AI in troll mode

[Aegrim]

2 weird things i've noticed during my Prince level slower game, 1 the arabians have put their first 7 cities in one long line straight towards the germans which looks very odd, and the other is Germany twice placing cities well away from it's own, bang smack in the middle of mine.

First time i'd built 3 cities, and they were all joined with the roads all connecting 2 hex out from london. German comes across the entire continent and sticks it's second city bang on the hex where all the roads meet. Instantly declare war after i'd warned them not to place a city near me.

It's now 335 turns in and they've gone and stuck another city bang where my roads meet for 2 of my newer cities, and it's not even that close to theirs, i'm even planning on sticking another city between mine and where most of their cities are because there's a sizable gap.

Anybody else noticed something similar?

Also, why does the AI not spread outwards from it's initial city, and instead just flies off in odd directions usually leading them into conflict with others?

[pdxsean]

Are they placing their cities near valuable resources? This seems the most likely reason. Or perhaps Germany just doesn't have any valuable land near their capital (lots of tundra for example) and you're in a better spot.

Unfortunately there are a ton of possible variables that don't really allow a proper answer to your question. For example, what is the map size, map type, how many opponents do you have. All of these could factor into the answer along with lots of other possibilities.

Regardless, I've never run into this situation, either with the linear expansion or the mixed-in expansion as you've described. Expanding in V is different than in IV, there's no need to "fill in the gaps" like you would previously, and going for the best land should be a much higher priority than placing your cities close together.

[jnh140]

I get trolled all the time.

They like to call me their favorite little city state.

bullies.

[sowings]

The two fun AI trolls I've seen are "Please don't expand near us." "Ok." Then later, as another Civ is bombing the one you played nice with into the Stone Age, as their capital moves from city to city, Civ 1 says "You suck for settling near us when you said you wouldn't!"

The second is as a Civ is busy rolling downhill, making itself the largest snowball by snapping up smaller civs and city-states, I take over *one* city state in search of a luxury resource (Pokemon, collect-em-all style), they give me the "tsk tsk" treatment, calling me a warmonger. Foo.

[Wyrda Edocsil]

2 weird things i've noticed during my Prince level slower game, 1 the arabians have put their first 7 cities in one long line straight towards the germans which looks very odd, and the other is Germany twice placing cities well away from it's own, bang smack in the middle of mine.

First time i'd built 3 cities, and they were all joined with the roads all connecting 2 hex out from london. German comes across the entire continent and sticks it's second city bang on the hex where all the roads meet. Instantly declare war after i'd warned them not to place a city near me.

It's now 335 turns in and they've gone and stuck another city bang where my roads meet for 2 of my newer cities, and it's not even that close to theirs, i'm even planning on sticking another city between mine and where most of their cities are because there's a sizable gap.

Anybody else noticed something similar?

Also, why does the AI not spread outwards from it's initial city, and instead just flies off in odd directions usually leading them into conflict with others?

The AI does this a lot when it's preparing to attack. It's one of the few good strategies that the AI uses. It cuts off you trade routes, so you make less gold. There's no distance penalty, so why shouldn't the AI do this? I generally settle a good distance from my capital, where there are better resources and terrain, unless doing so will anger a powerful AI before I'm ready to attack them.

[John-SJ]

The way the Germans were breading up your string of cities, sounds more like a 'Go' strategy. And maybe the goal was the same.

[Aegrim]

Largest map size, 2nd slowest mode, cool, and either normal or dry. Resources default. Prince difficulty.

Both times i declared war on them, although the first time i took their new settlement with just 1 unit. 2nd time i steam rolled it with an army.

I'm generally not very good at raising armies in civ5, struggle to make enough money to support them. So i'm often seen as weak by the AI, but it's alot easier to defend on this civ.