Civ4 AI Survivor 2: The AI-stralian Outback

[Tasunke]

hey, I'm unspoiled for Game 5, about to send in a submission. If its already closed so be it, but I don't think I ever submitted one >_>

--> By the way, I *was* spoiled on number of wars due to a post .... so I scratched that one off as a wash.

[Kotre]

Sullla, before you go live with the next game, remember to give archery into the barbs in WB

Apparently the war declaration count remains low when the AIs start wars... and never sign peace until the opponent is dead. We had one peace treaty the entire game!

Yeah I didn't watch the game but when I saw only 6 wars I wondered if you'd forgot to put a 1 in front of the 6. The AI's aren't normally this efficient...

It wasn't really efficiency, just sheer stubbornness in all but one case. Izzy and Hannibal remained at war for literally 150+ turns with nothing happening but one city being traded, tanking both their research rates. Because they were eternally at war Shaka poached 4 good city sites that Izzy should have got but was distracted. He then ate Fredrick. Toku and Willem were also deadlocked in a war for ~100 turns, which mostly consisted of Shaka smashing his head against Willem's cities until he brute forced his way into the capital, at which point he was able to steamroll the rest.

Meanwhile Izzy, had juuust started to make some progress against Carthage even capturing their capital. But almost as soon as he was done eating the poor German leader, Shaka was bought into the war against Izzy, and he started nomming her core like a burrito. She signed peace with Carthage, but Toku (whose ecconomy was barely above that of Hannibal despite having double the number of cities at this point) declared on her as well and Troll Kon'd a few city sites, including one literally in the corner of Shaka's lands. Shaka, being Shaka proceeded to declare on Toku. Did I mention that Shaka was tech leader, so it was Infantry and Cavs vs Musketmen and Knights... He won by domination a few turns later.

Izzy (and to a lesser extent Toku) would have been better off signing peace after making their initial gains, consolidating and then coming back. But instead, they remained at war too long and allowed Shaka to pull off (of all things) a farmer's gambit and snowball so hard that he became unstoppable.

[superjm]

I'm wondering if the Arid terrain settings are generating more terrible land than usual and that's limiting the effectiveness of AIs with economic flavors and traits.

[Voldymort]

It wasn't really efficiency, just sheer stubbornness in all but one case. Izzy and Hannibal remained at war for literally 150+ turns with nothing happening but one city being traded, tanking both their research rates. Because they were eternally at war Shaka poached 4 good city sites that Izzy should have got but was distracted. He then ate Fredrick. Toku and Willem were also deadlocked in a war for ~100 turns, which mostly consisted of Shaka smashing his head against Willem's cities until he brute forced his way into the capital, at which point he was able to steamroll the rest.

Actually Toku got Wilhelm's capital...

[ronaldsf]

My favorite comment of the match: "If Shaka wins this by launching a spaceship, it would be to seek out more enemies."

Oh, Izzy, Izzy, Izzy... She indeed went the fanatical route, bumping her head against Hannibal due to religious differences for most of the game even though she didn't have an advantage after that initial sneak attack. All this, while she had room to expand in her back lines that Shaka gobbled up. Shaka's Farmer's Gambit is less of a "gambit" when your neighbors are a distracted Izzy and uber-peaceful Frederick.

Isabella didn't view Shaka as a threat because they shared a common faith. Seems idiotic at first considering that it's Shaka, but then again remember that Isabella wouldn't necessarily know Shaka's AI personality. Also, I don't know whether the AI weighs its various adversaries against each other, or whether it just randomly rolls decisions against each adversary independent from each other.

Seems like the good play for Izzy would've been to sign for peace with Hannibal soon after it was clear he had a strong defense, settle her back lines, and do everything she could to prevent Shaka aggression. She also needed to take a bite out of her squishy German neighbor. Then, use her religion to isolate Japan, and then score military struggle points with Shaka against Tokugawa.

I'm not happy with the AI's tendency to research peaceful techs and build wonders (and hide their non-threatened settlers) while they are being swallowed by hostile invasion. It seems like a relatively-easy thing to fix in the AI's programming, but I suppose it makes an SP game more interesting by allowing for more total kills on the world map. Because, heck: if you feel you've maxed out the AI's ability to WIN a war, why fix its propensity to LOSE a war?

Tokugawa seems incapable of keeping pace with tech, even when Tech Trading is off.

I don't know if # of war declarations is a good category... maybe for a future competition we can track the dates of war declarations, and calculate the number of turns at war * # of nations warring? I realize it means some more work though... just a thought.

[Kotre]

It wasn't really efficiency, just sheer stubbornness in all but one case. Izzy and Hannibal remained at war for literally 150+ turns with nothing happening but one city being traded, tanking both their research rates. Because they were eternally at war Shaka poached 4 good city sites that Izzy should have got but was distracted. He then ate Fredrick. Toku and Willem were also deadlocked in a war for ~100 turns, which mostly consisted of Shaka smashing his head against Willem's cities until he brute forced his way into the capital, at which point he was able to steamroll the rest.

Actually Toku got Wilhelm's capital...

And this is why I shouldn't post at 3am. Yes, Toku was smashing his head into Willem's cities until he eventually broke through.

[Sullla]

Tasunke, I'm afraid I can't accept predictions after the deadline. We had two weeks open for submission, and I tried to make the form available as many places as possible. My apologies.

Kotre, the barbs should be fine for the next game. I'm pretty sure that they popped up with warriors in their cities due to Worldbuilder text editing, and I didn't do that for this game.

superjm, I don't think the Arid map is affecting the AI performance at all. If anything, all the floodplains tend to create maps with higher overall food totals. I can't say I've noticed anything all that different from last year with the Temperate maps.

Glad to see that a lot of people enjoyed last week's game.

[Sullla]

Another... interesting game today, with some bizarre AI actions in the final 100 turns. Anyway, here's the latest batches of links:

Website Page for AI Survivor Season Two

Livestream (Twitch)

Game One

Game Two

Game Three

Game Four

Game Five

Last Game: Game Six

Next Game: Game Seven, tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 11 starting around roughly 12:00pm EST

Current Bracket and Standings

Leader Draw and Map Selection

Prediction Contest Submission Form

Screenshot:

I changed Sitting Bull's color to Egyptian yellow to avoid confusion with Kublai's Mongolia (too much brown on brown). Let me know if you have any further questions. Thanks!

[Kotre]

Sullla, could you change my entry to this round (Remix) to Kotre? I couldn't remember the name I used last round and wasn't able to check until after I'd submitted.

[Commodore]

Anyone else weirded out by the peace-weight pairing of the historical conqueror with his victim? Lincoln/Sitting Bull and Kublai/Qin...