I love this game

Arryn · #1 February 2nd, 2004, 06:37 AM

Just when you think you've got a handle on things, the game will surprise you and make you sweat.

It's turn 40 in my test game with Potatoman's excellent Ashikaga Shogunate mod on the Orania map, with 14 difficult AIs and indies at 5. After wiping Ulm off the map circa turn 30, the Jotun AI and I were content to peacefully stare at each other while we each had smaller fish to fry. (Jotun is the #1 military and economic power in my game; I'm the #1 scientific and #2 economic power, and about #10 militarily.) So I left my northeast front to be "guarded" by my ally-of-convenience Jotun while I concentrated on wiping out some of the stronger indy provinces I'd bypassed as I annexed the lands of the pretenders of Marignon (extinct back at turn 15) and Ulm, and to nibble on some almost unguarded provinces to my southwest that Pythium was leaving as it took on the task of munching on some of those aforementioned tougher indies. Well, lo and behold I no sooner get "mired" in the southwest gobbling up easy provinces from Pythium than Abyssia comes out of nowhere and on this Last turn blows Jotun out of three provinces on my northeast border. Yikes! Somehow, I don't think Abyssia will be content with just the Jotun lands and will continue on into mine. Of course, the declaration of war by Abyssia 20 turns ago (when they were nowhere near me) may have a bit to do with it ...

The lesson for now? Don't get complacent.

Arryn · #2 February 2nd, 2004, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Jotun will fight to get his lands back. Send him some heat-rpotection rings. Its not like it will do Jotun as much good to have his commanders all have a misc slot filled with a heat protection ring when you and he come to blows.

That would be a good idea, except that my nation of Ashikaga also heavily employs fire mages and 2 of my own commanders have 10 summer lions each.

Arryn · #3 February 2nd, 2004, 10:29 PM

And you were right about Jotun fighting to get his lands back. Oddly enough, Abyssia decided to make a 90-degree turn and continue attacking just Jotuns, leaving me alone. Unfortunately for Abyssia, I'm not leaving them alone. I'm sort of "helping" the Jotuns by reclaiming their provinces -- for myself. While Abyssia is busy fighting giants, I'm rampaging through their lightly-defended recently-conquered (2-3 turns ago) lands and thus preventing the foul demon-worshippers from reinforcing their armies engaging the stalwart giants. Not to mention boosting my income considerably by "liberating" all these juicy farmlands that once toiled for the giants.

Norfleet · #4 February 2nd, 2004, 10:40 PM

I'm pretty sure I've seen the AI declare war on me twice. It seems like if the AI declares war on you, and then absolutely nothing happens, he sometimes forgets about it and reverts back to being neutral.

Gandalf Parker · #5 February 3rd, 2004, 02:25 AM

Jotun will fight to get his lands back. Send him some heat-rpotection rings. Its not like it will do Jotun as much good to have his commanders all have a misc slot filled with a heat protection ring when you and he come to blows.

Fire Wraith · #6 February 3rd, 2004, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:
I'm pretty sure I've seen the AI declare war on me twice. It seems like if the AI declares war on you, and then absolutely nothing happens, he sometimes forgets about it and reverts back to being neutral.

Only twice? Well then, I have a story for you...

I am currently in my second game since getting the full game (Lurking around this forum has been a great way to learn things, by the way

), where I am playing Soul Gate Ermor in the world war scenario with all AI players enabled and set to difficult. My plan was to first conquer all of Africa, and then figure out where to go from there.

Some time during my battles with Abysia, Machaka, and Marignon, Ulm, not content with their stronghold in Europe and eager to possess my zero population provinces in Italy, decided to declare war on me. Upon eyeing the massive army of the undead hanging out in northern Italy, their generals decided to postpone the invasion... indefinitely.

A few turns later, their false god no doubt wondering what was going on, Ulm declared war again. The Ulmish armies quickly checked the border and noticed that yes indeed, the huge mass of undeath was still there, slowly growing every day. Further preparations would be necessary before they could attack, their generals must have reasoned.

Every few turns Ulm would declare war, only to forget about it shortly afterwards. I have not been keeping track, but they have done so quite a few times so far.

Recently, Ulm even dared to attempt a couple sorties. The first one was repulsed, but still caused a reasonable amount of damage. I quickly reinforced the army, and a few turns later they attacked again. The second offensive must have been some sort of suicide attack, as their army was only a tenth the size of mine. Ulm must be getting rather desperate. Well, either that or the Fires from Afar that Anthrax flung towards their army managed to wing one of their incoming commanders.

Perhaps now that Ulm knows that I can anticipate their every move, they will leave me alone and our two nations can live in peace. Well, not if the undead hordes swarming through Spain and Byzantium have anything to say about it, that is...

Norfleet · #7 February 3rd, 2004, 08:27 PM

Hey, it's not like I actually sit down and try to count the number of times that particular AI declares war on me, since I always tend to play on fully populated maps with all 17 nations, which turns the declaring-war scene into a giant furball. That, and there's my policy of indiscriminate gratuitous violence. Even in games with actual diplomacy, I rarely make use of it because I find that AIs generally cannot be reasoned with, or at least certainly not at a cost which would be less than simply delivering an asskicking.

General Tacticus · #8 February 5th, 2004, 05:24 PM

But you can reason with the AI ! Usually on the lines of : "Look what a huge army I have on our common border, why don't you go beat up someone else for a while ?". The AI is fairly good at picking those hints.

As to why I don't use that army to attack the AI, the answer is usually that all my economy is neede in beating the other AI on the other side, and I can't spare the resources to expand elsewhere at the moment.

Bowlingballhead · #9 February 5th, 2004, 11:45 PM

I like the idea of feeding the computer pointless, even self-defeating magical items. Can I make him put fever fetishes on his commanders?

Norfleet · #10 February 6th, 2004, 03:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by General Tacticus:
As to why I don't use that army to attack the AI, the answer is usually that all my economy is neede in beating the other AI on the other side, and I can't spare the resources to expand elsewhere at the moment.

You can spare the resources to have a huge army that simply sits there and eats food and drinks beer, but you can't spare the resources to use it? Wouldn't that mean that the area you're sitting that huge army in is a fairly open one, and therefore, most of your border is exposed anyway?