, but I felt this seemed realistic. It was like Napoleon fighting against Austria and Prussia only to defeat them both and have them concede French dominance. Anyone else have stories of the AI doing things that seem like what you would expect from them as other world powers?

 

[strijder20]

Yes, declarations on the strongest leader. They know that if they leave the top dog alone, it will win and all their citizens will automatically get slaughtered, so why don't die in a last ditch effort to stop them?

 

[Louis XXIV]

Well, I meant realistic history-wise, not gameplay-wise, but it's about the same. They know they're next, so they attack.

Another one I remembered. I had an alliance with the Aztecs to conquer the Americans. I strategically placed my units to cut off the closest city to the Aztecs and take that right from under Montezuma (he had about 8 units there). He immediately made peace with Washington and attacked me. Granted, it was Montezuma and the close borders might have been enough, but I thought it was appropriate. Just because we agreed to fight America together doesn't mean he wasn't entitled to a share.

 

[Bandersnatching]

Yeah, the AI tends to gang up on me when I'm the weakest/top dog civ, which I guess is similar to politics in Europe when monarchies were dominant? I think that games sometimes parallel historical actions like what you are describing, but not often enough to make me think that the AI does this as part of its programming (intentional or not).

 

[KevinMiles90000]

I say this without a hint of irony or sarcasm: I know exactly what you are saying.

The Matrix has you.





I seriously think there is some sort of sinister number generator or invisible hand in civ 5 meant to mess with people.


But as the intro to civ 5 says, this game is essentially tea leaves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_tea_leaves

Moderator Action: This post could have been a lot more ontopic ^^.

 

[Peng Qi]

I've posted this before, but my favorite game is one in which Montezuma and I (Rome), being adjacent, went to war and were so constantly until the medieval era, at which point a few other civs dogpiled each of us separately, so we made peace. After a couple dozen turns of this situation, Montezuma and I had no nearby allies, and suddenly Montezuma went "friendly," and he and I signed defense pacts and RAs and open borders and fought back to back against the entire world and eventually conquered all of it. Predictably, the turn after we took the last city from the last remaining civ other than us, he declared war on me (with the "sorry, you're just in my way" DoW). I only won because my small force of elite units managed to pull his capitol out from under him before his massive horde could loop its way around to Rome.

 

[Louis XXIV]

That's pretty cool and is pretty much what I was thinking of when I started the thread. I think the AI handles realpolitik decently in spite of other flaws.

 

[Vorlath]

Peng Qi, that's a great story. I only have one game where I had a great comeback story. I was the smaller civ for the entire game except the last few turns. I somehow got through 3 UN votes with the help of other civs who also bought some city states so that the largest AI wouldn't win. I got nuked several times. Started with no horses, no iron, no coal, no aluminum, no oil and no uranium. On Emperor, I kept thinking I should restart. Yet I survived to tell the tale.

The other AI's had absolutely no respect for me as the smallest civ. They would be at war with me and all of a sudden, they would get all friendly. Being very much in need of a break, I accept the peace only to have them wait 10 turns to steal my one or two city states and then declare war on me so that I could not steal them back. Finally, I had to keep a constant war on. Whenever another AI would lose a city state near me, I had to take it because the AI's loved to have city states near me attacking me.

OTOH, some AI's would not care much about me and would only send one or two units in my territory at the most inopportune times to unsettle my economy. How they loved to destroy my roads.

So yeah, the AI is good at the politics, but the control of their military is horrible. I won because I was able to fortify key positions and constantly entice them to send their units my way instead of having to move forward. The puppet cities I gained were later, but they were HUGE and I eventually got an incredible economy going.

 

[Comraddict]

I've noticed similar thing, Bismarck begged for peace each turn before losing city, after I crushed him with Keshiks. is that what you are doing too? Perhaps CIV V creators know that there's no defense against Keshiks so AI civs always beg for mercy?

 

[Securion]

Anyone else have stories of the AI doing things that seem like what you would expect from them as other world powers?

Nope, never.
Have never happened in any game i have played so far.
700+ hours btw.

 

[Louis XXIV]

By the way, should I wipe out the civs I'm fighting to be more Mongolian? I've already completely conquered two, so I don't think the diplomatic penalty can get worse. It also prevents them from using their rump civilization to attack me when I don't expect it.

On the other hand, it's very time consuming.

 

[Pisskop]

You should kill who you must, puppet what is convienient, scorch what is not. Do not show violence then necessary, but do not let your enemies(every ai effectively) gain power. Smite them from time to time, or else a prolitariate revolution will occur, and communism will not be the result...

Above all, finish a job if you start it. You are a warmonger anyhow, so who cares if you also genocide(excuse me, the genes are still there, the leader isn't...genocide=bad).

 

[Louis XXIV]

Well, yeah, I'm not keeping many cities. I already know that.

 

[Peng Qi]

Nope, never.
Have never happened in any game i have played so far.
700+ hours btw.

Do you believe that Realpolitik is the global norm, or do you believe that countries form genuine bonds of good-will that would hold even if those bonds became meaningless or detrimental?