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Having been recently introduced to some of the finer points of the game (Thanks, edd) - the use of "observe" and "takeover" - I've come across a method that the computer uses to cheat. One of the AIs (located some distance from the human player) is belligerent and at war with all the other AIs. The population is number one and all that is being produced is caravans and settlers. Tax rate in a democracy is set to 100%. There is no science at all. There is no military defense whatsoever in any of the cities. It seems to me the computer is using this AI as a global resource for all the others - or the AI whose strategy proves the most successful. AI level is supposed to be novice. Apart from population, where I'm second, I'm miles ahead on the score sheet and number one on most criteria. But, given this scam, I'm not sure that it's worth continuing. Any comments.
EDIT I also found that the AI are not charged shields for settlers. One city is being charged one shield for one of 3 triremes and nothing for the other 2 and nothing for a settler - all appearing as being supported. It's like playing chess against a computer opponent, who is not bound by the rules of the game.

bluto wrote:EDIT I also found that the AI are not charged shields for settlers. One city is being charged one shield for one of 3 triremes and nothing for the other 2 and nothing for a settler - all appearing as being supported. It's like playing chess against a computer opponent, who is not bound by the rules of the game.

What's required to support units always depends on the government of the nation.
But about the other thing... I don't know what that is. I've never checked wether the AIs were tricking me or not. My guess would be that the other AIs just don't think it's important to kill a nation that's no threat.

bluto wrote:Having been recently introduced to some of the finer points of the game (Thanks, edd) - the use of "observe" and "takeover" - I've come across a method that the computer uses to cheat. One of the AIs (located some distance from the human player) is belligerent and at war with all the other AIs. The population is number one and all that is being produced is caravans and settlers. Tax rate in a democracy is set to 100%. There is no science at all. There is no military defense whatsoever in any of the cities. It seems to me the computer is using this AI as a global resource for all the others - or the AI whose strategy proves the most successful. AI level is supposed to be novice. Apart from population, where I'm second, I'm miles ahead on the score sheet and number one on most criteria. But, given this scam, I'm not sure that it's worth continuing. Any comments.
EDIT I also found that the AI are not charged shields for settlers. One city is being charged one shield for one of 3 triremes and nothing for the other 2 and nothing for a settler - all appearing as being supported. It's like playing chess against a computer opponent, who is not bound by the rules of the game.

The "global resource" AI is not intentional, but just shows weakness of AI - it has stuck to some problem (presumably economical one - it cannot pay for any science and even with 100% tax it must build caravans as much as it can) it's too stupid to work its way out. That's one nation for anyone to conquer (including you).
As for AI not paying upkeep, AI has special rules only in level "Cheating" (at least with standard rulesets). Note that different forms of governments give different kinds of "free upkeep" bonuses - Despotism, Monarchy, and Communism forgive shield upkeep of 3 units / city.

In the game version "2.3.4", I was attacking with 15 marines a city which was defended by 3 musketeers and 1 riflemen. (Checked using the editing mode.) I was attacking 3 times each turn. End every time I would lose 3 marines, and damage the defending units almost to the end. But, in the next turn, all defending units would be recovered completely. I know when my unit is damaged that badly, it takes 3-4 turns for it to recover completely. So how could this be? AI is cheating.

Barracks fully heal land units that stay in the city for one turn. It's not cheating, you could do the exact same thing.

Then my barracks stink.

milsu wrote:Then my barracks stink.

There are three versions of the barracks. As your technology progresses, your existing barracks become obsolete and you have to build new ones. Make sure that your cities still have an active barracks in them, because if it was rendered obsolete, it disappears and won't heal your units.

Caedo wrote:Barracks fully heal land units that stay in the city for one turn. It's not cheating, you could do the exact same thing.

It's also important that units do not move on that turn, i.e., units that enter to the city are not healed that turn.

Thanks for the info, I have been playing this for years, and never noticed barracks healed my units in one turn.

Port Facility has similar effect for sea units, and Airport for air units.