Yesterday, I was shocked when in my current game, some time in the mid to late 1700s, the announcement flashed on my screen, "Carthaginians have changed government to Despotism." Now, we've all seen the AI do some pretty stupid things, but changing back into despotism? Is there any conceivable reason why this would ever be beneficial? Does the AI just switch governments at random? Has anyone else seen the AI switch to Despotism?

I figure that I have neutralized 1 or 2 AI cities' entire production capacity that way.

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Proud participant in GameLeague...

I can recall a little while back while playing the nomads game, getting killed but not having the game realize I was gone. It kept going, so I opened the map through the cheat menu and watched - I have rarely laughed so hard. One of the civs kept trying to attack a civ in the south by going up and over the north pole. It must have had a fleet of 30 ships pushing the artic icecap around.

I've seen the switch back to despotism on a few occasions — it's rare, but does happen. As for the dumbest AI move I've ever seen, it was stacking 45 ships on top of each other. I then goaded the AI into declaring war and hit that stack with 4 cruise missiles. Bye-bye, AI navy (most of it, at any rate).

I just LMAO for an hour about that dumb strategic move. If that's the AI's version of a coordinated and supported ampbibious assault, it needs to practice "force dispersion."

That said, has anyone ever seen the AI actually carry out an amphibious assault with marines attacking directly from a transport or galleon? I haven't.

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Scouse Git[1]

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SABRECAT

quote: Originally posted by poppawoppa on 07-09-2000 01:51 AM Maybe the AI couldnt build any more troops in the Government mode they were in,...so they went to Despotism.??

I've seen the Greeks do that in several different games. And that was my general thought as well. They had quite a few cities, with even more military units, all on a single, midsized island (all off-continent colonies had been conquered, mostly by the zulus). They also were rather primitive compared to the rest of the world and didn't have the fundy advance. not sure anyone did actually, and i tend to build the SoL to keep it away from the AI's. A steady govt is a much better trading partner

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As your elected chieftain, I pledge to expand our tribe's power and influence so that we may become rulers of the region, and I, your warlord.

quote: Originally posted by CYBERAmazon on 07-08-2000 02:05 AM Hooha, et al.: That said, has anyone ever seen the AI actually carry out an amphibious assault with marines attacking directly from a transport or galleon? I haven't. CYBERAmazon

Yes, not often, but sometimes. As far as I can recall, it was the Russians once. It wasn´t part of a well-planned, big, coordinated assault, though .

Thanks for the confirmation. I sort of suspected it was a rare event in the first place — much like the AI using aircraft carriers (has that *ever* happened?) — but your observations cement my own.

On the very next turn, the fully loaded AI carrier cruised right up to another AI's city on the coast, and proceeded to attack... it of course lost and sunk, never having launched a single aircraft

quote: Originally posted by jpk on 07-21-2000 12:55 PM I am currently playing a game where I traded Philosophy for AI technologies. The first AI civilization (Spanish) to get Literacy got it while I was researching Metallurgy. Immediately three Spanish cities started to build the Great Library. Amidst great fanfare it was finished several turns after I discovered Electricity. Even better than a 300 shield settler.

I've got a game where the AI building the Great Library _chose_ to research electricity they beat me there too :P not one discovery from it. (It might have helped that the GL was the only wonder available at the time)

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April Cantor: Sire, in order to expand further we must first gain favor of the King

SCG: darn, I've never really got the hang of that tribute thing, guess it will be a long time until i make prince

quote: Originally posted by Smash on 07-18-2000 11:54 PM Marines are 1 of several units I have never seen the ai use.Granted I don't let the ai get advanced enough. Having experimented with them myself I say for sure they ignore coastal forts.Since ships ignore city walls I think they do also but I'm not sure.When I did use them it was against muskets so that doesn't tell me a heckuva lot. A transport of marines with a military ship is deadly for coastal barraging.That way your escort doesn't lose any strength.Also pretty good at capturing those fortresses the ai loves to build.

I have seen the AI use marines quite often, against other AI civs more than myself. I think Marines do ignore city walls. I have just taken 4 large, walled Zulu coastal cities, by chucking a load of Marines at them, taking the city, and then loading the boat up and moving down the coast. I have defeated vet alpine troops quite easily with the Marines, so I think the walls are ignored. Coastal fortresses do protect against marines, I think.

I have a new dumbest move (apart from the obvious deployment of cannon stacks etc in the field without any defensive units) - AI Civs that don't expand!!

Playing at deity, my current group of opponents have totally failed to expand at all. Five of them, and me, were all on one large continent. By 1850, the Zulus had reached about 15 cities, everybody else around 10. They had failed to find several large juicy continents not far from their shores, and had even let the barbarians keep a city going up to size 8 that they caputred in about 3000BC. The Greeks were stuck on a separate large island with about 17 cities, but even with Lighthouse they had made no progress.

They're not even making a game of it! They have not built a wonder since Copernicus, apart from starting suffrage two turns before i finished it. I have stopped building city defences, except for resistance to barbarians.