AI Surrender

I'm just coming to the dreaded "mop up" phase of my latest game. I'm playing as Drengin vs the Acreans, Altarians and Yor on a medium galaxy. It was a pretty intense game. I started out right next to the Arceans, whom I was neck and neck with for military strength until they started a war with me. They had a HUGE chunk of territory. Probably 2/3 of the galaxie's habitable planets were theirs.

I never would have withstood them had it not been for the fact that, in their desire to crush me economically, they started shooting down torian freighters and had a two front war on their hands. The torians were on the far side of the board from me so I didn' thave to worry about them for a while. The altarians were amazingly powerful militarily for only have 2 planets in their control. They were keeping up with me even as I built up to take out the Arceans.

They were a tough slog, and they didn't give in until they had only two planets left, even though their war with me was over after I'd taken out 1/3 of its planets, including Arcea. For the time being, though, I understood why they didn't want to surrender. They'd made peace with the Torians, and they were hoping for a reprieve as the torians went to war with me.

I had a couple skirmishes, but then I bought them off so that I could finish off the Arceans. The torians had taken out the yor, and I took advantage of the Altarians situation by conquering their only two worlds in a single turn. I didn't even have to face their ridiculous military might. If I'd had to I would have been toast.

The stuborn arceans kept me bottled up on my side of the galaxy while the torians were ramping up their military much faster than I could afford. Once the Arceans finally surrendered I had a serious problem in that my ships were scattered all over. I was mostly playing defense until I could get my ships in place. I held my own as their ships were still fairly outdated compared to mine. Their ships were also far slower than mine. I always make sure to pack at least one engine on a ship, whereas the AI almost never does this. I had the initiative in nearly ever combat and it paid off big.

Eventually I got my act together and pushed forward into Torian space. I ended up losing the altarian home sector, as it was right next door to Toria, and they had a nonstop stream of ships and transports coming to it. So I let it go and focused on the other end of the map. I took out all of their lightly defended worlds, and then finally struck at Toria, their manufacturing center, and where all those damn transports were coming from.

That's where I'm at right now. The torians still have 7 planets left, but they are hopelessly lost. I almost don't want to finish despite how proud I am of this particular game. I kept up economically and militarily the whole game, and I was way ahead in research for most of the game. It was a hard fought win and I feel like I don't care if I finish now because I know the torians won't surrender until they have like 2-4 planets left.

I'm just going to make peace and take the influence victory because conquest would just take too damn long. I'm half-way through year 4 and it would take at least another 30 turns to produce and move the amount of transports and fleets necessary to conquer their worlds. Boring.

Don't get me wrong this was an awesome game and I'm proud as hell to have taken on, and defeated militarily, 4 AI players at Intelligent for the first time. I just wish I could take my well earned conquest victory without having to play mop-up.
15,279 views 9 replies
Reply #1 Top
Yeah, once my victory is inevitable, I usually just let peace happen and take the rest with influence -- either influence conquest or influence victory. By then I have so much military power that anyone left alive is too bloody scared of me to get angry at my influence enveloping their worlds.
Reply #2 Top
Ah see I love the mop-up. I enjoy slowly strangling them with ships, inexorably tightening the noose until I have the last couple worlds completely surrounded. It gives me a certain sadistic satisfaction. "How DARE you challenge ME"

Reply #3 Top
If you declare war and then immediately ask for peace (plus a few planets), they'll give them to you and surrender faster:)
Reply #4 Top
Civs in my games have a tendency to surrender before i can amass a giant fleet of transports to attack their final, insignificant world amidst blood and glory...
Reply #5 Top
Also just try moving your main fleet (even without transports) towards their remaining worlds. I was playing a game and only the Korx were not allied with me. I was having my fleet explore their territory and they surrendered to me. Now, I had been at war with them on and off throughout the game and had destroyed all races that were friendly towards them. They were so weak that they gave up when they picked up my fleet and knew that they had no hope.
Reply #6 Top
I don't mind the AI surrendering. However I do wish we could actually ask for their surrender rather then relying on the event to occur. Also it would be nice if there was the option to play *to the last bullet*. But then after a really long game that could probably get tedius. I know in my last Metaverse game on a gigantic map I was actually glad when the last non ally surrendered to end the game.
Reply #7 Top
I think it shows good game design if as soon as the enemy's realize that your are in fact just mopping up they surrender and the game is over.
Reply #8 Top
In order to ensure military victory, you need to utterly destory the enemy AI race in a single turn.
Reply #9 Top
In order to ensure military victory, you need to utterly destory the enemy AI race in a single turn.


That's pretty much what I did to the Altarians. They were playing remarkably well given their 2 planet handicap. The torians and yor pretty much grabbed every world they could have gone after. Don't know if they were slow to colonize or just beaten to the punch, I was too far away to see any of it go down.

The altarians declared war on me while I was taking down the Arceans, but I managed to buy them off, otherwise I'd have had a hell of a time beating both of them at once. I would have had to make peace with the arceans (which they would have offered me if I'd asked).

As for getting planets in exchange for peace...I've never once been able to extort that out of a player. If I'm playing against a civ that I'm grinding into the dust and they offer me peace when the end is inevitable, I can usually take them for every tech they have...but they won't give up planets. Then I just attack them again.

The surrendering in the game is good, I just think the AI should know a bit sooner when it's beaten. I have a feeling in the case of the Torians they are simply not surrendering to spite me...but it's happened to me other times also as races other than Drengin. I just basically don't like mop-up.