AI annoyed by Privateers?

[SanPellegrino]

In my current game I attacked an american caravel with a privateer (the first time I found a use for them) and their attitude went from polite to annoyed.

I thought they "can attack without revealing their nationality"? Anybody used them? Seems most people never have built any.

[Sean]

I often build a couple just for "annoyance" value, and scoping out enemy territorary. I haven't experienced--to my knowledge--the situation described.

[Smitty258]

In my games I have found privaterrs to be worthless. They barely have enough attack to take on a Galley with any success. Maybe I should tweak it in the editor to make it a bit more formitable for the time when you get it.

[bongo]

I have found two uses for them. Apart from attacking undefended transport(which is BTW historically correct) I build them in fully developed ports and disband them elsewhere to speed up production there.

[The Pioneer]

Well, I do build Privateers for the harassment value. I send them in opposite directions kind of like a sea scout but then when I encounter enemy transports I atteck them. The privateers concept was great in the Colonization game where you could actually profit from attck by being able to steal what was in the transports.


So long...

[Mattaba]

I once had in a game some time ago that the germans declared war on me, I reloaded, i wanted to know why, because I was stronger.
After some tests they kept declaring war on me, I tested again and removed my privateer from their territory and suddenly they don't declare war, so the AI even knows that it's your privateer, which it shouldn't be able to see, another AI cheat.

[WarpStorm]

What I do is use them to block harbor access of my 'friends'. If you have a ROP, build privateers and stack them with a warship of yours. The privateers will block the ports and they won't be attacked because they are stacked with your units.

[SpencerH]

Privateers, along with all navies, are a waste of time in almost all of my games. Whats the point? IMO its an area where CIV3 really falls short.

[bongo]

SpencerH : I disagree, navies can be very useful. I have even seen the AI use them in an intelligent manner

[miccofl]

The AI knows! And if you think it gets upset when you use a privateer, wait until you start sinking it's Privateers. It is going to be interesting to see the reactions of the human players in PTW - the AI knows but the humans won't.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by bongo
SpencerH : I disagree, navies can be very useful. I have even seen the AI use them in an intelligent manner

I've seen the AI effectively use navies for bombardment and I've used them for the same thing (in maybe 1 in 20 games). Usually I dont build anything beyond a few galleys unless an enemy is using a navy against me. By the time you have arty and a rail network even the bombardment function of a navy is worthless.

The point is that the major function of a navy is not bombardment of roads and irrigation.

[Arrian]

SanPelligrino,

I'm not sure what the AI knows. Last night, I built a largish privateer fleet (20 or so). Early on, I sank 1 or 2 Zulu ships. A couple of turns after that, they attacked me. Granted, they were "furious" with me, and had been nearly the entire game. So the attack may have happened anyway.

Later, after I removed 1/2 of the Zulu empire, my privateers began butchering the English navy, and shortly thereafter, the English attacked me. They had been "annoyed" after having been "polite" for most of the game.

Who knows? I probably would have been attacked anyway, but I admit being a bit suspicious.

-Arrian

[bongo]

SpencerH : I don't bother building large navies myself either until the AI navies becomes a major pain in the ass. Which BTW happens alot. Sure, artillery and a good rail/road network will scare them off a bit but I rather build that navy than run all over the place with workers to rebuild everything the AI have destroyed.

Oh, if your planning an invasion of another continent/island a navy can be handy for protecting those transports.

[The Pioneer]

I agree with SpencerH on this one, although it depends on the kind of map you're playing on. On archipelago you definitely need them, where if you play pangea you can do without. It's still fun to play around with the navy though!


So long...

[SpencerH]

As I said, I dont see it very often but that may have to do with my map choice (usually random). I usually keep 20-30 arty anyway so they can take down any invasion fleet to 1 HP then whatever few ships I build quickly (including ironclads) can take em out.