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  • Dirty tricks

    The way I use the term, a "dirty trick" is an AI exploit that isn't necessarily game-breaking. Put another way, it's those little strategies that we figure out work so well against the computer opponents, but that would rarely (if ever) work in multiplayer.

    In this thread I want to outline the dirty tricks that I've frequently use. I know that all lot of this strategy has been discussed before in other places, but nowhere (that I know of) is there a central collection of these tricks. My hope is that others will post their own dirty tricks so that we all become experts at beating the AI.

    1. The turn before declaring war with another civ, get some of their best techs in exchange for "per turn" deals. For instance, give 250gtp in exchange for Communism, and declare war the next turn. You won't have lost anything, and will have gained another tech. This may not always work if your reputation is already bad.

    This trick works because the AI doesn't know when you're poised to attack, but only your relative military strength.

    2. Sign military alliances to get all your neighbours to go to war, ideally with both sides of roughly equal strength. Do not participate in the fighting, but declare peace with your opponents as soon as possible. This effectively allows you to focus on building up your empire, while the computer opponents are focusing on a difficult war.

    This trick works because the AI has no real concept of "alliance" over and above "being at war with the same civ".

    3. Identify all the strategic and/or luxury resources in a neighbors territory by trading for their Territory/World map. Sign a Right of Passage agreement, and fortify any unit on any resource inside their territory not connected via a road network. Since the other civ's Workers can no longer build roads on that tile, you've denied them a resource. This trick works especially well if you've managed to previously pillage their roads during wartime, potentially denying the civ Iron or Horses (for instance) indefinitely.

    This trick works because the AI doesn't understand that it should have access to resources inside its territory.

    4. Restrict the movement of various friendly units with units of your own. For instance, if a civ sends a Settler to found a city in a location your were planning to claim, send a few Warriors to block its path. With three units you can usually get the AI to "shuffle" back and forth indefinitely, ensuring that the Settler never reaches its destination. Excess units can be used to build an entire fortified wall for blocking purposes, which is more resource-intensive but eliminates the micro-management of moving units back and forth.

    This trick works because the AI has no concept of progress with regard to movement.

    5. During your REX phase, leave small "pockets" of unclaimed land surrounded by a few other cities. The AI will eventually plan to found their own cities in those locations, and you simply let them. Surrounded by the overwhelming cultural influence of the rest of your empire, those cities will eventually flip to your side. The pockets can be chosen to be especially infertile locations which wouldn't be good for the early game. This strategy allows you to cover more ground during the REX phase, possibly denying the AI some nice city sites.

    This trick works becaues the AI cannot determine in advance whether a city is prone to cultural flip.

    6. Similar to #1, sign Mutual Protection Pacts to get the world into heavy war, and watch from the sidelines. Although you do have to commit some forces to the field for your Pact to kick in (by having the enemy attack one of your units or cities), you don't need to have any intention of winning any major battles. Around Communism this is especially useful, as most AI civs switch to Communism in wartime, crippling their economy.

    This trick works because the AI undervalues the negative effects of going to war.

    7. During wartime, use non-combat units to lure enemy forces out into the field. Foreign Workers are especially good for this, but Settler, Explorer and weak military units are subsitutes in a pinch. The AI almost always attacks the easiest target it can reach with its best offensive units. This opens up the possibility of counter-attacks by your own forces. Special care must be taken with enemy units with more than 1 movement point (especialy Cavalry), as they can potentially grab your Worker and retreat in the same turn.

    This trick works because the AI cannot strategically "look ahead" beyond its current turn.

    8. Use a two-pronged attack plan, but scatter your prongs in time (I'll clarify!) Split your attack force into two roughly equal groups. Attack one major target with one group. A few turns later, attack at another locations that is quite distant from the first offensive (boats may be required to get the second force into position). The AI commits most of its military strength in the initial defense ("most" meaning all units other than city defenses). The second offensive should meet little resistance as most of it is busy with the first.

    This trick works because the AI simply overcommits its offensive and defensive units in defense (in other words, it sends everything it has to repel an attacker).


    Whew, thanks for reading! Any additions?


    Dominae
    And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming...

  • #2
    This is similar to number 8:

    In a recent game I had about 8 longbowman to my opponents 8 or 10 and was able to easily defeat them all by stopping a tile away from attack. Their longbowman would move forward and then I would kill them. Sometimes I would lose one but would always have one behind it to take out their original attacker.
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    Comment


    • #3
      Declaration of War Timing

      When sharing a border with your potential enemy, declare war at THE END of your turn!

      This applies when you are superior in strength. Deploy in such a way as to leave an open passageway towards, but not all the way to, a weakly defended city fairly close to the front. Especially if the enemy has rails and any substantial "offensive" troops, he will march into your land with a "Stack of Doom" (SOD, 30 to 90+ units in one stack). This will trigger any MPPs that you have (better they be allied with you than with him). Surround this stack with strong defensive units and entrench. Now use your pre-deployed land and sea invasion forces.

      His SOD is isolated where you can leave them to rot or slowly whittle them down while you take over his country.

      --
      Dominae, your "2. Sign military alliances to get all your neighbours to go to war ... declare peace with your opponents as soon as possible. ..."
      will leave you with a reputation hit unless you wait to declare peace for 20 turns after the alliances are signed. Doesn't invalidate it, but is something to be aware of.

      Comment


      • #4
        "This trick works becaues the AI cannot determine in advance whether a city is prone to cultural flip."

        im not so sure about this with the latest patch. the AI seems to take a lot of his units outside a city that has its borders surrounded by another. my feeling was that the AI is anticipating a reversion. kinda like how human players leave their units outside a newly conquered city sometimes to prevent the loss of all units inside the city.

        Comment


        • #5
          I agree with all you points of "This trick works because the AI ...".
          A sugestion can be sent to firaxis exposing this flaws in AI behavor.
          I fell very bad when I see the AI doing this very stupid actions, and I think is not that hard t implement this kind of behavors.
          Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

          Comment


          • #6
            Nice post, Dominae, but I don't really feel that points 1 and 2 are exploits. They are one-time (OK, maybe two-time if enough time passes) deals. After you ruin your reputation, nobody will easily make per-turn deals (or alliances, for #2) with you, not even civs that you have not (yet) betrayed. This not only diminishes the repeat value of this dirty trick, but it also takes out your ability to export your luxuries.

            I would never risk my reputation just to get Communism, for example, especially if I'm about to go to war and beat Communism out of them for free! (I hope you didn't mean that you wanted to actually switch to Communism before going to war! )

            Comment


            • #7
              This used to work pre-patch, but I consider it a bush-league exploit (meaning that I have not had to use it lately).

              Suppose you have four cities


              A ------------- B



              C ------------ D


              If an very large AI stack is headed for B. You can fortify units in B and expose A with no defense. The stack will shift toward A. On your own road/rail system, you are much faster. So, before they get near A, you can fortify units in A and expose B. They will then shift back. Things get really silly when you lure the stack within the box. Without much trouble, you can keep them going in circles by exposing the cities in turn around the box. That can last forever, or until you build enough units to successfully deal with them. I hope this no longer works, but the AI's choice of "weakest available target" suggests it does.
              Illegitimi Non Carborundum

              Comment


              • #8
                Jaybe, you're right that you'll get a reputation hit if you make peace so soon. You could potentially wait 20 turns, which isn't very long at the beginning of the game (where the trick is most applicable). However, the reputation hit isn't so bad as you'll be planning to lay low for a while anyway, and there will be plenty of time to make friends after the AI civs are finished their stupid war (started by you!).

                alexman, I consider anything an exploit that works against the AI every game (if even just once), but would rarely fool a human opponent. According to that definition, numbers 1 and 2 are "exploits". You could argue that 2 works on people, but not often; a human player isn't likely to sign a Military alliance and switch into a wartime economy just because they're now "at war". And yes, the Communism example is bad, so just replace Communism with a tech that you wouldn't mind getting a reputation hit to obtain (Military Tradition, perhaps!?).


                Dominae
                And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming...

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Dirty tricks

                  Originally posted by Dominae
                  1. The turn before declaring war with another civ, get some of their best techs in exchange for "per turn" deals. For instance, give 250gtp in exchange for Communism, and declare war the next turn. You won't have lost anything, and will have gained another tech. This may not always work if your reputation is already bad.

                  This trick works because the AI doesn't know when you're poised to attack, but only your relative military strength.
                  Not an exploit, as I've had AI civs do it to me!

                  2. Sign military alliances to get all your neighbours to go to war, ideally with both sides of roughly equal strength. Do not participate in the fighting, but declare peace with your opponents as soon as possible. This effectively allows you to focus on building up your empire, while the computer opponents are focusing on a difficult war.

                  This trick works because the AI has no real concept of "alliance" over and above "being at war with the same civ".
                  I dunno... I often have distant civs declare war on me, and never do anything about it. I'm pretty sure that at least some of these "wars" have NOT been due to bankruptcy, so why do the AI civs do it? If it's just to mess me up, including through additional AI civs entering the fray via alliances, then this would not be an exploit.

                  3. Identify all the strategic and/or luxury resources in a neighbors territory by trading for their Territory/World map. Sign a Right of Passage agreement, and fortify any unit on any resource inside their territory not connected via a road network. Since the other civ's Workers can no longer build roads on that tile, you've denied them a resource. This trick works especially well if you've managed to previously pillage their roads during wartime, potentially denying the civ Iron or Horses (for instance) indefinitely.

                  This trick works because the AI doesn't understand that it should have access to resources inside its territory.
                  Exploit for sure.

                  4. Restrict the movement of various friendly units with units of your own. For instance, if a civ sends a Settler to found a city in a location your were planning to claim, send a few Warriors to block its path. With three units you can usually get the AI to "shuffle" back and forth indefinitely, ensuring that the Settler never reaches its destination. Excess units can be used to build an entire fortified wall for blocking purposes, which is more resource-intensive but eliminates the micro-management of moving units back and forth.

                  This trick works because the AI has no concept of progress with regard to movement.
                  Allowable exploit, as the lack of ZOC and the inability to BAR frigging settlers from crossing your land is absurd.

                  5. During your REX phase, leave small "pockets" of unclaimed land surrounded by a few other cities. The AI will eventually plan to found their own cities in those locations, and you simply let them. Surrounded by the overwhelming cultural influence of the rest of your empire, those cities will eventually flip to your side. The pockets can be chosen to be especially infertile locations which wouldn't be good for the early game. This strategy allows you to cover more ground during the REX phase, possibly denying the AI some nice city sites.

                  This trick works becaues the AI cannot determine in advance whether a city is prone to cultural flip.
                  Not an exploit, but a choice. Who says your territory has to grow like The Blob? (Also, you left off doing the same thing but with the intent of militarily taking those towns )

                  6. Similar to #1, sign Mutual Protection Pacts to get the world into heavy war, and watch from the sidelines. Although you do have to commit some forces to the field for your Pact to kick in (by having the enemy attack one of your units or cities), you don't need to have any intention of winning any major battles. Around Communism this is especially useful, as most AI civs switch to Communism in wartime, crippling their economy.

                  This trick works because the AI undervalues the negative effects of going to war.
                  The AI civs do this too.

                  7. During wartime, use non-combat units to lure enemy forces out into the field. Foreign Workers are especially good for this, but Settler, Explorer and weak military units are subsitutes in a pinch. The AI almost always attacks the easiest target it can reach with its best offensive units. This opens up the possibility of counter-attacks by your own forces. Special care must be taken with enemy units with more than 1 movement point (especialy Cavalry), as they can potentially grab your Worker and retreat in the same turn.

                  This trick works because the AI cannot strategically "look ahead" beyond its current turn.
                  Exploit.

                  8. Use a two-pronged attack plan, but scatter your prongs in time (I'll clarify!) Split your attack force into two roughly equal groups. Attack one major target with one group. A few turns later, attack at another locations that is quite distant from the first offensive (boats may be required to get the second force into position). The AI commits most of its military strength in the initial defense ("most" meaning all units other than city defenses). The second offensive should meet little resistance as most of it is busy with the first.

                  This trick works because the AI simply overcommits its offensive and defensive units in defense (in other words, it sends everything it has to repel an attacker).
                  Good strategy.
                  ______________________________

                  Good idea for a thread Dominae.

                  You left out one, though... buying ancient era Workers!

                  :ducks from Arrian:
                  The greatest delight for man is to inflict defeat on his enemies, to drive them before him, to see those dear to them with their faces bathed in tears, to bestride their horses, to crush in his arms their daughters and wives.

                  Duas uncias in puncta mortalis est.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Bah!

                    Ok, since Theseus brought it up (and I knew he would before even opening this thread), I will submit my latest little "trick." I am not entirely convinced it is an exploit, but Theseus thinks so. I offer it up for discussion:

                    Buying AI workers early in the game. They typically cost 25-28 gold a piece. Depending on when you manage to buy them, this can be immensely powerful. First, if boosts your civ, as you have an extra unit of population early (I add them to cities, I do not use them to actually work). Second, it really hampers the development of the civ you got the worker(s) from. It's cheap, and the AI will *always* sell you a worker, regardless of their attitude or your reputation.

                    However, you *do* have to pay for them, and getting them is VERY hit-and-miss, because you can only do it when the AI has a worker sitting in its capitol. Additionally, if you use them instead of adding them to cities, their former owners get mad at you (documented by firaxis that having slaves from another civ will anger them). This can get you into an unwanted war.

                    In the last game I played out, I purchased roughtly 6 workers from the AI in the ancient age. 1 was very early on, and appears to have helped cripple China (they did start in a jungle too). It helped me. The others helped replace the pop points used in my ReX phase. That + excellent starting spot (ask Theseus) = kickass results.

                    So whaddya think? Exploit or not?

                    -Arrian
                    grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

                    The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I'm just giving you grief... I do it too.

                      Speaking of it as a strategy, don;t forget that adding the slave for pop is best done in your capitol.

                      Something just occurred to me; I bought a worker from China too... at what speed does an originally industrious slave work? Has anybody actually ever checked this?
                      The greatest delight for man is to inflict defeat on his enemies, to drive them before him, to see those dear to them with their faces bathed in tears, to bestride their horses, to crush in his arms their daughters and wives.

                      Duas uncias in puncta mortalis est.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Theseus, concerning the Military Alliance and Mutual Protection Pact "tricks" ('exploit' is such a dirty word!), my point is that they're almost always effective in some form or the other in games against the AI. Human opponents will not allow themselves be "used" so easily (and if so, probably have some hidden agenda). Also, the fact that distant civs do not seem to attack may very well just be because they cannot reach their targets. For instance, in AU-106, I was at war with the French for many many years, but their troops were never sighted within 4 tiles of my shores.

                        Arrian, purchasing early Workers is definitely a "dirty trick", so much so that I can't believe I forgot to mention it. 30 Gold each?!? Sure, I'll take those guys off your hands! Although it's tedious, I now check every turn in the trade screen whether an AI civ has Workers for sale. If you make sure that your neighbors are at war, you can buy Workers from friendly civs more frequently, because they fortify Workers in cities when their land is threatened: if their capital is under siege, you can almost always "save" a few Workers.

                        I don't know if this is such an exploit that it needs to be fixed, but I offer two suggestions. Obviously, you could raise the cost of foreign Workers (150-200 Gold seems about right). Also, you could make trading Workers similar to trading resources, in that it is only possible if the two civs' capitals are connected via roads.


                        Dominae
                        And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming...

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Theseus
                          ... at what speed does an originally industrious slave work?
                          At the speed of any other of your captured workers.

                          If you are industrious OTOH, then your captured workers work as fast as one non-industrious non-slave worker.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Here are a couple more:

                            1) Say two AI empires have a mutual-protection-pact. For this example make it America and England. The human player wants to go to war with one of them but realizes that both will make for a nasty war. At whatever cost, make a MPP with one, move troops into the other. When asked to leave refuse. When the human player's troops are attacked the new MPP kicks in overriding the old MPP.

                            2) Here's a nasty one for warmongers: say an empire is nearly defeated but has a few island cities far away from the human player units, or a few hill top cities that will be difficult to take. Make peace demanding these cities. If a player does not care about reputation, he can immediately redeclare war and take the last city. The hit on reputation is the same as going to war after making a gold-per-turn deal.

                            3) The AI is drawn to attack the least defended human city. A human player can exploit this by leaving a city empty. This draws the AI forces to it, but if the city is far away or in the interior, the attack force will not arrive in any reasonable time.
                            - Bill

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Buying workers: deal between consenting adults and not a dirty trick.

                              Buying workers for nearly 30 gold each when relatively new techs go for 80 offered, 72 bid seems to be a bit high, if anything. I don't think this is much of an exploit and, while I do it when I see the opportunity, I would like to see a bit of cost-benefit analysis that both includes the city growth limits and still proves it's highly profitable to the buyer.

                              I agree that the AI does many of the dirty tricks described. They sometimes do sign alliances and then never show up -- even powerful civs. They often sign alliances and then make peace very early. They also dangle bait during combat, hoping you will take it. Favorite bait is the warrior or spearman at the edge of your visual range as bait for the knight, with a stack of longbows waiting out of sight to hit the knight.
                              Illegitimi Non Carborundum

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