How does the AI raise armies?

Mad Gus · #1 February 27th, 2004, 01:53 PM

First off, I'm a newbiew. I'm currently playing my second game. Do AI nations raise armies the same as human players? Or are they just given armies. I am asking because in my current game the Jotun nation was moving on me with some sizable forces. We fought for several turns and we both lost the majority of our forces. A turn or two later he now has 3 provinces containing with 70-90 troops. I read another post on how the AI seems to go with cheap units but wouldn't he be hampered by resource restrictions just like me? I don't have a problem with the computer "cheating", I was just curious.

PhilD · #2 February 28th, 2004, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mad Gus:
First off, I'm a newbiew. I'm currently playing my second game. Do AI nations raise armies the same as human players? Or are they just given armies. I am asking because in my current game the Jotun nation was moving on me with some sizable forces. We fought for several turns and we both lost the majority of our forces. A turn or two later he now has 3 provinces containing with 70-90 troops. I read another post on how the AI seems to go with cheap units but wouldn't he be hampered by resource restrictions just like me? I don't have a problem with the computer "cheating", I was just curious.

According to the devs, the AI only "cheats" in two ways: at levels higher than "normal", it gets more design points at the game's start; and, at all levels, it always has knowledge of Province ownership.

How did you get this estimate of Jotun's forces? Scout, etc., reports, are often inaccurate (they may as much as double the real number of units); and your opponent may have hired mercenaries, and so on..

General Tacticus · #3 February 27th, 2004, 03:04 PM

From my experiences with the AI, the computer has some target number of armies he wants to meet as soon as possible. When he is under that number, he'll recruit as many units as he can each turn, starting with the cheapest (and remember that he knows exactly how and where to buy the cheapest armies). Once he has met that number, he'll start working on quality.

You can often find units with a 3 resource cost in indy provinces, which means 10 units/turn for a mountain province with that kind of unit. Numbers can go up quite fast at this rate, and that is the kind of micromanagement the AI is best at. As for cheating, the AI has more design points for his god at difficulties above normal, which can translate into more resources and more gold, but not that much.

Mad Gus · #4 February 27th, 2004, 03:18 PM

I did know those facts (but thanks for the responses).
I think I scouted at least 2 of those provinces (2 seperate scouts). I am also getting reports from other provinces of 20-40 troops.
Maybe I'll get some more facts tonight and post them. I was just surprised even if those reports are doubled at how quickly he was able to gather such large forces.

[ February 27, 2004, 13:19: Message edited by: Mad Gus ]

Peter Ebbesen · #5 February 27th, 2004, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mad Gus:
I was just surprised even if those reports are doubled at how quickly he was able to gather such large forces.

You could probably raise troops just as quickly, if you were willing to spend most of your money on low-resource light infantry and the like

PDF · #6 February 27th, 2004, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mad Gus:
I did know those facts (but thanks for the responses).
I think I scouted at least 2 of those provinces (2 seperate scouts). I am also getting reports from other provinces of 20-40 troops.
Maybe I'll get some more facts tonight and post them. I was just surprised even if those reports are doubled at how quickly he was able to gather such large forces.

Scouts give changing and inaccurate reporting in the 50%-200% range. So the AI maybe has like 30 units , and did'nt double its army overnight ...