impressed with the AI

[anteos]

I finished a game yesterday, where the computer beat me, and it was only on the second level of difficulty.

After fending of various combined attacks, by various AI's, I still had a tech lead, but not the strategic resource rubber. I lead an attack against the aztecs, captured a city near the resource and proceeded to build tanks and infantry men.

I then made the mistake of consolidating and not finishing off the aztecs. They declared war, captured the strategic resource and used air attacks to destroy the city by the resource. Without the strategic resource I was finished. Excellent play by the computer.

Once thing I didn't understand, in on e city I had four bombers and three fighters on air superiority. The city was bombarded and the next round I had no air power? Was that cause by a massive airstrike?

[Cookie Monster]

Re: impressed with the AI

Originally posted by anteos
Once thing I didn't understand, in on e city I had four bombers and three fighters on air superiority. The city was bombarded and the next round I had no air power? Was that cause by a massive airstrike?

I don't think bombers can be put on air superiority missions so they were sitting ducks. The reason why your fighters (I'm assuming non jet fighters) didn't intercept is because they have a low percentage chance of intercepting. All the aircraft were bombed by your enemy since aircraft bombing is lethal now in C3C thus the reason why you had no air power in that city. Place some flak units in there as backup and that should help you.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Nonetheless it is excellent to hear of such AI behaviour.

[Theseus]

Re: impressed with the AI

Originally posted by anteos
They declared war, captured the strategic resource and used air attacks to destroy the city by the resource. Without the strategic resource I was finished. Excellent play by the computer.

Can you be a but more specific? Did the Aztecs bomb the resource first? Did you have units on that tile? What do you mean by "used air attacks to destroy the city by the resource"?

Thanks.

[Jeem]

The AI has always been pretty good at bombing runs actually. It seems to treat resources as the main threat and will then try to cut off the city by bombing the road network around it.

It's the same with coastal bombardment - the AI will always go for those coastal luxuries when it can. Removing the players luxuries is one of the main tactics the AI uses, whether by ground, sea or air. If you notice when at war with another civ, you will usually find them sending a spearman through your lands, hugging the most defensible terrain until they get close to a resource. This forces the player to send a few units after it to destroy it before it can pillage the road and resource.

[Jeem]

Re: impressed with the AI

Originally posted by anteos
Once thing I didn't understand, in one city I had four bombers and three fighters on air superiority. The city was bombarded and the next round I had no air power? Was that cause by a massive airstrike?

Air superiority can happen too quickly on some PC's that you don't notice what has happened.

In this case, the AI probably sent in a shedload of bombers, and your fighters probably shot a lot of them down. However, fighters have hp the same as normal units, and usually they'll take a few points of damage when knocking out a bomber. If the AI sends in enough bombers, the fighters will eventually lose all their hp's and be destroyed, leaving further bomber attacks to lay waste to your city and ground units.

[vmxa1]

I just had a move I had not seen before from the AI. There was a long thin strand of land that had some furs and some resources.
No one was going to be getting there real soon, but the AI put a spear on the only tile to the piece of land and one more behind it. So even if someone (barbs) got the first one the block was still good. I thought that was pretty clever of the AI.

[dexters]

That's an interesting move. Do you have a screenshot? I'd like to have it for my own collection.

I really wish Firaxis would set up a system that allows them to update the AI indefinately, feed them new moves etc. heh.

[Antrine]

QUOTE//I really wish Firaxis would set up a system that allows them to update the AI indefinately, feed them new moves etc. heh.//QUOTE by dexters.

You mean, I wish Firaxis would set up the 'editor' that allows 'modders' (players playing god) to update the AI indefinately, feeding them new moves etc.

[dexters]

lol :P I was thinking something along the lines of an autopatcher that allows them patch small things or upload new moves, and close exploits without having to call up Atari Q&A and I'm sure arrange the funding neccessary to do another patch.

I'm really grateful that Firaxis has essentially been working on Civ3 since 2001, and if we all bough the two expansions, we've been getting upgraded AI in each patch.

What would be neat though is if small fixes can be done as they come up and not have to wait, 2, 3, 4 months for a fix that may or may not make it into the patch.

Continuing support is really what is needed to fight piracy as well and give value to people who actually bought the game.

[PrinceBimz]

Re: impressed with the AI

Originally posted by anteos
I finished a game yesterday, where the computer beat me, and it was only on the second level of difficulty.

After fending of various combined attacks, by various AI's, I still had a tech lead, but not the strategic resource rubber. I lead an attack against the aztecs, captured a city near the resource and proceeded to build tanks and infantry men.

I then made the mistake of consolidating and not finishing off the aztecs. They declared war, captured the strategic resource and used air attacks to destroy the city by the resource. Without the strategic resource I was finished. Excellent play by the computer.

Once thing I didn't understand, in on e city I had four bombers and three fighters on air superiority. The city was bombarded and the next round I had no air power? Was that cause by a massive airstrike?

Those bombers can be a pain in the butt. It is possible that your fighters may not have been able to intercept a few times and got caught on the ground. This is when the bombers can destroy them. It seems with the lethal bombardment, if a fighter is not able to intercept it is just a target on the ground. Also it is possible the AI may have outnumbered you with several bombers and eventually even your intercepting fighters got shot down. You probably needed a few more fighters running air superiority there. In the end, fighters are of course the best defense against air attacks, also flak cannons can help out too.

[vmxa1]

Ah man I wish I had a save, but I deleted my BC era save and I don't use autosave.

[anteos]

The city with the resource was isolated from my empire. So it had quite a few defensive units, artillery and an airport.

The AI moved units onto the resouce and destroyed the road on the tile. So I was unable to make any more tanks. At this point I moved a squadron of tanks from my empire, which would take four turns to arrive at the city. I also relocated four bombers and three fighters to bolster the city. I used the artillery to bombard any enemy units within range.

Because I had no rubber, I was unable to build infantry, so I had to make do with riflemen, bad idea.

The AI then bombarded the city by air, destroyed my bombers and fighters. It also bombed the relief column of tanks. After a few turns of that, it moved in a large force of tanks and took the city.

It was quite a smart campaign by the AI, and it caught me on the hop

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by anteos
It was quite a smart campaign by the AI, and it caught me on the hop

Yeah that's the great thing about conquests. All the old strategies have to be modified or discarded altogether. Many things are different. gotto love it.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Ah man I wish I had a save, but I deleted my BC era save and I don't use autosave.

Why not, vmxa? I have found many uses for my old saves as screenshots.