Stupidest AI moves

[Hooha]

Continuing in the vein of another recent thread, what are some of the absolute stupidest things you've ever seen the AI do.

Yesterday, I was shocked when in my current game, some time in the mid to late 1700s, the announcement flashed on my screen, "Carthaginians have changed government to Despotism." Now, we've all seen the AI do some pretty stupid things, but changing back into despotism? Is there any conceivable reason why this would ever be beneficial? Does the AI just switch governments at random? Has anyone else seen the AI switch to Despotism?

I should probably just put the Carthaginians out of there misery, they've been stuck at 2 cities since I first encountered them sometime in bc. It's a good thing the AI cheats, otherwise, there'd be no point in even playing SP.

[Scouse Gits]

Emperor Hannibal has been reading the Apolyton site - he simply fancied his chances doing the Despotism Challenge.
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SG (2)

[cavebear]

Well, I have a walled city on a hill (mined, too). It is defended by an Archer and a Pikesman. Every 4 turns, the AI throws a Catapault (sometimes a Chariot) or 2 at it. My city exists there only for that purpose (but contributes good trade production and a caravan every 5 turns).

I figure that I have neutralized 1 or 2 AI cities' entire production capacity that way.

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[Sten Sture]

LoL! Despotism - there is an advantageous government form! I have never seen that. BRILLIANT

I can recall a little while back while playing the nomads game, getting killed but not having the game realize I was gone. It kept going, so I opened the map through the cheat menu and watched - I have rarely laughed so hard. One of the civs kept trying to attack a civ in the south by going up and over the north pole. It must have had a fleet of 30 ships pushing the artic icecap around.

One of my favorite things to do recently is get the AI to switch to Republic before they can handle it. It is great to watch a size two city with a fortified archer in it and a settler irrigating the known universe but no net shield production for the entire game - stuck in the middle of building another unit.

[Ken Hinds]

I've seen the despotism thing quite often in MGE, but not as much since I was able to install the patch.

Ken

[Gatekeeper]

Hooha, et al.:

I've seen the switch back to despotism on a few occasions — it's rare, but does happen. As for the dumbest AI move I've ever seen, it was stacking 45 ships on top of each other. I then goaded the AI into declaring war and hit that stack with 4 cruise missiles. Bye-bye, AI navy (most of it, at any rate).

I just LMAO for an hour about that dumb strategic move. If that's the AI's version of a coordinated and supported ampbibious assault, it needs to practice "force dispersion."

That said, has anyone ever seen the AI actually carry out an amphibious assault with marines attacking directly from a transport or galleon? I haven't.

CYBERAmazon

[Scouse Gits]

No, guys, you're missing the point - the AI just wanted to declare war without interference from the Senate!!



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Scouse Git[1]

"CARTAGO DELENDA EST" - Cato the Censor

[poppawoppa]

Is it possible that the AI had more than 3 units homed to their cities? If I recall, in despotism, you get free shieldless support for your troops which number no more than the number of citizens in your city. So if the city size is 6, they could support 6 troops at no shield cost, while in Monarchy it would cost 3 shields, and in Rep or Demo, it would cost 6 support shields. Maybe the AI couldnt build any more troops in the Government mode they were in,...so they went to Despotism.??

[Sabrecat]

Then they should have went into fundamentalism. (my favorite gov )

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SABRECAT

--The man who dies with the most toys is still nonetheless... dead.

[SCG]

quote: Originally posted by poppawoppa on 07-09-2000 01:51 AM Maybe the AI couldnt build any more troops in the Government mode they were in,...so they went to Despotism.??

I've seen the Greeks do that in several different games. And that was my general thought as well. They had quite a few cities, with even more military units, all on a single, midsized island (all off-continent colonies had been conquered, mostly by the zulus). They also were rather primitive compared to the rest of the world and didn't have the fundy advance. not sure anyone did actually, and i tend to build the SoL to keep it away from the AI's. A steady govt is a much better trading partner

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[Ming]

Yeah... now there is a chuckle... The AI and aircraft carriers. I always wondered why the AI never really built or used them... So one day, I gave an aircraft carrier fully loaded with stealth bombers and fighters to another civ I allied with for just this purpose.

On the very next turn, the fully loaded AI carrier cruised right up to another AI's city on the coast, and proceeded to attack... it of course lost and sunk, never having launched a single aircraft

CivIII better have a smarter AI!

[jpk]

Ming:

That's the way the AI uses every cargo ship. Practically every game I play some AI civilization uses a loaded trieme or caraval to attack one of my ships.

[inca911]

In my early days, I saw the AI defeat all defenders in my city, but wouldn't walk in and take it. It would have fortified a unit outside the city instead. Now that's dumb! I guess the AI can't remember what the lack of a flag means.
Nowadays, the AI is lucky if he ever sees a single city of mine with any unit except a caravan! Defense is so much easier when the war isn't being fought on your own home soil.

[debeest]

CYBERamazon, I've been attacked amphibiously by marines several times, and I've come to suspect that they get to ignore both city walls AND coastal fortresses; they certainly seem to succeed too often. Has anyone else had that experience?

[Smash]

Marines are 1 of several units I have never seen the ai use.Granted I don't let the ai get advanced enough.
Having experimented with them myself I say for sure they ignore coastal forts.Since ships ignore city walls I think they do also but I'm not sure.When I did use them it was against muskets so that doesn't tell me a heckuva lot.
A transport of marines with a military ship is deadly for coastal barraging.That way your escort doesn't lose any strength.Also pretty good at capturing those fortresses the ai loves to build.