Civ IV...weird AI

[holyfaeller]

Bought the game, and started a round

Last Civ I played was Civ II but I know a little about the third Civ.

started a game in Civ IV on warlord difficulty acting peaceful and tried to expand. I liked the idea with winning without killing all or spaceship. At 1700 first friendly nation attacked me (+8 rating but attack right away). started military production and get 3 marines in my capital . AI attacks with 4 kavaly and chariots. 4 kavallery killed 1 marine, its okay ((marines have garison II+80% town defnese). Then chariots incoming kill 2 marine units and capture

WTF???

what happen to Civ IV?
Just removed the game and being quite frustrated....

[Will9]

Who attacked you? Some leaders don't care about relations if your army is small and your score is high. (BTW, if you have the highest score and lowest army, Someone will declare war on you) If your army is small, that is not strange at all. Also, were you Drafting? Whipping? Those things are the things that will make the difference in tight spots. You should be whipping in any game. Most people keep Slavery until Emancipation. Many things are missing from your post that make it seem like you are trolling. (no offence I'm trying to tell you need to tell us more) Could you build tanks? (they require the same techs as Mairnes, but also oil) If you didn't have oil, why weren't you trading for it, fighting a war to gain it before it could be used against you? What level are you playing at? What version do have? (Civ IV v. 1.61 and Warlords v. 2.08 are the latest) How far ahead of the AI were you in tech? What previous relations with the country that declaed war on you did you have?

[Tattila the Hun]

Well, those 4 cavalries propably pummeled your marines to pulp, before retreating/dying. Even chariots can defeat modern units, if those modern units have 0.01% energy...

[Dale]

Who was the leader who attacked you? Probably a known backstabber.

Also, what was your army size is relation to theirs?

To me it sounds like you're sulking because you didn't keep your defenses at an adequate level or keep an eye on your opponents.

[dregor]

Is that Boudy as your avatar, Dale?

[Tattila the Hun]

If it is, I'm liking her already.

[Dale]

Yeah it is Boudy, available from the GameSpy preview.

[Dis]

don't quit a game just because you lose. try to get better.

[Will9]

Originally posted by Dis
don't quit a game just because you lose. try to get better.

Yes, you just got unlucky that time. Once you get better, you will be able to overcome that bad luck.

[Dis]

i'm thankful the ai is not better than it is . as they build lots of units.

sometimes it will do stupid things like attack me with regular units first, then switch to attacking my city with catapults, trebs etc, then go back to attacking with regular units. If they had attacked with trebs first, I might have lost the city.

[Will9]

Originally posted by Dis
i'm thankful the ai is not better than it is . as they build lots of units.

sometimes it will do stupid things like attack me with regular units first, then switch to attacking my city with catapults, trebs etc, then go back to attacking with regular units. If they had attacked with trebs first, I might have lost the city.

Hopfully the new AI will be more prone to attacking my invasion forces. (It will make more realistic and won't be much harder since they be keeping their hole in cities.)

[Brutus66]

Try a lower difficulty level. Playing above your skill is an exercise in frustration.
Civ4 has decent AI (Blake's mod, available for download, makes it even better), and it plays to win- remember that. You must maintain your military to a reasonable degree- even a friendly civ will eventually come after you if it thinks you are ripe for the picking. Every civ's basic motivation is to be top dog.
I understand your frustration; even Churchill said "I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught." Just find the right skill level to start and you will find it far more enjoyable.
I would also recommend playing as the Romans at first. Their powerful unique unit comes early and will allow you to carve out some territory for your empire.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

I don't think you need to go down a level. If you were defending with Marines against Cavalry and Chariots, you're doing fairly well - you likely had a tech lead in the game.

Understand, as has been said, that even a friendly AI will eventually come after you if it perceives you are weak.

Check your powergraph score under "Power" heading
Check your military standing under "Demographics"
Check to see who knows what techs in the diplomacy screen

and so on. Knowledge is power.

If you're leading in score, first in techs, but near the bottom in military strength, beware! Always try to keep at or near the top in military size. It'll deter your enemies. And it will also tempt you to add your enemies' cities to your own empire.

[Gen.Dragolen]

holyfaeller,

Remember this quote about Napoleon: "Give me lucky generals" as opposed to good ones ?

The whole Civ series relies allot on the PRNG function which has delivered more than it's shares of unbelievable defeats when success should have been assured. All you can do is plan ahead and rely on the weight of numbers to counterbalance your luck. Usually, if I am looking at anything less than 80-90% success in a given attack, I expect to lose my attacking unit and plan acordingly: have lots of reserve units.

And the 6k Man has it right: you need to monitor your opponents almost every turn to check on what they are doing. Some occasions are almost predicatable, such as their offer of some useless tech for your latest and greatest innovation, or expecting all your gpt for something like Corn when the most they will offer is 2 out of 20 gpt.

Just adjust the game settings to reduce the time the AI wastes shuffling their units around like a bunch of Sunday drivers, and you will see your successes increase as time goes by. And reading Vel's strategy guide doesn't hurt either.


D.

[marvinkosh]

Even rather friendly Civs will not hesitate to invade if they perceive a threat. I found out the hard way that something as simple as having your culture slider high can cause tanks to roll across the border.