I do a lot of patronage. A lot. Typically if I have extra money it goes to CS allies, not RAs. Why? CS allies benefit me in every way - a little science, lots of culture, food, units, luxuries, never worry about resources, etc.
The biggest way they benefit any Civ is by making war crazy easy. In fact, so much so that I want to stop allying so much, because it feels cheap. If you have a CS bordering your war opponent they will almost always target this CS first, making even large forces easy to trounce at the border.
I understand them having to slog through a CS ally between our borders. That is just good strategy on the allying party's part. But it just feels like a bug when they send a horde of troops after a CS ally that was totally irrelevant to our conflict. They shouldn't be attacking Monaco sitting out on the end of their peninsula. They would be much better used on holding me off.
Seems to me the AI could be modified to prioritize player targets rather than CSes. Right now, I think the AI considers all wars equal which is poor strategy no human would undertake.
The biggest way they benefit any Civ is by making war crazy easy. In fact, so much so that I want to stop allying so much, because it feels cheap. If you have a CS bordering your war opponent they will almost always target this CS first, making even large forces easy to trounce at the border.
I understand them having to slog through a CS ally between our borders. That is just good strategy on the allying party's part. But it just feels like a bug when they send a horde of troops after a CS ally that was totally irrelevant to our conflict. They shouldn't be attacking Monaco sitting out on the end of their peninsula. They would be much better used on holding me off.
Seems to me the AI could be modified to prioritize player targets rather than CSes. Right now, I think the AI considers all wars equal which is poor strategy no human would undertake.
