Why does the AI do this?

[Circlet the Zen]

Ok, I'm playing as Carthage. I build three cities, they grow to be massive and I have the biggest population in the game on this small continent populated by myself and the Aztecs (I declared war after I caught him spying three times and took two cities).

Rome, on a distant continent, rings me up and asks if I'll declare war on Arabia. Since I'm fighting the Aztecs I tell him to give me ten turns. Six turns later he shows up on my continent with some army of twenty five troops. He declared war on me and I wiped his army off the face of the earth because he had the bright idea to have 15 siege cannons and only five or six melee units. By this time, I had a large navy (10+ frigates, 5+ privateers) so I decided to turn it around and take a few Roman coastal cities. Before my ships even get there he sends me a peace offer - he'll give me 10 gold and 10 gold per turn to make peace. I decline because that's nothing, I'll squeeze more out of him (he has 110+ gold per turn). Twelve turns later I've taken five Roman coastal cities, liberated one, razed two, puppeted two. Rome sends me another peace offer. I have to give him four of my cities, all of my gold/luxury resources/GPT/resources for peace?

What gives? Shouldn't Rome be more inclined to give me more when I'm winning the war? I'm playing on Emperor difficulty.

 

[OmniPotent42]

The issue is that the AI will most likely only make a reasonable peace offering when your army value is greater than theirs, even if the units aren't in the main battles.

Just destroy the rest of their units that trickle in to defend and eventually he'll give and maybe allow you to take advantage of his resources some more.

 

[Sabrina]

Ok, I'm playing as Carthage. I build three cities, they grow to be massive and I have the biggest population in the game on this small continent populated by myself and the Aztecs (I declared war after I caught him spying three times and took two cities).

Rome, on a distant continent, rings me up and asks if I'll declare war on Arabia. Since I'm fighting the Aztecs I tell him to give me ten turns. Six turns later he shows up on my continent with some army of twenty five troops. He declared war on me and I wiped his army off the face of the earth because he had the bright idea to have 15 siege cannons and only five or six melee units. By this time, I had a large navy (10+ frigates, 5+ privateers) so I decided to turn it around and take a few Roman coastal cities. Before my ships even get there he sends me a peace offer - he'll give me 10 gold and 10 gold per turn to make peace. I decline because that's nothing, I'll squeeze more out of him (he has 110+ gold per turn). Twelve turns later I've taken five Roman coastal cities, liberated one, razed two, puppeted two. Rome sends me another peace offer. I have to give him four of my cities, all of my gold/luxury resources/GPT/resources for peace?

What gives? Shouldn't Rome be more inclined to give me more when I'm winning the war? I'm playing on Emperor difficulty.

Caesar is a backstabber, but will give you the world for peace after he lost his capital. Just keep on attacking.

 

[Shadow717]

The only thing the AI bases peace negotiations on is pure military number. It doesn't care about were the fight is, if cities were taken or lost, or even troop quality. You could be 3 units ahead in a tech line, eg longswords vs. Great war infantry. The AI's units would have no practical change of defeating yours, but because they have more they would believe themselves to be crushing you

 

[WChrisMullen]

I took Korea's capital and second-largest city, but he refused me peace because he managed to take one of my crap border cities. In his mind, that outweighed having lost the nerve center of his empire.

 

[pilot00]

The only thing the AI bases peace negotiations on is pure military number. It doesn't care about were the fight is, if cities were taken or lost, or even troop quality. You could be 3 units ahead in a tech line, eg longswords vs. Great war infantry. The AI's units would have no practical change of defeating yours, but because they have more they would believe themselves to be crushing you

Same thing with the military adviser: 'The Carthaginian empire, wields an army that will wipe us out the face of the planet'

Me 'Ehm...Dude, we have tanks and they have crossbows....'

I believe though that cities lost play a factor in negotiation. What they cant figure out is troop deployment, tech level and logistics (not the promotion but where are their units and how/when to get them in the battle).

Simply put for the OP: He probably has a large army (even if they are warriors to his eyes they are an army to be reckoned with ) on the other side of the map and believes he'll win. Or during the start of the war he didnt use the money he had made, the calculations decided to avoid further conflict, then you denied and he rush bough an army...on the other side of the planet...

Probably he has my advisers brother to advice him

 

[nanomage]

...
Simply put for the OP: He probably has a large army (even if they are warriors to his eyes they are an army to be reckoned with ) on the other side of the map and believes he'll win. Probably he has my advisers brother to advice him

It's much worse man: he has the exact same advisor as you!

 

[Shadow717]

It's much worse man: he has the exact same advisor as you!

Hm the same advisor you say. You might be on to something! Maybe the advisor is a strict pacifist who feeds every civ that "wipe us off the face of the planet" line in a desperate attempt to keep the peace! /conspiracy

 

[pilot00]

It's much worse man: he has the exact same advisor as you!

Sneaky traitorous git! I will have his head for this.

Hm the same advisor you say. You might be on to something! Maybe the advisor is a strict pacifist who feeds every civ that "wipe us off the face of the planet" line in a desperate attempt to keep the peace! /conspiracy

That aint gonna work. I am pissed off now. Off to play a game where I nuke the entire planet