Wondering about wandering Chin

kailhun · January 23, 2002, 04:27

In the game I'm currently playing the Chinese have amassed two 'armies' of about 20 units each (I wouldn't let them cross my empire to get to the Romans, so they just collected at the border

). They are now so powerful and pissed of at me that they declare war if I tell them to bugger off, so I let them wander about. They are now at peace with the romans.
They are now walking to the east through my empire. There is nothing to the east. Just me. Where are these people going?
It's a pity I can't get the Greeks to attack the Chin.

Robert

notyoueither · January 23, 2002, 04:34

Quote:

Originally posted by kailhun
In the game I'm currently playing the Chinese have amassed two 'armies' of about 20 units each (I wouldn't let them cross my empire to get to the Romans, so they just collected at the border

). They are now so powerful and pissed of at me that they declare war if I tell them to bugger off, so I let them wander about. They are now at peace with the romans.
They are now walking to the east through my empire. There is nothing to the east. Just me. Where are these people going?

Uuummm, your capital?

Toast. That might describe your position. If you lacked the power to prevent the trespass, how much better will your position be when they are in lounging about in your ex-palace?

Think happy thoughts.

Salve

kailhun · January 23, 2002, 06:47

Quote:

Originally posted by notyoueither

Uuummm, your capital?

Toast. That might describe your position. If you lacked the power to prevent the trespass, how much better will your position be when they are in lounging about in your ex-palace?

Think happy thoughts.

Salve

Nope, my palace is up north. They are marching along in the southern reaches of my empire. Going nowhere not very fast.
I can probably defeat the Chin right now. This army consists of spearmen, archers, and a few of swordmen and pikemen. They are being guarded by knights (mine) and my cities will soon be defended by Musketmen (Just waiting for Leonardo to finish his workshop).
But I'm biding my time. I've brought espionage forward (after literature now, adapted related costs), so now propaganda is a serious and useful tool. I've been buying up Jap. and Roman property for a while now. No war, but I'm expanding.
Best edit after reducing corruption.

I just can't figure out where those Chinese are going. It's not as if there's a settler among them.

Robert

Harovan · January 23, 2002, 07:35

I think they are just provoking you. They might attack later if you miss to build your own armies.

Same happens, if you have no or no sufficient navies. Other civs (even polite) mess then with their galleys or caravels around your harbors and when you ask them to leave your borders, they say blue-eyed, they will, but in fact don't do sh*t. But put a bunch of destroyers in sight and they leave as soon as their turn comes.

You may try to build some more knights, build a row and "press" them out, occupying the tiles they just left. These armies seldom stand still, they move and it's up to you to show them the way home.

pauli · January 23, 2002, 12:45

or, if you can, compress them down into a single tile and then replace your nights with musketmen. once a couple of them are fortified in each square, build them forts. assuming, of course, sustaining the army costs the chinese more than it costs you

Arrian · January 23, 2002, 12:51

I have seen the AI send large invasion stacks through my land to get to another AI they want to fight, or sometimes to pick a fight with me. Most of the time, if you see a large invasion stack coming at you, they will just declare war and attack. Sometimes, however, they will trespass with no apparent destination until you demand they leave, and then they declare war (which is really stupid, because by then you can muster your forces and crush them). The Japanese did this in one of my games with a stack of Samurai. They just kept coming into my land, and had nowhere to go, but they left 3 times when I demanded it. The fourth time, they declared war. It took nearly all the Cavalry I had to pound that stack into oblivion, but thanks to their bizarre baiting tactic, I had time to get my forces all in the right spot. Then they had no offensive army left and I went over to the attack.

-Arrian

kailhun · January 24, 2002, 07:00

I'm currently pushing the Chinese south. I won't tell them to leave as they will then decalre war and my forces are just now in the process of crushing the Japanese.
It seems to me that what the AI is doing is stupid. The forces are nowhere near the Chinese Empire so they can't defend it should they be attacked, and as they are mostly defensive units they won't pose much of a threat to my (musketmen) cities should I decalre war. As they are lowly defensivve units I can defeat them relatively easily. But they are costing the empire gold every turn. 40-50 useless units.

Robert