Why did they attack?

[Jason Fox]

It's around 300 AD. Huge map, 16 civs. I'm a growing empire, 15 cities, equaling the biggest civs in the game that I know of.

The Greeks have just four cities and none are doing well. I suspect this is the result of a war they had with the Aztecs very early but I never actually saw cities change hands or any fighting, so I'm speculating.

However, the Greek cities, and the free land behind them, are all prime real estate for me eventually, once I've exhausted the available land.

Then, for no reason the Greeks declare war on me. Subsequent battles determine they have almost no defense and I easily take three of their four cities and then accept two techs, a worker, a much more complete world map and all their gold for peace. The whole thing was over in about 7 turns, most of that reaching their cities.

Yes, it was good for me, saved my rep a little because they declared and attacked first and I get the cities and access to the land I wanted, not to mention the settlement deal. But why would they do that? Doesn't the AI have any sense that they can't win a war?

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Jason Fox
However, the Greek cities, and the free land behind them, are all prime real estate for me eventually, once I've exhausted the available land.

Then, for no reason the Greeks declare war on me.

Let me see. You intend to attack the Greeks as soon as you find it convenient, but you wonder why they attack you first. Hmmm.

 

[Jason Fox]

Originally posted by Zachriel


Let me see. You intend to attack the Greeks as soon as you find it convenient, but you wonder why they attack you first. Hmmm.

Actually, I was trying to culture flip since I was having a lot of peaceful build time, but I got an Aztec city instead.

More to the point, I had the luxury of knowing I could win the war. They know what I have in my army and there was no way they could win. In their position (and I've been there plenty of times) I would make as nice as possible and build, build, build, not attack.

 

[Paalikles]

I experienced a situation while playing kittenofchaos' world map-mod-thingie

I had been in a military alliance with the japanese (historical starting locations btw)
and as we finished our agreement (they withdrew) there were happy thoughts (Tokugawa looked polite)
a while later - a japanese longbowman (just that ONE unit)
suddenly attacked for no apparent reason

I mobilized for war (I had most of my empire in europe, central asia and africa...playing for the first time as the russians)
had my transports go all the way to the pacific...which took a while
and I razed some of their cities in australia and south-eastern asia
but - it was surprising to experience that attack
Perhaps they remembered the japanese-russian war...

edit: I just remembered they attacked out of the blue a little later - with just ONE samurai (in MODERN era)

 

[costanza]

This goes back to the AI's desperate attempts to catch up or mess with you when it gets way behind late in the game. I have a game going with two significantly weaker civilizations at war with me because I am going to win.

Its quite pathetic.

 

[Grawss]

One time earlier when I was a newbie at this game I made a scenario with the ai having desert and me having great land and resources and them having nothing. I was in the modern era and they were in the ancient times. They had a few spearman and I had a few tanks. They went to war with ME (Russians). I destroyed them in one turn (I had set up tanks)

 

[ufftyuwe]

If you want to have colorful and moving graphics and all that, be happy, you got them, but do not ask graphical designers for any progamming an AI *ggg*

Honestly, be happy you won and dont wonder about a game having gaming abilities...if that happens in real life then start wondering, but for now...enjoy it and dont take it too seriously

lol

 

[Sullla]

I fail to understand the decision-making process that goes on when the AI declares war. I have seen civs with 1/10 my power start a war that they could not possibly hope to win. I saw Bismarck begin a war once by sneak attacking me with a regular warrior against my city defended by infantry. The Civ3 AI is overall quite good, but at times it makes strange decisions.

 

[Alphidius]

You guys say the AI makes weird decisions, hmmm, thing is it doesn't happen to me in any of my games at all!

That is after I applied the 1.21f patch of course. Before that, the AI surely did make some queer moves like sending 30 bowmen to attack my well-defended cities of pikemen but not since after I applied the patch. The AI seems to catch up with me in techs, map and other stuff and they all seem to be merry with each other, not once did they declared war on each other and on me too!

I just build up my cities since all of the world's land has been built on and wait for their cities to culture flip since I couldn't declare war on them without a valid reason, hurting my reputation . Everything seems fine to me now, at least better after the patch. No longer do the AI think their 30 bowmen could defeat my 50 pikemen and their tundra/desert fetish (land grabbing actions) died down somewhat.

 

[Grawss]

It is also very annoying when I am playing a Huge map with all the civs and Germany or another civ like that goes to war with me at the very beggining of the game and then gets a military alliance with another civ then that civ gets a military alliance and it goes on like that until all the civs are at war with me and I get branded the whipping boy of the world (lol). This has to be fixed

 

[sumthinelse]

Originally posted by Jason Fox
Doesn't the AI have any sense that they can't win a war?

When they want to start a war, none that I know of. But sometimes they can tell they are losing one and beg for peace (as Tojo considered doing when he realized Japan was losing WWII, but then his foreign minister told him it was easier to start a war than to stop one).

 

[sumthinelse]

(deleted)

 

[zeeter]

I've seen some strange things as well. I was at war with the Egyptians and left them with only three cities left. They were getting killed. So what do they do? Begin building the Pyramids. What? Why are you building pyramids when you have warriors defending your cities against my legions?

Also, in my latest game, I had just defeated the Greeks in a war using Tanks against their riflemen. Not horribly lopsided, as they did take out a few of my tanks. Suddenly, the Babylonians attacked me. They had riflemen defending their cities as well. The only thing that kept me from anihilating them was that they were accross a channel and I needed to use transports to get there. By the time my fleet of carriers and battleships arrived to support the invasion they had declared peace. It was close to the end of the game and I didn't feel like fighting another war just fifteen turns from the end.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Json Fox:

You human, they AI!

That's the only reason they know


Sorry, it is that way, they just feel htey have to pick on someone non-AI.... Also, they might be on the lookout for a UU Golden Age (in case they didn't get it in the Aztec war because that was too early)

 

[WarlordMatt]

The AI can commonly be stupid; in one of my India games the Chinese who were to the north of me declared war on me for no good reason. I take two of their cities with war elephants before they finally beg for peace.

 

[Dell19]

It seems they attack when they are jealous of you...It must be something to do with resources and terrain etc. I have had the Indians declare war on me when I had a huge empire and there was no reason for them to attack. However I did have a huge army on the border next to them so I could gradually defeat them, especially when I managed to get modern armour

 

[planetfall]

AI's definitely believe in first strike policy. They love preemptive strikes. Try playing Germany and see what happens in the 20 turns just before you get panzers.