Very sneaky AI sneak attack

[Felch]

Originally posted by UberKruX
since when was trust an issue in world diplomacy?

Joking aside, this has been an issue for players since Civilization II, which forced human players to avoid getting black marks on their reputations if they intended to be able to enter into peace treaties and alliances. The computer is always allowed to bend the rules though.

[Carbon Copy]

Here might be what caused it:

Looking at your ongoing deals screen, it looks like you just made a spice for 22 gpt deal. Look at Xerxes' treasury: only 29 coins in his piggy bank. I may be way off on this (I know I've been sneak-attacked when they perceived one of my cities as weak, like only having a pike in it during modern times, despite being surrounded by cities stocked full of infantry and tanks), but it may be what prompted him to backstab you was a deal that he couldn't (or wouldn't) continue to pay.

[Hurricane]

Good discussion, guys. I agree that my army was too weak (I tried a builder strategy), and I quit shortly after the Persian attack.

In fact, Persia acted very logically (from their point of view). I had earlier been attacked by the English (to the East) and Iroquios (to the South). I couldn´t fight a two-front war, so I had Persia ally with me to fight it out with the Iroquis, while I took care of England. My war with England went smoothly, but I hadn´t expected Persia to be so successful. While I had my entire army busy with England, Persia overran the Iroquois. The Iroquois last city was right next to my South border, and I saw about 10 Knights, 10 Immortals and some Pikemen starting to move against me. They declare war, and the next turn the rest of the world (except Russia) join them. I had a ROP with Japan, and their army was on their way through my territory, so when they declared war they had about a dozen Samurai just beside one of my core cities.

This was on Emperor level, by the way.

[Cookie Monster]

This sort of thing happens to me all the time. It is important to maintain a fairly large army to ensure against an attack. However, this is a balancing act for any builder because the infrastructure takes a hit. The AI will beat the human player at wonder producing as well. The human player is faced with quite a challenge. The classic "guns or butter" decisions are always being made.

One could argue that military production must be a constant part of one's build strategy to ensure the peace. Unfortunately this means the infrastructure and science take a back seat. Hence frequent tech buying/trading is required of the human player to keep up. What do you do however when you have no saltpeter and no one is willing to trade any to you?

[Chronus]

I don't see this as a flaw either. I see this as the beginning of a great chapter in this particular game.

Sorry, Hurricane, but I think by quiting you may have done yourself a diservice. Hang in there the next time . . . it's amazing how good a game can get with things like this happen.

[Spec]

Originally posted by Chronus
I don't see this as a flaw either. I see this as the beginning of a great chapter in this particular game.

Sorry, Hurricane, but I think by quiting you may have done yourself a diservice. Hang in there the next time . . . it's amazing how good a game can get with things like this happen.

He's right. This one time, at band camp.....ummmm...no. This one time I was getting over run by the japaneese and the whole world joined them vs me and the french. (I was Babs) I fought it out for a couple of turns and was losing badly. Then after about 5 turns of getting ripped to pieces I made the other civs joins me vs the Japs for techs and money. The japs died about 25 turns later and I ended up winning the game with a space race win. One of my best games ever.

Spec.

[nbarclay]

After what I've read about the AI's willingness to violate Right of Passage agreements, my general rule is never to sign them. I'd have to be pretty desperate before I'd be willing to make an exception.

One major advantage of not having ROP agreements is that without them, it's a lot safer to strip the interior cities bare of defenders to achieve local superiority on the front lines. The AI always adopts a highly conservative troop mix and deployment strategy, so an offensive-minded troop mix and an aggressive deployment can almost always beat it in the "rock-scissors-paper" game of choosing the right approach to counter an opponent's strategy. If I can achieve local superiority on the front lines early in a war and keep up in the troop-building contest, a higher overall unit count at the beginning of a war won't do the AI a huge amount of good.

Nathan