When will the AI eliminate fellow AI civs? Advice appreciated

[bennos76]

I've been playing a noble game as Elizabeth on the inland sea map, with max number of civs. This is my second run at this with the same starting location. I got totally creamed on the first run due 'too many buildings not enough soldiers' syndrome (I'm a builder at heart, but this map required a different approach). It's now approaching the end of the game and a total of seven civilizations have been totally obliterated, only one of them by me, the rest being mostly on the other side of the world.

Anyhow, I'm sort of in the bottom right corner. After wiping out Montezuma to my west I've now been sharing a border with Louis for some time. We haven't exactly been the best of friends but there haven't been any major disputes. As far as I'm aware Louis had been fairly peaceful to his neighbours, only jumping in towards the end of my war with Monte to claim a couple of cities when Monte was seriously starting to regret picking a fight with me.

While France was not the mightiest of empires, it was respectable. A while ago, Louis must have decided he needed more room, and went on the war path. He wiped out two civilizations (Americans and someone else), taking around a dozen cities in the process and more than doubling the size of his empire.

I'm guessing that he's made it to the edge of the Map and doesn't particularly want to take on Ghandi, who's empire is just as mighty as mine. I'm thinking this because he's now decided it's time we went to war. Although it was two turns ago that he pronounced my imminent doom, I'm yet to see the hordes pour forth. I suspect it will get very messy though. As it looks as though someone else is going to get the spaceship before me, this turn of events should be a fun ending to the game.

Being an inland sea map, I figured a navy would be fairly important, so I've maintained a large one throughout the game. I'm not sure if it's my overwhelming presence or the AI being just plain bad at naval stuff, but with the exception of my mate Catherine I've barely found another boat to sink in two millenia. Seems a bit of a waste really.

[Overcast32]

Another little trick I pulled once - and seemed to work out fine was giving the underdog some tech..

I was playing a continents maps with 11 AI's. Kublai Khan was expanding and harassing other's here and there - no real pursuit of actually taking over a Civ, he just irritated the other Civs. He seems to be ahead of them by enough to be a real menace.

All the while, I was engaged in a cut-throat, non-stop battle with Louis. During this time, Kublai Khan decides to attack me just as I wage another war on Louis. Isabella was begging for open borders all the while and then started whining for techs. Some of which, I had long since researched, so I knew she was pretty technically re-pressed.

So I decided to just give her Artillery upon her request - she was far behind, so I didn't consider her a threat at all.

Not long after this Kublai Khan asks for a peace treaty, which I happily gave him as all he was really accomplishing was destroying an improvement here and there while most of my troops were on the offensive.

Couple hundred years pass and I glance at the list of civs and notice Isabella had pulled her score way up, she was surpassing Kublai Khan with a vengance - no wonder he wanted peace with me, she was attacking him from his flanks.... lol

About that time, Ghandi, who had been isolated to his own little island, is flying Helicopters over France and taking whatever cities I hadn't already. He was light years ahead in Tech at this time. I still have the saved game, but Ghandi could easily walk over the whole map by this time. Luckily, I was on his good side, but still...

Was a fun map to play, since I had a nice peninsula to build on but still shared the continent with 5 other civs. Problem was - all the civs just seemed to ignore Ghandi, and next thing you know he's mopping up the competition.

[Generaldoktor]

Originally posted by bennos76
I've been playing a noble game as Elizabeth on the inland sea map, with max number of civs. This is my second run at this with the same starting location. I got totally creamed on the first run due 'too many buildings not enough soldiers' syndrome (I'm a builder at heart, but this map required a different approach). It's now approaching the end of the game and a total of seven civilizations have been totally obliterated, only one of them by me, the rest being mostly on the other side of the world...

Being an inland sea map, I figured a navy would be fairly important, so I've maintained a large one throughout the game. I'm not sure if it's my overwhelming presence or the AI being just plain bad at naval stuff, but with the exception of my mate Catherine I've barely found another boat to sink in two millenia. Seems a bit of a waste really.

It's a shame you don't know all of who's eliminated, that might be an indicator of what AI personalities are unsuccessful, etc. That's why I like "custom" games, I always know who's playing, even if they're gone before I get to them, but the AI interactive dynamic might be different in such games, which is why I'm getting such inconsistent results. (They are often reluctant to go to war in my games, always also played on Noble or below, but in select others, it turned out like the one I mentioned above, with lots of war. "Raging" barbs seems to make the rest timider, because the barbs beat them up, in my experience. Other players on this board insist the barbs skip AI players.)

AI is not good with navies normally, but see my comment above about Genghis Khan's massive fleet on a "continents" game on Noble. The "inland" nature of the big water in your game might have allowed them to avoid the issue by simply going "around" overland. If you want a naval game, play on continents or archipelago, but keep your "sea level" at medium to low. Mostly water maps are boring as you don't really get transcontinental fleets till late in the game.

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by Generaldoktor


It's a shame you don't know all of who's eliminated, that might be an indicator of what AI personalities are unsuccessful, etc.

You can guess by looking at the names of cities that other nations have. The Roman cities of Seville, Barcelona and Madrid can be a bit of a giveaway.

At immortal level I notice that the AI aggressiveness is higher. Rome has swallowed Spain and Napoleon is taking chunks out of the Mongols for having the audacity to declare war on me.

[CarnalCanaan]

Originally posted by Blake
Leaders like Isabella and Tokugawa are just plain weak, they make good food for other AI's.

That's not true at all in my games: if anybody takes out Isabella it's usually me, and usually at great cost. Her religion wins her many friends and her many friends protect her.

Heck, I even saw Tokugawa come within MY vote of winning a diplomatic victory!

[Schtix]

Originally posted by smeacham
This might work, though I haven't tried it. My games go like yours, where I get so far ahead on Nobel that actually meeting victory conditions seems like just a technicality, so I start a new game.

What do you think of doing some or all of these things?

1. make friends with an agressive civ;
2. provide that civ with better technology;
3. encourage them to conquer others while helping to provide the means with gifted units;
4. assist them directly in their conquests, if necessary, and gift cities that you capture to them, if possible;
5. once they're the big, powerful, and advanced civ that you want to fight, pick the fight!

Steve

I think he has the best idea, assisting the second-most powerful Civ and letting them conquer another, or at least enough so that they grow as strong or stronger then you. This is something I think I'll have to try, and see how it goes.

Another way might be to protect the weakest Civ, there are a few ways that it could make your game a bit more challenging, seeing as how you normally get the stronger ones picking on smaller nations.