AI aggressiveness in PtW

[vulture]

I seem to remember that the consensus here was that the AI is more aggressive in PtW that in normal Civ3. Since I've recently acquired PtW , I've just started my first game. Thought I'd give the Ottomans a run out, since they have good traits (Industrious, Scientific) and a rather mean UU (8 attack cavalry!). (I've never managed to play with all the civs in the original version yet... still never been French, English, American or Zulu IIRC).

The game: 8 civs, standard map, standard rules. I'm sharing a continent with Germany (very aggressive), the Mongols (ditto), the Arabs (pretty aggressive), Spain (normal) and the Babylonians (can't remember their aggression setting). Emperor level, so they're not about to roll over and die just yet.

To date, half way through the middle ages, I have had exactly 0 battles. I was involved in a war for a while, with 4 other civs allied against me (all except Germany), but they were obviously just going through the motions as well, and didn't really have their hearts in it. I have had more ultimatums that previously, 6 to be precise. 2 I caved in to, since they were from the Germans, who are right next to me and have a larger army. The other 4 I told to get stuffed, and only 1 out of 4 declared war on me (which spawned the 'world war' above). This is a lot more forgiving than I'd been led to expect from the AI, especially with this bunch of civs cluttering up my continent.

I was somewhat surprised to be able to get to #1 in territory without having to fight any battles though. That's got to be a first, as has beating Germany to the Iron source 8 tiles from their capitol and 20 from mine.

Looking forward to getting military tradition though. I think my non-combatant status will come to an end then

[CerberusIV]

Wipe one of the AI civs out. That will wake up the others.

[jshelr]

What I think you will find is that you can go peaceful in the industrial era and the AIs will implode from overly aggressive warmaking while you float out to a winning tech lead. That was always the case: now it seems more so, or that's what we imagine.

[Theseus]

There are a bunch of other factors that affect AI aggressiveness in a given game, including especially OCN, relative military strength, and 'environment' (Soren's word... I've taken that to mean the scale of warfare).

Try AU 203 for a dose of AI aggression.

[wilbill]

I think I'd characterize the PTW AI not so much as "more agressive" but as "smarter" about warfare. When an AI starts a war with me, I'm more likely get a decent fight out of them than in Civ 3.
The agressive, warlike civs are still agressive and warlike. The more docile civs still aren't as likely to pick a fight.

[DAVOUT]

Originally posted by wilbill
I think I'd characterize the PTW AI not so much as "more agressive" but as "smarter" about warfare. When an AI starts a war with me, I'm more likely get a decent fight out of them than in Civ 3.

Smarter than dumb ... Not really impressive

In my current game (Regent) where I am Spain, in 900 BC Japan with 3 cities declares war with absolutely no military units except the one who refused to leave my territory. They loose 2 cities, one destroyed and one conquered (their capital).
Immediately Persia declares war and attack with ONE Immortal ! Their second offensive was made by 2 warriors and two archers, against swordsmen on mountains ! They loose 3 cities, including Persepolis and the Great Library.

But if their early offensives are poorly decided and conducted, it is possible that their defence of cities is slightly better than in Civ 3.

[joncnunn]

France & India is just as non-agressive in PTW as in the classic Civ III.

The main difference is that most of the new PTW civs are war-monglers; and so if your picking 7 random AI civs in PTW, you are much more likely to have agressive oppoents than in Classic Civ III.