What is wrong with this power rating?

[DocRock]

Hey there,

I am wondering how the power rating is calculated. In my current game at noble, I have a good lead in tech and at least 1 unit, in most cases 2 units stationed per city. I know that this is not much, but the quality of my troops is much better than those of the other guys.

So Julius Caesar declared war on me, mainly because my power rating was so low I guess. He landed on my continent with his stack of catapults, Crossbowmen and one Maceman trying to attack my city. My city that only had three units - three battlehardened level 4 Infantery squads. Of course they destroyed the whole stack without any losses. I than build a transport and shipped over some tanks while he was defending his cities with Longbowmen.

My point is: why the heck was my power rating so low compared to the Romans? He had like 3 or 4 times as many units than I had. But my units are from the modern age while his are from the medieval ages.

Quantity > Quality?

 

[GGracchus]

Check the demographics screen, that'll tell you how many soldiers you have, and your position overall. If you have BUG mod and focus EP's on JC a few turns before he declares(reload and check), you should be able to see his power rating in comparison to yours. If you don't, you should definitely get it. An autosave before a few turns before he DOW's would help.

 

[DocRock]

Yes, I am in position 7. Of 7. It's only 7 because I just wiped out the Netherlands. And it's not that bad because their most advanced unit is the Riflemen. While I am attacking with Modern Armor and defending with Mech. Infantry.

I was just wondering why my power rating is so low in comparison, as I clearly own superior troops in terms of advanced techs. Is it just the number of units that counts into the power rating?

 

[Ghpstage]

Better units do contribute more to power, but quantity does as well. The specific values for units, techs and buildings are explained here.
Where a unit is located (you mention in cities) and promotions it has mean nothing however, so if all you had was 1-2 units in each city and no main stack then your power level is going to be very low on account of a tiny army.

Also power is hugely overrated as a method of keeping peace, it only acts as an on/off switch only if you reach a certain power ratio and if your not at that threshold it means nothing whatsoever. Many AIs thresholds exceed equal power by quite a bit take Monty for example, to stop him attacking you need 1.95 times his power!

 

[W|M]

Techs don't increase your power rating nearly as much as the amount of units, so your civ can pwn his civ like a knife through butter even if you have 0.1 of it's strength if your advanced enough.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Techs don't increase your power rating nearly as much as the amount of units, so your civ can pwn his civ like a knife through butter even if you have 0.1 of it's strength if your advanced enough.

Ah, this explains Monty's behavior (as well as 1.95x power needed to deter him).

 

[DocRock]

Thanks, this explains some behaviour of the AI. I am always behind in power rating somehow, as I feel save with 2 units / city and maybe some additonal small marauding stack advancing at a neighbour. Furthermore, I do not like siege weapons that much and tend to build more spies or ships to reduce the defense of cities. This might also influence the rating in a wrong way.

 

[GenerallyGreat]

Power rating isn't a big deal. It's not unusual on immortal to be at .3 with most civs for most of the game and .6 or .7 when you go on your first attack.