The Ultimate Turtle / Strategic AI Test

Let us know if they manage it.

 I have tried that, but only with 2 cities... the only thing the AI did was cast Volcano over and over again.. slowly trying destroying those cities. Not once did any of them use Lower Land or teleport to get inside the mountain range surrounding my cities. Same thing happened when I surrounded my empire with water.

I wounder if you left a path in the middle one tile wide if the ai would jsut suiciide units into it.

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Yes they definitely would.

 I did test that, and yes, they came to me to be slaughtered like lemmings. Of course... on ridic I can't really claim that a Demon or Dragon is trully a lemming, but regardless, they died & my only casualties were a few expendable Elite troops. One other point; I don't remember which factions did this, but at that point of the game 6 factions remained, and only 2 of those actually sent troops to attack me via that path, the other 4 just walked around aimlessly along the southern reaches of my mountain wall. I think that this was probably caused by the ZoC of those empires & kingdoms I was at war with not having made that Non Agression pact to allow their troops to move through those ZoC to get at me. I will point out as well that I was at war with every faction in that game for a very long time; it did appear to me though that the AI were not attacking each other at all by that point in the game. They all seemed to want to eradicate me from the face of the world.

 However, during those battles if the AI had 1st turn in tactical combat, and if that army had Channelers, then often times 1 or 2 of my own Heros would perish since every dmg spell was directed at them. I did stop leading my armies with my Sov though, because the AI would allways attack her 1st & it was inevtibale that she perished every single time when 2+ channelers unleashed hell at her when the AI went 1st in tactical combat. (got tired of reloading previous saves to continue)

 Over the course of another 100+ turns my cities were in ruins from all the Volcano spells being directed at me, but my armies were unscathed & ready to pour forth to engulf the world in the darkness of my madness.

I would like to point out that I'm "retired"..aka.. I'm a bum who plays video games 24/7 to keep myself entertained & out of legal trouble....^^  So it really is no joke that I have played hundreds of hours of EWoM. Recently though I grew tired of the same old thing in the game so I've gone back to playing a few classics from a decade ago while waiting for updates to EWoM to be released.

I'll be pleasantly surprised when the AI can manage to think two steps ahead: lower mountain -> THEN I can send troops in! It doesn't sound that complicated, but it'd be the first TBS AI I've ever seen that could come up with an intelligent two-part strategy. In the meantime I'm happy they're at least using spells at all now; if you're only thinking one move ahead, then volcanoes are the best single action they can take.

As I use teleport now, you can only use it in your own territory, you can't use it to plop into someone else's ZOC.  I also have not been able to lower mountains or raise terrain in other players territories, only in my own ZOC or in uncontrolled territory.  I am thinking that the Volcano spell would work, but they would have to be able to see your land to know where to use it.  My original thought was that If I isolated myself early enough and built a wide enough water buffer, they would have to build a land bridge close to me, and then try to start a city whose ZOC would allow them to lower my mountains/and finish the land bridge.  OR!!!!

The AI would have to use one of the other victory conditions, like Master Quest, Spell of Making or Diplomatic Victory.

Has anyone seen the AI win with something other than domination?

NOTE TO BRAD:  Has your internal play testing recorded the AI winning any other way than domination?  The Spell of Making is pretty easy, I bet it could do that one.

I tried this strategy on 1.1d, and the AI never lowered my mountain or sent boats.

In regard to alternate ways to win, I sure hope the AI doesn't try to win by questing or spellcasting. Both ways give no indication that you are about to lose.

 Good point. An idea would be chaging the game winning Quest into something a lot more roleplayish where you get the chance to thwart the enemies attempt in some manner. Of course, having the AI attempt to stop you from compelting that same quest would be a good idea as well.

 Im not sure what a good idea would be for the SpellCasting win though.... not yet. I'll think about it tonight while getting trashed with friends downtown.

I think they should make a global announcement, just like when they say "Some new strange monsters have been released into the woods", they can say, "Rumour has it that Umber has 1 piece of the magical forge!". Or something along those lines.

As for the Spell of Making, maybe it should have to be something you work at. Say you need to magically 'claim' a certain percentage of the world by casting it on the ground in order for the spell to work. Then you could be updated with progress if other factions were attempting to do that, and try to counter their progress. Of course magically claiming ground would be expensive mana-wise.

Spell of making is too much *poof* and it's over.

Since you can't teleport into enemy area, and you can't terraform into enemy area how would the AI be able to get in?  Can you terraform enemy territory if your at war?

no but that could change... plus with any luck every square inch of ground wont be inside a city's ZOC after the next update.

It doesn't have to be claiming ground, it could be 1 of each element shard, plus a major spell of preparation for each one, then it would have at least 4 parts, and possibly 5 if you include the spell that ties them all together.

oh you're talking about them getting into your turtle zone, yeah they could use boats... or the spells could be adjusted too affect enemies you are at war with. But the casting costs should be majorly adjusted to prevent cheese.

they could place a new city right next to the mountains, then as their ZOC grows lower the mountains. If the buffer is really wide, then place a new city, etc. I'm pretty sure that you can build new cities in an enemy ZOC when at war, though i havent tried it...?

You can teleport into the enemy area, but you need to use Call of the Titans. (I mention this in my Faction/Sovereign FAQ.)

The AI just doesn't consider this option, either. In my opinion, this would be easier for them to figure out than terraforming.