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I posted this in the strategy and tactics section, but it is buried in a rather long thread. I thought it would be worth posting for the BHG folks to see.
OK. Been playing on Tough the last few days. Right now I'm a little past the 1-hour mark in a 2v2v2v2 game, on Big Huge, Random Map (British Isles is what I ended up with...everyone on their own island). My team is leading by a small bit, but this one is FAR from over. Right now, my ally (BLUE) is holding his own on his home island just fine. He's at Age 6. I'm in Age 8, locked in a battle against GREEN (Age 8) and PURPLE (Age 5). Blue's island is to my west, green is to my east, and purple is to my southeast. Just some observations on the AI in this game:
Something it does VERY VERY poorly
USE OF AIR POWER--GREEN has probably sent over 100 fighters to certain death over my island, but I've yet to see nary a bomber. I have about 20 SAM installations, yet it is continuing to send a fighter every few seconds. Meanwhile, I am locked in a FIERCE battle on his partner (purple's) island, both with Green and Purple. I am using fighters and bombers based on my home island but I've yet to see him send a SINGLE fighter over there to counter. He just keeps sending 'em one-by-one to my home island in a vain attempt to knock down the Statue of Liberty. He DID eventually get some anti-air ships into the mix after a while (see below) to do some damage to my planes, but so far he hasn't used the fighters.
Something it does VERY VERY well
Naval strategy and tactics--From a tactical standpoint, it always seems to send the right counters to the right place (very much different from the way it uses airborne units). Also, once again the AI just about made me wet my pants with a BEAUTIFUL blockade that it pulled off. As I mentioned, we had been fighting fiercely on purple's island. I had taken three cities, and was slowly advancing (mainly because I had complete air superiority since green's fighters were on the Continual Flight of Death over my island). At any rate, the situation was too still too tenuous for me to build more than one of each military building on the coastal city of the new island, so reinforcements were coming via transport. Well, as I was getting the upper hand (haven taken three cities), I got a bit lazy with regard to watching my rear. I had 3 or 4 subs and 3 or 4 battleships stationed off of the coastal city on the new island to provide safe passage for my troop reinforcements. Well, lo and behold, JUST as I had about assimilated that third city, I get the "(FORGOT NAME OF CITY) LOST" message. I look on the mini-map at the coastal city and see green, and I mean LOTS of green, just off the coast. Scrolling up there, Ol' SkyDog sees about 15 green ships of various classes (including some missle boats hitting my planes as they flew to and from their missions finally). They had taken out my small naval security force, and of course, without troop reinforcements, I lost all three cities on that island pretty quickly after that. NICE JOB!!! I'll never get lazy with this AI again. I thought that would be a good point to pause and post this. I'll probably resume that game some time this evening.
Something it can work on
CONFUSION WHEN ATTACKED--When it loses a city or strategic point, it has a tendency to send troops into certain death, often one-by-one. This may be a tough one to fix.
Overall, I'd STILL say that this is the best AI I've seen. Really, if usage of air power can be tweaked, I'll be one happy camper.
OK. Been playing on Tough the last few days. Right now I'm a little past the 1-hour mark in a 2v2v2v2 game, on Big Huge, Random Map (British Isles is what I ended up with...everyone on their own island). My team is leading by a small bit, but this one is FAR from over. Right now, my ally (BLUE) is holding his own on his home island just fine. He's at Age 6. I'm in Age 8, locked in a battle against GREEN (Age 8) and PURPLE (Age 5). Blue's island is to my west, green is to my east, and purple is to my southeast. Just some observations on the AI in this game:
Something it does VERY VERY poorly
USE OF AIR POWER--GREEN has probably sent over 100 fighters to certain death over my island, but I've yet to see nary a bomber. I have about 20 SAM installations, yet it is continuing to send a fighter every few seconds. Meanwhile, I am locked in a FIERCE battle on his partner (purple's) island, both with Green and Purple. I am using fighters and bombers based on my home island but I've yet to see him send a SINGLE fighter over there to counter. He just keeps sending 'em one-by-one to my home island in a vain attempt to knock down the Statue of Liberty. He DID eventually get some anti-air ships into the mix after a while (see below) to do some damage to my planes, but so far he hasn't used the fighters.
Something it does VERY VERY well
Naval strategy and tactics--From a tactical standpoint, it always seems to send the right counters to the right place (very much different from the way it uses airborne units). Also, once again the AI just about made me wet my pants with a BEAUTIFUL blockade that it pulled off. As I mentioned, we had been fighting fiercely on purple's island. I had taken three cities, and was slowly advancing (mainly because I had complete air superiority since green's fighters were on the Continual Flight of Death over my island). At any rate, the situation was too still too tenuous for me to build more than one of each military building on the coastal city of the new island, so reinforcements were coming via transport. Well, as I was getting the upper hand (haven taken three cities), I got a bit lazy with regard to watching my rear. I had 3 or 4 subs and 3 or 4 battleships stationed off of the coastal city on the new island to provide safe passage for my troop reinforcements. Well, lo and behold, JUST as I had about assimilated that third city, I get the "(FORGOT NAME OF CITY) LOST" message. I look on the mini-map at the coastal city and see green, and I mean LOTS of green, just off the coast. Scrolling up there, Ol' SkyDog sees about 15 green ships of various classes (including some missle boats hitting my planes as they flew to and from their missions finally). They had taken out my small naval security force, and of course, without troop reinforcements, I lost all three cities on that island pretty quickly after that. NICE JOB!!! I'll never get lazy with this AI again. I thought that would be a good point to pause and post this. I'll probably resume that game some time this evening.
Something it can work on
CONFUSION WHEN ATTACKED--When it loses a city or strategic point, it has a tendency to send troops into certain death, often one-by-one. This may be a tough one to fix.
Overall, I'd STILL say that this is the best AI I've seen. Really, if usage of air power can be tweaked, I'll be one happy camper.
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