v1.52: AI empties city of defenders, to attack stack outside city?

[Cromulent]

I played my first full game with v1.52 today, and noticed the AI behaving in an odd way. I'm not entirely sure it's a bug and that it didn't occur before v1.52.

I had a stack of units outside one of Louis XIV's cities. The city had a high defense modifier (>60%, IIRC). He sent all but one of his units to their death against my stack, leaving his city guarded only by a catapult. This happened twice, and made those two cities far easier to take over than if the defenders had been left in the city.

Was some AI rule tweaked to favor attacking from a city, rather than defending it?

Tomorrow I'll look around for an autosave to attach.

 

[pearljimkusz]

i noticed this happening as well...same thing with a catapult being the last unit there to guard the city making it easy to take over the city

 

[Carewolf]

It is the only smart thing to do. Catapults are useless in defense, if you have some catapults and some units, you have a better chance in counter-attacking than in defending.

 

[aronk76]

It is the only smart thing to do. Catapults are useless in defense, if you have some catapults and some units, you have a better chance in counter-attacking than in defending.

I would have to disagree with this. If the city has a defensive bonus like was mentioned they would be better off holding up in the city. As for having a bunch of catapults, all he said was that they left 1 catapult to defend the city. Now when the AI comes and attacks my cities I will stay in the city and defend unless they start pillaging improvements. then I will send out a stack just large enough to kill those units and then return to my city. By doing this I maximize the use of my cities defesive bonus. If you are just going to go out and attack all the time then why even have a defensive bonus for the city.

 

[Renata]

The AI was tweaked to be more proactive on defense. There were complaints originally that the AI would too often just hole up and let itself be pillaged. Maybe the balance got shifted too far the other way? I don't know; haven't played 1.52 yet.

Out of curiosity, what level were you playing?

 

[Katzmeister]

The proper course, I believe would be for the AI, based on the level of defensive bonus from the city, to unload a couple of catapults per turn and if it does attack and has good odds in doing so, never leave just a catapult. That is unless the catapult is the highest strength unit it has. Should have a little more unit judgement equations.

 

[Commander Bello]

The new "feature" of counter-attacks is bugged in many ways.
First, it doesn't properly evaluate how many defenders to leave in that city (in most cases just to few) and second, it most times attacks against all odds.
In my current game I had two examples, where the AI didn't attack my units on plains, but one time the ones on hills, the other time units in forests.

Of course, in both cases the counter-attack was unsuccessful and led to me capturing the now almost undefended city with almost no effort.

 

[Cromulent]

I agree, there are definitely times when it makes sense to preempt would-be attackers. I do it with barbarians and potential pillagers all the time. But in both cases the AI did it to me, I had enough units left to easily take the city on the next turn. This suggests something wrong with the logic - the units would have gone a lot further for the AI in the +60% city. I may even have been on a hill or forest (I usually try to approach from such terrain) but I don't remember for sure.

Out of curiosity, what level were you playing?

Noble.

 

[Theodorick]

I love this new AI addition though. Sometimes I'm biting my nails because my stack is hurt badly already, and the counter-attack really hurts me. Other times I watch with a smug grin as the AI commits suicide.

Either way it's still nice seeing the AI take chances and show some aggressiveness during war. Nothing was more annoying than watching the AI camp in it's fortified cities as my units dance through their country-side unharmed.

 

[Renata]

Having now played a bit with 1.52, I think I agree with Theodorick. So far I like the change. Sure a couple of times the AI got overaggressive to the point of suicide, letting me waltz right in, but I had enough units there to take the city anyway if they'd turtled. This just sped things up.