AI vs AI compared to AI vs You!

[CrapFactory]

Is it just me or do the wars between computer players just plain suck.
I'll watch one computer attack another with a few axemen vs a city with 10 defenders... I rarely see computer vs computer wars go anywhere and when they do start to hurt eachother they call for peace.
Now, when the computer attacks me it's far different. All the sudden sometimes I'll have multiple huge stacks coming at me. They're not holding anything back compared to when they fight eachother.

Just something I noticed with lots of my games...

[Adagio]

I've never seen the AI attack me with huge stacks yet, and I've seen the AI destroy others AI's several times

[John-SJ]

In my last game, after I wiped out one civ, my ally wiped out another (the weakest), he destroyed 5 cities in just 7 turns. It looked pretty impressive on the power graph.

[Drachasor]

Washington often manages to get taken out by other AIs I've noticed. The AI can attack effectively, but I think it will often attack when its only intention is to damage your economy through pillaging. When it does this it will not bring the numbers necessary to take a city.

I think perhaps this latter routine is what makes it seem to suck, and perhaps this routine is poorly done in some manner.

-Drachasor

[Finarfin]

I've had computer players come at me with overwhelming stacks of tanks, marines, and artillery, all the while bombing me. It's not a pretty site when you're not prepared for it.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Finarfin
I've had computer players come at me with overwhelming stacks of tanks, marines, and artillery, all the while bombing me. It's not a pretty site when you're not prepared for it.

Ha! If you were prepared for it, it wouldn't have happened!
(Well, it wouldn't have been "overwhelming" at least).

[Finarfin]

So how does the computer player know whether I'm prepared for it or not? I haven't played enough of this game yet to know what you can and can't do. I just know that in that particular game, he wore me down through attrition. I scrambled to get units defending my city, sometimes as many as a dozen marines and artillery, and he just kept sending more and more stacks until I couldn't keep up with replacing the lost units.

[John-SJ]

Finarfin,
I can't answer exactly how the computer player can tell, but assuming the computer doesn't cheat (uh-huh) it at least has access to the info you do. You can see how your army stacks up against others, I am sure it can to. You can stand at the border of another civ and see how many defenders there are in a city, I am sure it can too.

Can you get a military advisor comparison of military strength? Or is that Civ 3 only?

Anyway, I am sure that using the data that we have available the computer can make a good assessment of who best to attack.

[Snotty]

the ai can tell miltary power using the power graph perhaps?

[John-SJ]

Mmmmm, perhaps.

[amicus curiae]

Or spies

[Mergle]

Re: AI vs AI compared to AI vs You!

Originally posted by CrapFactory
Is it just me or do the wars between computer players just plain suck.
I'll watch one computer attack another with a few axemen vs a city with 10 defenders... I rarely see computer vs computer wars go anywhere and when they do start to hurt eachother they call for peace.
Now, when the computer attacks me it's far different. All the sudden sometimes I'll have multiple huge stacks coming at me. They're not holding anything back compared to when they fight eachother.

Just something I noticed with lots of my games...

Montezuma just powered through Bismark's last three cities and carried right through into me. Gulp. Guess I should have answered all Bismark's pleas for help...

[Enigma_Nova]

The computer usually snoops around with scouting units, checks your border cities and whatnot.
Often, when I've left my empire poorly defended to build (as I do) I see a lot of units massing in an enemy border city.
A few turns of military production sees the units in the border city camp there, staring at me - and since I've posted my military on my borders, their border cities get more defenders.

If the AI sees you as Militarily weak, but with good lands, it'll try to take your cities. If the AI hates you for some other reason, it'll try to pillage you.

It's always humorous to have an AI snoop through your uprotected but productorially powerful bases, say "SCORE" and declare war, then take a look at the Longbows and Macemen you just slammed down on your front lines as you say "Give me Health Resources lest I pummel your empire into dust."

[Stone-D]

Nah, the AI just logs on here, downloads "a proper score graph" and gets a clue from that.

[Proteus_MST]

Hm,
the AI can start nice wars against other AI players, too.

I own a continent and suddenly the americans appear just in front of my borders, with a huge fleet of battleships, destroyers and transport filled with maybe 11 modern combat units (Gun ships, Marines, SAM Infanterie).
Of course I was afraid that Roosevelt wanted to invade my continent and started to shift units t6o cities which could be possible targets for the invasion and try to send all destroyers I had to the spot where the americans were sighted (I had an open borders treaty and very good relations with the americans, but they often like to appear with huge fleets on the borders and declare war )
The invasion never came
The american fleet slowly moved along my coast and finally reached the borders of the chinese continent, which is when Roosevelt declared war on Quin Shi Huangdi
I don´t know what comes next as it is the last turn of the game I´m playing now, but it looks like it will be a nice war (well, nice for the americans, not so nice for Quin Shi Huangdi as, although having a much larger army than myself, his tech level doesn´t seem to be able to match the tech levels of most other civilizations).