Is it just me or is the AI cheating somehow>

from Elemental Forums

I am curious because in my game, Yithril has 5 cities, of which one I just conquered, and they seem to be hitting me with army after army, of 5 or 6 units. I am trying to produce armies in a few of my cities and there is no way I am able to keep up. It is almost like every couple of turns they hit me with a fully stacked new army. I took the city, then lost it because they hit me with like 3 armies, of which 2 I destroyed. Then I fall back to the capitol and a few turns later 4 full stack armies come at me. I took them all out and I go back to that city which is garrisoned by like 4 units, take it out. Then a couple turns later another 2 5 stack armies are coming at me. How is that possible> I have a couple cities with high production and it still takes me 8 turns to produce a decent unit (well that might be because of the traits adding extra turns) but even if it took 4 turns to build the units, I could in no way keep up with them and we both have about the same amount of cities. I don't mind a challenge but I just can't see how they are able to do it. Maybe I am missing something heh.

3,636 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Which difficulty were you playing?

One thing to keep in mind is the AI often build poor units, not expensive high-quality units. They often lack traits and equipment. This gives them plenty of units when measured in units, but poor armies measured in strength.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

normal difficulty and the armies are actually better then my troops, with higher attack and similar defense. I was only able to start competing because i could built 5 unit soldiers and theirs were 3 unit soldiers. I don't mean stack units im talking about the 5 man groups or 3 man groups.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

A good AI isn't typically adaptable, but it does know how to milk game design choices to excellent effect.  Are those cities you're facing possibly a higher level than yours?  Are you sure the troops you're seeing now weren't actually around before, off somewhere in the fog?  That the AI didn't sacrifice other options, such as running up the magic tree, for going up the defense one much further than you have?

 

Just some thoughts.  I'm not implying you don't know what you're facing--only trying to figure out why it's capable of what it is.  Typically, Brad writes excellent AI code, and on normal difficulty it simply makes very good decisions.  You can actually learn a lot just by watching what it does.

 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Perhaps they are training from a Fortress city with a Command post. That allows units to start at level 3.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

he is not talking about quality/level just quantity.

My guess he is rushing the units, with lots of cash, he might got from other players for declaring war on you or trading some resources for cash.

Either way he pumps gildars into rushed units, with 5 cities, he can pump 5 units a turn, which if combined with the armies he got earlier, should be what you're seeing. I don't myself rush a lot, and if you're a player like me you spend your cash on buying leather for your heroes, which is something AI do not.  (just look at his equipment, he probably have only starting sets on heroes plus one or two items gathered in quests, and possibly a couple of lether bracers)

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

No, you can easily see how much cash a faction has, and it is not cash. Rushing a unit requires a lot of money, just to rush one unit for me is over 200 gold and that is a weak unit. I have a fortress city with a command post so I know what they can produce. I also have the same amount of cities. My population is larger and my cities are more advanced. 2 of his cities don't have anything in them yet actually. I have easily taken out 30 unites or more (some being juggernauts) with a dozen turns or so. The amount of money needed to rush those units would be enormous. Even if the amount was as low as 200, which it probably isn't, you are talking about 6,000 gold which is an enormous amount of gold at this point in the game. I certainly have never gotten close to that number and I have all the gold world wonder buildings helping me out and if he is pushing his taxes up to the max, there is no way he is producing quickly since that should slow his production down a lot. 

 

I don't know, I have thought about it and it seems implausible to me but again, maybe I am just missing something. I guess the soldiers could have been around from before but they keep coming. I can't see how he could have that many sitting around that they just keep coming. Well I will keep fighting and see if it ends. All my magic is exhausted so it is going to be difficult. The AI also seriously gimped my capitol city with a lvl 5 curse that removes all their hp. Units stationed in my capitol lose like 30 hp or more and I can't afford to dispel it heh.