pls shed some light on these

[ryang57]

1/ Calvary AI defense

I play on monarch and it seems the calvary AI defense is way too high. As much as 50% will one of my calvary die to a AI calvary when I attack or get taken down to one HP and just scrape thru as the victor. It just feels out of whack, and is very annoying.

2/ Right of passage agreements

The AI will make ROP with any other AI they are not at war with, but to make one with me I need to be at war with a like civ or they want way too much just to start a ROP. Eg. There is a civ who keeps sending their units thru my borders cos there is a civ they are fighting on the other side. I offer them ROP, but they want a thousand things in return, and they are getting the better deal already. As I am sick of having to demand withdrawal every single turn!!

3/ Trading workers

What is the rule for this? I have determined that you need the worker in your cities doing nothing to show up for trading, but this is not always the case. I have had lots of workers in my cities, mine and captured ones, but there seems to be no pattern to them showing up in the trade screen!!!

4/ Captured workers (0 gold)

Look in the military adviser. What does the gold bit mean?? Featured not implemented? The gold never changes from '0 gold' and I do not know what it means anyway.

5/ Deposed cities

It was said that 1.17f patch was supposed to stop deposed cities when you had over 6 units in them. I lost 3 whole armies because of this. So does 6 units stop this? Or just dramatically reduce. Ie is their still a chance of culture flipping with 3 armies garrisoned?

6/ Governors

OK. I realise the control happines ones are the only thing that seems to work to good effect. BUT something I find very annoying. Because maximise production don't work as it should (or maybe because Firaxis have different ideas of how it should work cos they said it was not broken) I turn it off when my city reaches pop 12 without a hospital cos I have surplus food and want to maximise production. Why does turning off 1 governor (this might only be for your capital I think) override the 'use this governor for all new cities' flag!!!??? It is annoying because I forget to then turn on the governor when I capture a new city and it ends up revolting. If I have 'use this governor for all new cities' flag selected it should stay in effect when I turn off a governor for one selected city (I only know this happens for your capital as that is the city I usually govern myself).

7/ Leaders

Is there a rule that warriors cannot become leaders? Is this to stop leaders developing to early in the game? I have had some elite warriors who have won countless battles and never seen one become a leader. However, if this unit was a swordsman I have no doubt it would have become a leader.

8/ Trading luxuries

OK I understand we all know that the AI wants everything and the kitchen sink for whatever you want, but....

Get rid of this dumb rule where they are more than happy to trade one luxury for one of your luxuries for 20 turns. But after the 20 turn expiry they want more and more. If they are happy to trade right from the start why should you have to give them double the next time the trade expires?? Its not like they are losing out of the trade. In fact, the AI should be trying to keep a trade going with someone who has honoured that trade for so long.

[Aeson]

1. The random number generator is no respector of units. It all has to do with A/D values and terrain/fortification modifiers. Sounds like you've just been unlucky.

2. The value of a ROP is variable. If you have a small amount of land to cross, then the AI won't pay as much (or will ask for more). Also the more agreements you break, the more expensive ROP's will become to sign. Military strength and the AI's demeanor also affect the prices.

3. You can only trade workers in your capitol.

4. I think at a certain point, captured workers need to be paid. I've heard that it's 4x the number of cities you have, but have never seen it in my games.

5. Armies only count as one unit, no matter how many units are in the army. Depending on the culture that had been built up in the city, you may need a large number of units to keep a city from flipping. Just what the number is in regards to culture rating and foreign population hasn't been specified by Firaxis AFAIK.

6. This might be because of the "capitol governor is default for new cities" option in preferences. Changing the capitol governor will change the default governor with this selected.

7. I very rarely attack with Warriors. It is possible to get leaders from Jag Warriors, and I would assume that the chance is the same no matter what unit wins its fight. Again, it's just luck.

8. The AI judges the value of luxuries based on the number of happy faces that it would create in your Civ. If you have 100 cities with marketplaces, and 5 luxuries already, then that luxury will be creating hundreds of happy faces. If you only have a few cities and no luxuries, its a lot less. When trading luxuries, if you have more cities than the AI, you will probably have to pay an arm and a leg for the deal to work.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Aeson
Depending on the culture that had been built up in the city, you may need a large number of units to keep a city from flipping. Just what the number is in regards to culture rating and foreign population hasn't been specified by Firaxis AFAIK.

Soren sort of answered that question, and mentioned something like a 2 to 1 ratio. Two defenders for every citizen, roughly. It would probably be a good idea to have a couple more on top of that as well, just to be safe.

[Txurce]

Re #7: I've noticed that when the AI cancels a luxury-for-luxury deal after twenty turns, I can usually get about the same deal if I ask the AI what it will now offer for my luxury, rather than the other way around.

[Salvor]

It's hard to add to the great job Aeson did of answering these, but here's a couple tidbits I've picked up here and there:

1. Perception is one part, paying attention to defensive bonuses is another. A unit with 6 attack vs. a defender with 3 defense is not always a 2:1 advantage. Things like terrain, forification, rivers, and city/fortress defense modifiers are ALWAYS in the defender's advantage.

2. Don't break deals or you may regret it later. Also, you can set up border patrols to block or funnel his movements. But this can take a lot of troops and/or micromanagement, so if simply opening up a dialog to tell him to leave is too much for you, this is probably also not an option you'd be too happy with.

5. It's never been stated unambiguously, but it's been hinted that as long as you have one garrison unit (armies count as 1) for each foreign national plus one for each of the 20 workable squares that are in foreign-controlled territory, your city can never flip. With less than that you can greatly reduce the likelihood by keeping out of civil disorder, keeping WLTKD's going, having higher culture than your neighbor, and it's also less likely if the city is closer to your capitol (FP's don't count for this) than your neighbor's capitol.

7. You can never get a GL by attacking barbarians. Since warriors and barbarians are both prevalent only in the early stages of the game, they fight each other a lot, which is why it seems that warriors are so much less likely to generate GL's.

8. If you want to, you can also renegotiate trade agreements after 20 turns to try and get a better deal. This works well if your trade partner is expanding (making the luxury you're selling more valuable) and is experiencing prosperity (so he can afford to spend more for it).

[Hurricane]

About ROPs: if you have never broken a treaty and never started a war, the AI will pay HIS arm and leg for a ROP. This can give you a lot of money in the early game. I think the AI sees this as a deal that you won´t attack them for 20 turns, and since the AI wants to expand and thus be militarliy weak, they will happily pay to be able to expand safely.

However, many players start wars early in the game, and the AI never forgets a broken treaty. They think you want the ROP just to be able to move your forces next to your target. This is the probable reason why they want lots of you for the ROP.

[GeneralTacticus]

I'm not actually sure what influences the AI. I do know that if anyone (human or AI) breaks a ROP or refuses a demand for withdrawl, then the other Civs all immediately cancel their ROPs and won't sign any more. However, sometimes the AI will pay a lot when they don't really need it.
E.g. in the game I'm in as the Germans on Regent, I managed to get the French to pay something like 100 gold (out of around 250) for a ROP that benefited me more than them.

[ryang57]

Thanks Aeson (and others). That pretty much answered my questions. Tho I swear there is something weird going of with AI calvary in my games--hair pulling stuff--and I know all about defensive bonus etc....just that when I attack another calvary on even playing field, my calvary seems to die more often than not...