CIV3 Combat - Combined Operatios?

[exeter0]

AsI guess everyone knows... when you first go to war with an AI Civ for the first fiew turns of the war they throw everything at you.

But has anyone seen them do (as I'm sure we all do)... firstly weeken our defenses with barrages of cannon/artillery/bombers and then bring in the hordes?

Unfortunately in my battles the AI is no challenge because although they may have a huge stack of units... if they come up against 2 fortified infantry then they will not attack... rather they keep moving & scratching around to find some undefended route. Of course I just keep blocking and taking pot-shots at their stacks with barrages and timed assaults.

Has anybody seen the AI exhibit more tactical grit than this?

[Theseus]

No, I think that's one of the last things in the military AI that Soren has to deal with.

Switching on offense for certain defensive units was smart, but the AI is still underplaying arty and Knights / Cav. I haven't gotten to massive Tank battles yet post-1.21, although I am almost there.

I have yet to see a massive arty barrage from the AI... mostly sporadic resource denial.

[notyoueither]

I've seen very inept peformances from the AI, and I've seen very good performances from the AI.

One good one was probably a matter of luck. An AI at the other end of the continent delcared war on me. Eventually, a swack load of Cavalry showed up and destroyed my best armies. I think it was luck due to the 9 tile movement of Cavalry on roads. All the AIs Cavalry started out for me. Anything within 9 tiles of his frontier piled up in a 2 or 3 tile column which eventually found its way to me.

Another good one was a very determined defence of a home continent by an AI. I would gather that due to the size of it's forces it always had enough 'spare' to engage my units in the field after I invaded. The short coming is that it had enough to totally toss me out of my beach head, but never did.

In both cases the AI offensive units hunted down and engaged my own stacks. In the first example, the AI Cavalry destroyed an Army of about 4 Riflemen, 8 Cavalry and 8 Canon in a city on our first contact. In the second example the AI directly engaged stacks of up to 8 units, but as I said stayed away from the beach head after the first turn.

[exeter0]

It's like playing your 8 year old daughter in Chess...

Originally posted by Theseus
No, I think that's one of the last things in the military AI that Soren has to deal with.

Your right about that! I don;t think much has to be done... a few more linear tactics need to be programmed in.

To be honest I don't think the AI (Military!) model in CIV3 is that hard... it is very linear... let's face it there are only small number of tactics that can be employed.

It's not like a game like Close Combat where the AI must manage a uit of soldiers to use Hedgegrows & building for cover... wait for a bazooka team to arrive to knock out that Panther tank etc. etc.

[Metaliturtle]

The AI is better at attacking, the worse you are defended, so put guys on your border, and the AI will fart around, attacking Mech infantry on mountains etc.

[Theseus]

Yes, it's on the edge of being an exploit...

I just wish the AI would do the common-sensical stuff that us humans do... arty barrage, use of offense in force, kill zones, maintain the high ground, etc.

If I understand Firaxian culture and hirearchy:

Dan, I will buy you beer and sombreros, IF,
Jeff, you will commit to additional AI patches, regardless of the XP, AND,
Soren and Mike will make sure combat is further balanced and tested.

Outside of that, I do believe that full scenario and mod support is coming, and one way or the other Civ3 will "be all that it can be."

[Txurce]

I played a game recently where I controlled my continent, and Japan controlled theirs. We had three wars that were mainly naval. I normally ignore naval attacks, just fixing the damage with otherwise-unemployed workers; this time, though, I cranked out a ton of battleships. My plan? Didn't have one, AI-style. The Japs built some battleships as well, but also had lots of subs and bombers. They used these in tandem to all but wipe out my ships whenever they got near their mainland. In a nutshell, the normal human and AI roles were reversed. I was pretty impressed.

On the other hand, I just wiped out the French in a different game. They had a settler left, and planted a new capital in foreign territory, thus promptly having war declared against them. What did they decide to build first?

Newton's.