How does the AI work?

[Edratman]

ExitJudas said:
the FAQ is great, but I have this friend who is very frustrated with the AI, as it keeps ganging up on him when he plays SP. can anyone elaborate on how the AI thinks, since its a joykiller to play a 8 player SP game, thinking that its a FFA, when it actually plays more like a 7 v 1

I have not seen the AI gang up on me to the exclusion of not battling other AI nations. I usually have several scouts out and have always seen AI vs AI combat. Several times I have seen an AI nation that is attacking me attack another AI.

What your friend is probably seeing as AI "gang up" is merely the AI reacting to excessive province expansion without regard to defensive considerations. The AI will always attack a weak province. And it will then leave that province to attack another weak province. So your army ends up chasing a relatively weak AI army as it captures your weak provinces and destroys your temples.


If you have weak provinces on 3 or 4 fronts adjacent to the AI, you can be sure they will attack you. Then you will be ovewhelmed. There are things the AI does not do well but the AI is not incompetant. It is a credible opponent.

I don't make any claims to being a good Dom3 player, but I will not start a game unless my starting position is in a corner.

[theenemy]

nice info

[Loren]

The AI's will gang up on you if they *perceive* you as weak. It doesn't seem to look at how good your army is, merely how big it is. Thus 100 militia will be considered better than 10 supercombatants.

[Humakty]

As stated above, you need to have good PD, but I noticed the AI often send preemptive strikes when you move many troops on a common border.
It reacts rapidly when you expand too much, it is sometimes wiser to hold a chokepoint, and not to conquer the region afterward, so as to avoid multiple war declarations from your neighbours.
Recruiting chaff in border castles will have two beneficial effects : it will rise the apparent strength of your army, and block longer the AI armies (AIs always stop at a castle, even if they can't breach the wall)/