[R&F] Why doesnt the AI attack each other?

[Question]

On King, I have noticed a very common trend. When I get to the second continent (in a continents map), I realise that one of the AI civs there has become a runaway because the other 2 AI civs on that continent have been sitting around letting it do whatever it wants, while I have been forced to go to war on my home continent.

Why doesnt the AI go to war with each other often? The only times they seem to do it is when they have a MASSIVE advantage. Are they hard coded to not declare war on each other much?

 

[Zenstrive]

It's the AI smartness lottery at work. Some AI got the stupidity, and other AI got the genius.

 

[Morningcalm]

Poor coding. And even when they do go to war, typically nothing much happens. They may each lose a city or two but I've only seen an AI take a capital city once in all my Civ VI games.

 

[Chefofrats]

This is not always the case. In my last two King games on continents, the AI continent saw huge wars: between Egypt and Spain in one game (which led to the crippling, if not the fall, of both civilizations) and between Sparta, Kongo and Zulu in the other. In the latter case, Kongo and Sparta conquered Zulu, eradicating the civilization, which later led to loyalty troubles for both AI civs, which they tried to overcome with even more war. It all made for a very interesting spectacle!

 

[MrRadar]

After three R@F games, that's not my experience at all. In my second game (immortal, standard, continents), Pedro was very aggressive and took out two neighboring civs completely, growing to an impressive size. Only Aztecs could withstand his military and loyalty pressure. Third game, same settings, there was also constant fighting going on on another landmass, but with much less territorial changes.

 

[sonicmyst]

In my latest game as Poland on TSL Earth, Norway immediately attacked Russian capital via surprise war. Later on, Georgia joined the war. After they were both war exhausted, I conquered Norway, Georgia, and the original Russian capital.

 

[LMT]

I usually add a few extra civs to my games. I play either king or emperor, usually a fractal map. If I play on a small map, I'll add 2-3 civs, on a standard map, 3-4. I usually knock down the CS by 2 or 3 as well.

I'd say about 50% of the time, one original civ gets completely wiped out by the AI.

 

[Leyrann]

Because the AI doesn't often declare war when on a disadvantage. If a civ runs away, that means that civ is ahead, so they are scared and don't want to fight them because they feel like they will lose.

 

[beorn]

I play mostly on Emperor, and I am seeing lots of wars between AI civs. Sadly, when playing as the Cree, I am often able to watch the specifics of these wars, and they are not pretty sights. Civ 1 has Civ 2's capital down to a microscopic number of hit points, but stops attacking because his units are wounded... Civ 1 retreats all the wounded units leaving just a catapult and an unprotected general. Civ 2 just sits there taking the bombardment, never smacking either unit as the city hit points remain deep in the red... Which is why you might think there were no wars on the other continent -- little comes of it, when they conduct war that way.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Really? When playing continents I'm seeing an average of about one wiped-out civ on the other one by the time I discover it.

 

[DrJambo]

The trouble is the AI is only really effective at conquering before there are walls everywhere. Once the walls go up, the AI flounders, and once those City defences go up with Steel, there's literally no chance of the AI conquering anything.

 

[vaejovis]

Recently played a game (Korea, emperor, standard, shuffle) in which Cleo and Trajan had apparently swapped a few cities early on (but were somehow allied by the mid game), Teddy had captured a city from both Shaka and Gilgabro (liberation wars are an excellent excuse to capture cities and let them rebel to give the original owner a giant headache, and liberating a city is +20 relationship), and Monty had captured a city early on from Pedro (before I wiped them both out because they forward settled on me).

Why doesnt the AI go to war with each other often? The only times they seem to do it is when they have a MASSIVE advantage. Are they hard coded to not declare war on each other much?

Depends on the civ, but they certainly are less risky (in general) than the player. In the early game, especially at higher difficulties, the player is the weakest target whereas all the other computers are equally matched. In the late game, the player is generally ahead enough and attempting to win so they attack the player in a (feeble, pathetic) attempt to stop them.

 

[LightHawKnight]

Now that you mention it, yeah since R&F came out, AI don't really war much with each other, or if they do, nothing happens. But if they are at war with you, they go all out... They seem to just go after city states and the player. Cause recently had a game where two AI were at war for the longest time and nothing happened to either one.

 

[iammaxhailme]

I don't think I've ever seen an AI take another AI's capital in civ 6. And only rarely in civ 5. I usually play on king or emperor

 

[isau]

I had a recent game where Gitarja destroyed the Aztecs while I watched. It can happen. Thankfully it seems to be happening more with Civ 6 than in Civ 5. The AI still has a really annoying habit of letting a city sit there at close to zero HP.

FYI it helps if you remove No Move and Shoot from Siege units. The AI is terrible with that setting.

 

[Abaxial]

Has anyone ever seen two AIs declare joint war on a third AI? I have read here that joint war is a sort of trade to improve mutual relations, which is why whenever you receive one declaration of formal war you can bet the other shoe will drop right after, but seldom get a DoW from just one AI. But if this is so, then when two AIs make a compact of joint war, all the other civs should have an equal chance of being the target, but it seems it is always the player. Also, the player is often the worst possible target, when the player is miles away from one or even both of the declaring AIs.

 

[Leyrann]

Has anyone ever seen two AIs declare joint war on a third AI? I have read here that joint war is a sort of trade to improve mutual relations, which is why whenever you receive one declaration of formal war you can bet the other shoe will drop right after, but seldom get a DoW from just one AI. But if this is so, then when two AIs make a compact of joint war, all the other civs should have an equal chance of being the target, but it seems it is always the player. Also, the player is often the worst possible target, when the player is miles away from one or even both of the declaring AIs.

Nope, I see it happen quite often. Even see AIs all dogpiling on the same AI on occasion.

 

[Aristos]

All my post R&F games have ended with less than starting major civs and it was not me...

 

[MaryKB]

I frequently see computer players destroying each other on Emperor difficulty. Early in the game I often get that message saying an unmet player has been eliminated.

 

[Karmah]

I frequently see computer players destroying each other on Emperor difficulty. Early in the game I often get that message saying an unmet player has been eliminated.

Those are CSs being conquered. Just mentionning in case it wasn't clear.