Why won't the AI wage cross ocean war?

[dexters]

While low on their priority list, one thing the AI in Civ5 can do against another AI is take over islands and do cross continent invasions.

Without the benefit of just sending a huge stack to defend any coast at any time, terrain and preparation becomes more important for the AI attacks, so cities that fall in a coastal invasion can usually be held and they can move inland and continue conquering if the attacking AI brings enough units.

They come a bit short vs humans, but that's really never been untrue.

 

[Txurce]

Is anyone able to comment on how likely this is?

Likely. How soon, and how effectively, is another story altogether. Space out a couple of boats as pickets, and if Austria is coming with a seriously large force, you will know about it in plenty of time.

 

[Sturmgewher88mm]

I had a game where someone... can't remember who... did a naval surprise attack. Hit one of my cities with an enormous number of triremes. I was able to thwart the attack and that pretty much ended his navy completely.

It's sad really, especially when naval combat is one of my favorite parts of Civ5. The AI usually just spams scout ships, weak and lonely vessels that do nothing but explore and plunder a few improvements. I've only ever seen one AI naval taskforce, where a mass of frigates and caravels reduced a city to 0. Too bad the city killed all the land units and caravels though.

 

[reddishrecue]

The ai does have some deadly ocean attacks sometimes, even more deadly when teamed up with other ais or even when the ai has a tech lead with better units.

 

[Aelesia]

There was once where I was simultaenously DOW-ed within a few turns by America & Spain in North America, Portugal & Brazil in South America, Sweden in Europe, and finally France & Netherlands in Africa. Fortunately I was England so none of them ever stood a chance against my massive, superior navy

Half of my fleet was already stationed in Africa planning an invasion of French & Dutch colonies. They both had massive fleets (25+ ships total) but my Ship of the Lines with logistics easily sunk all their ships.

The rest of my fleet sailed to NA where they sunk whatever little ships America, Spain and Portugal owned and took over all their coastal cities.

Brazil never made any attempt to sink my ships at all despite being much more powerful than me.

Sweden caught me off guard and sailed tons of ships towards the coast of London, but fortunately I had just researched Submarines and built and bought enough to drive them off. The submarines later headed to the Americas where some of them joined the Battleships, while the rest stayed hidden outside Brazilian cities and destroyed every ship that was made by them

 

[Sturmgewher88mm]

There was once where I was simultaenously DOW-ed within a few turns by America & Spain in North America, Portugal & Brazil in South America, Sweden in Europe, and finally France & Netherlands in Africa. Fortunately I was England so none of them ever stood a chance against my massive, superior navy

Half of my fleet was already stationed in Africa planning an invasion of French & Dutch colonies. They both had massive fleets (25+ ships total) but my Ship of the Lines with logistics easily sunk all their ships.

The rest of my fleet sailed to NA where they sunk whatever little ships America, Spain and Portugal owned and took over all their coastal cities.

Brazil never made any attempt to sink my ships at all despite being much more powerful than me.

Sweden caught me off guard and sailed tons of ships towards the coast of London, but fortunately I had just researched Submarines and built and bought enough to drive them off. The submarines later headed to the Americas where some of them joined the Battleships, while the rest stayed hidden outside Brazilian cities and destroyed every ship that was made by them

Another fine example of the AI's inept naval combat skills

 

[Aelesia]

Another fine example of the AI's inept naval combat skills

I did have a massive naval fleet in that game though. 18 out of 24 battleships had logistics. They never stood a chance!

 

[sherbz]

Much of it depends on whether they have destroyed their immediate neighbors. I have certainly had the AI send large naval fleets at me, sometimes to devastating effect. they are much better at it now that you have melee ship types. The AI still struggles to cope with embarkation though, and uses it too frequently and in dumb situations.

 

[Bergerperson]

I did have one game where the AI tried to have a naval force. Unfortunately, I kind of destroyed that force in a war with Elizabeth. The outcome of that war pretty much destroyed any hopes Elizabeth would bounce back again. She also had a few Ships of the Line back near London, but I cleaned them up pretty quick after this.

PS: I lost one of my ironclads when attacking London after I destroyed this force.

Spoiler :

 

[Zorro 695]

The AI will attack another Civ on another continent. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

I'm playing Portugal on a large map, continents.

Early on Hiawatha destroyed Indonesia and Dido destroyed Casimir.

Then cute, timid little Dido declared war on that big, mean Hiawatha. For several turns, 'a Carthaginian army with naval escorts' moved right across the map and attacked the Iroquois.

Eventually, she captured all but one of Hiawatha's cities, including a couple of nearby City States.
To save space, I'm only posting a section of a screenshot. Check out the Minimap and you'll see what's happening.

 

[Callonia]

The AI will attack another Civ on another continent. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

I'm playing Portugal on a large map, continents.

Early on Hiawatha destroyed Indonesia and Dido destroyed Casimir.

Then cute, timid little Dido declared war on that big, mean Hiawatha. For several turns, 'a Carthaginian army with naval escorts' moved right across the map and attacked the Iroquois.

Eventually, she captured all but one of Hiawatha's cities, including a couple of nearby City States.
To save space, I'm only posting a section of a screenshot. Check out the Minimap and you'll see what's happening.

Wait what, carthage won a FIGHT?!

 

[Mr. Grieves]

I had a game where Elizabeth would just keep declaring war on me, over and over again. Every time, she would send over like three ranged units, so I was puzzled as to why she thought she could take me on.

After I gained my first coastal city, not until the atomic era, I purchased a submarine and went to check out London, which I hadn't scouted yet. There was this massive fleet of probably 25 ships-of-the-line just hanging out, positively itching to tear my cities apart. Enraged, I nuked London and quit the game.

The game tried to send over an elusive naval attack, after placing me in the middle of a Pangaea.

 

[CraziFuzzy]

I think a lot of it has to do with the 'coveting your lands' condition. It adds so many more points towards war for local civs, and has virtually no impact on across water relations.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I really wish I had grabbed some screenies...

Just finished a prince-level game as the Zulu. My chief adversary was England and we fought a couple of epic naval wars. The first one was a disaster for me as I massively underestimated their navy because like many of you all, I am not used to the AI being competent at sea. England had the largest navy I have ever seen, comprised of multiple combined-arms squadrons, each with their own objectives. Some of them raided trade routes, some took cities while still others focused on hunting down my pathetic excuse of a navy.

It took me five hundred years to build up a navy that could go toe-to-toe with the English and even then the final victorious war was a close run thing as England adapted to a defensive, hit, run and capture (privateer) strategy that wore me down. Essentially, I won because I invented submarines and finished their navy off with them in a hurry.

 

[civ54lyfe]

totally hate to admit this, but i'm going to have to start playing Pangea in the future instead of my usual Continents map. AI is too suck at navy. and yes i realize that a human navy can still be abused on Pangea; it's still better than Continents to me at this point.