Strange combat AI behaviour in BtS.

[Sir Og]

In both games that I played so far I noticed that the AI would send a group (like a pillaging group) of units several tiles into my teritoty but instead of pillaging they would just stop and fortify on a montain or in a forest (without even destroing the road that they sit on).


Oh and I can't figure out how to load missiles on subs and missile cruisers. Do they have to be in ports to load missiles in?

[Adagio]

I haven't noticed that, but I did notice the AI go on suicide missions:

1)
I had a city on a hill filled with grenadiers (and a few machine gunners). The AI attacked this city with lots of riflemen. They didn't kill any of my units

2)
One of my cities was attacked by lots of cannons and artillery, but not one normal unit (even though they had several nearby). As those units can't kill units anymore I ended up taking out lots of their units without any loses on my side. Had they used the units nearby they might have been able to take out my city

3)
Yesterday just after I sent a bunch of high-tech units to one of their seaside cities, they sent 20+ galleons into the city (took a few minutes to watch one unit at a time to move in). The city had no chance withstanding, not only did I have units with twice the firepower, I also had twice the number of units

[CreepyD]

Yes, I've also noticed they should attack with more units at once, not just some of the stack.

On the good side, I have notice that failed attacks result in immediate withdrawal of the remaining units.

[Jaybe]

I have read that missile loading is done in-port (unlike the procedure in Civ3).

--
I have observed how a single cat with a few melee units came up to a city and started reducing the city defense%, instead of waiting for additional cats (which came later). So much time spent allowed the defenders to reduce those melee units with axes. --- Unfortunately, the single-cat user was ME.

My point: occasional meathead moments by the AI should be excused, particularly if they aren't often repeated.

[couerdelion]

Maybe Blake programmed in some “deliberate faults” into the combat routine that only he knew how to trigger.

[vilemerchant]

All this retarded AI behaviour sounds exactly like the game has been ever since 'Better AI' came about in 2.08 Warlords :/

[LordGek]

Re: Strange combat AI behaviour in BtS.

Originally posted by Sir Og
In both games that I played so far I noticed that the AI would send a group (like a pillaging group) of units several tiles into my teritoty but instead of pillaging they would just stop and fortify on a montain or in a forest (without even destroing the road that they sit on).

Somebody posted this behavior on CFC as well...but then ate his words a little while later in the game as he figured out what was REALLY going on. The AI is setting up a forward base to their upcoming invasion! At least some of these seemingly retarded bits of AI are sneaky tactics we've never seen them do before (while, sure, some will just be useless bits of AI idiocy).

[Scrith]

I saw something like what is being described in my long game last night.

Montezuma attacked me with a moderate force on the western edge of our border, which I was able to repel. I noticed that he also put a couple of stacks of armies near one of my cities on the eastern edge of our border, but didn't attack with them (they were sitting 3 or 4 tiles away from my easternmost city). I sensed that he was seriously weakened by this failed attack, and slowly managed to beat him back, and eventually took every one of his cities. But those two stacks of armies that he put on the eastern edge at the start of his attack never moved, even as I was closing in on his eastern-most city (which they were standing a few tiles away from) right before I wiped him out.

[patcon]

Originally posted by Scrith
I saw something like what is being described in my long game last night.

Montezuma attacked me with a moderate force on the western edge of our border, which I was able to repel. I noticed that he also put a couple of stacks of armies near one of my cities on the eastern edge of our border, but didn't attack with them (they were sitting 3 or 4 tiles away from my easternmost city). I sensed that he was seriously weakened by this failed attack, and slowly managed to beat him back, and eventually took every one of his cities. But those two stacks of armies that he put on the eastern edge at the start of his attack never moved, even as I was closing in on his eastern-most city (which they were standing a few tiles away from) right before I wiped him out.

If the goal was to make the AI more human-like maybe they're trying to simulate the human mistake of having a stack of fortified units somewhere and overlooking them in the heat of battle and leaving them on the sidelines. Not that I've ever done that, but I've heard of people sometimes doing it.

[Sir Og]

Last night when I was at war with two civs at the same time I noticed that both civs sent there groups of units (see OP) into my teritory to the same spot on the map. Maybe this is really a rally point. I should probably let them accumulate more units on that rally point and see what they do next.

[ptzvetan]

I receive always good attacks from the AI with large stack of units and I'm surprised to see that they don't keep to many units in cities which are behind the front line. But if I get close they start to fill the cities with unit.
Generally think that the AI is pretty good

[Gibsie]

The AI certainly seems to pillage a lot less. Meanwhile it's just the opposite now we can build Privateers, mine are going across the world destroying loads of fishing boats and liberating the whales.

Does the AI even use Privateers?!

[CreepyD]

Using a great spy, I saw that AI's do build privateers.. it was sat in his port with all his other ships.
An obvious bug.

It's the same in Final Frontier.. they don't use stealth ships (privateer equivalent) at all.

I see this being fixed in a patch.

And yes, much less pillaging. Makes things a lot easier as now they just attack me and die where before at least they did some damage before attacking and dying.

[Common Sensei]

If you send a small stack of Privateers to the coasts of a civ that can only Caravels or worse, the civ builds tons of whatever naval vessels they can, but never actually try to expel the Privateers and stay in port. Montezuma stifled himself by building nothing but Caravels, and eventually had a massive fleet of them, but even with overwhelming numbers, left the stack of three Privateers alone outside of this capital.

[vilemerchant]

You would think since they'd designed the privateer as a new unit just for BtS that somewhere along the line they would have checked that the AI knows how to use it?????