Creamed Militarily...on Noble.

10-07-2010, 11:01 AM

I'm far from being good at Civ V, but I've won a few domination victories on Prince and a space victory. I've generally found the AI to be bad at conducting war. Then my last game happened.

I was China, and used a catapult, swordsmen, and 2 cho-ko-nu to conquer Greece early enough on that he had only his capital. I then went to battle with Persia, but I waited too long and we were too evenly matched. So I made peace and conquered a CS to gain the alliance of its rival.

I upgraded a bit and went back to war with Persia. I conquered one city, after which I conquered another CS. At this point I had 4 riflemen, 2 cannons, and 2 artillery as my attacking force. More than enough to conquer the world in my last Prince games, if deployed intelligently.

I made my move on Persia's next city, only to find that Egypt was already in the midst of conquering the same cities I was after. No problem, I'm powerful, I'll take on Egypt too. Big mistake. It seems Egypt somehow had run away with the game, and he came at me with infantry/artillery. I'm not used to being out-teched on Prince. I had a score of ~790. Egypt was over 2,000! The remaining AI's were in the 200-300 range.

Through some decent use of formations, I inflicted heavy losses on Egypt, but he had the largest army I've seen to date in Civ V. Eventually my forces were overwhelmed by Egypt and I threw in the towel.

So what the hell happened? Until I met Egypt, I was having a decent game having conquered a neighbor civ so early. Did the other AIs just suck and/or Egypt got lucky?

ontheleftcoast · 10-07-2010, 11:08 AM

You could've been hit by the "Ruin Nation" problem. It can work to your advantange as well. Basically, on lower difficulty settings, the ancient ruins totally unbalance game play. I've got a game right now on Prince with a Mechanized Infantry in 2100 BCE. And, since it was originally a scout, it can move unimpeded thru forests and over rivers. Game over. The AI now aggressively hunts down ruins. Unlike past Civs where it would get bad things (like enraged Barbarians) it knows that ruins are goodness. I had a game where one of the AI's entered the Classical Era on turn 30 or so in a Marathon game. I had just discovered my first Ancient tech and they're already in the Classical Era. Ouch.

GoldenShadow · 10-07-2010, 12:02 PM

egypt is a power house if left alone to fester. my curret game is the same, but I am fighting on

JK_DC · 10-07-2010, 12:56 PM

I have just discovered Persia on my continent and they are steamrolling the US civ right now on Emperor difficulty. They obviously sailed over from a continent I can't see yet. After I get rid of Nebby, Darius is next to feel Napoleon's wrath.

10-07-2010, 11:01 AM	#1
lestatdl1 Guest Posts: n/a	Creamed Militarily...on Prince. I'm far from being good at Civ V, but I've won a few domination victories on Prince and a space victory. I've generally found the AI to be bad at conducting war. Then my last game happened. I was China, and used a catapult, swordsmen, and 2 cho-ko-nu to conquer Greece early enough on that he had only his capital. I then went to battle with Persia, but I waited too long and we were too evenly matched. So I made peace and conquered a CS to gain the alliance of its rival. I upgraded a bit and went back to war with Persia. I conquered one city, after which I conquered another CS. At this point I had 4 riflemen, 2 cannons, and 2 artillery as my attacking force. More than enough to conquer the world in my last Prince games, if deployed intelligently. I made my move on Persia's next city, only to find that Egypt was already in the midst of conquering the same cities I was after. No problem, I'm powerful, I'll take on Egypt too. Big mistake. It seems Egypt somehow had run away with the game, and he came at me with infantry/artillery. I'm not used to being out-teched on Prince. I had a score of ~790. Egypt was over 2,000! The remaining AI's were in the 200-300 range. Through some decent use of formations, I inflicted heavy losses on Egypt, but he had the largest army I've seen to date in Civ V. Eventually my forces were overwhelmed by Egypt and I threw in the towel. So what the hell happened? Until I met Egypt, I was having a decent game having conquered a neighbor civ so early. Did the other AIs just suck and/or Egypt got lucky? Last edited by lestatdl1: 10-08-2010 at 01:07 PM. Reason: Changed 'Noble' to 'Prince' (I've been playing a lot of Civ IV lately too)

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10-07-2010, 11:08 AM	#2
ontheleftcoast Join Date: Sep 2010 Reputation: 11 Posts: 106	You could've been hit by the "Ruin Nation" problem. It can work to your advantange as well. Basically, on lower difficulty settings, the ancient ruins totally unbalance game play. I've got a game right now on Prince with a Mechanized Infantry in 2100 BCE. And, since it was originally a scout, it can move unimpeded thru forests and over rivers. Game over. The AI now aggressively hunts down ruins. Unlike past Civs where it would get bad things (like enraged Barbarians) it knows that ruins are goodness. I had a game where one of the AI's entered the Classical Era on turn 30 or so in a Marathon game. I had just discovered my first Ancient tech and they're already in the Classical Era. Ouch.

10-07-2010, 12:02 PM	#3
GoldenShadow Join Date: Aug 2004 Reputation: 125 Posts: 1,416	egypt is a power house if left alone to fester. my curret game is the same, but I am fighting on

10-07-2010, 12:56 PM	#4
JK_DC Join Date: Jan 2009 Reputation: 193 Posts: 2,209	I have just discovered Persia on my continent and they are steamrolling the US civ right now on Emperor difficulty. They obviously sailed over from a continent I can't see yet. After I get rid of Nebby, Darius is next to feel Napoleon's wrath.