Disappearing Independents (in this case: in Modern Age)

[Suisight]

So I always felt that Independents just vanish at some point - even if th AI also does a pretty thorough job of removing them in Modern Age.

I now found that in turn 35 (marathon speed), three Independents were removed with seemingly no AI unit in range that could trigger the "disperse" action. So I think I can confirm that something weird is going on.

All disappearing Independents had none of their units alive - and thus no unit on their "village" tile. Mayb those get removed regularly?

Anyone has insights on what exactly is going on?

[TheNightglow]

yea I noticed the same thing a while back, any independent city that doesnt have one of its own units on top of its city vanishes 10 turns after it lost its unit
for an independent city to be allowed to live it needs to have one of its own units on top of its city

I assume they did that to prevent you from protecting a city state from other players by killing the independent unit and walking your own unit on top of the city, making it impossible for others to disperse it

however, whenever a player or AI incites a raid, all independent units run off, even the city guard
so inciting raids typically makes the independent city vanish as well

[Rhapsody]

Couple dozen turns into modern age, a new wave of independent powers has spawned. Fortunately I can befriend them all playing Machiavelli with Greek traditions. Yoink!

[Darkshape]

Not sure what difficulty you are playing on, but I have only ever seen independents destroyed normally by players, including AI. It is worth mentioning that the absurd +8 combat strength bonus that AI players get seems to carry over against independents. In Modern era I watched as a single tier 1 horse ripped through four independent units of a faction I attempted to befriend and dispersed the camp. For example, the combat variance was like 86 damage vs 5.

I was also playing a game today vs Diety AI where I saw Himiko send a settler through two hostile antiquity era camps in order to forward expand in very inconvenient places for me that made no tactical or strategic sense except to trigger my OCD and player outrage. Very cunning to repeatedly make invincible or unnoticeable settlers to rack up settlement raising war support vs me.

[Suisight]

Originally posted by Darkshape:

Not sure what difficulty you are playing on, but I have only ever seen independents destroyed normally by players, including AI. It is worth mentioning that the absurd +8 combat strength bonus that AI players get seems to carry over against independents. In Modern era I watched as a single tier 1 horse ripped through four independent units of a faction I attempted to befriend and dispersed the camp. For example, the combat variance was like 86 damage vs 5.

Yes, the +8 might be a lead to find out why the independents just get stomped in modern age. I believe the resource boni also are relevant: Often, you start with +6,8 or even 12 on your cavalry due to oil just being there already. THe independents do not. SO either this stacks or is in each in itself enough - in the end it doesn't matter so much. But the independents must become more resilient.
Another option would be to add a kind of "guarantee" whenever a major civ tries to befriend an independent - forcing war against this major civ if the independent is attacked. It feels frustrating to not be able to do anything at the moment and a guarantee could be factored in by the AI when deciding whether to go to war.

[Usually Insane]

Originally posted by Suisight:

Yes, the +8 might be a lead to find out why the independents just get stomped in modern age. I believe the resource boni also are relevant: Often, you start with +6,8 or even 12 on your cavalry due to oil just being there already. THe independents do not. SO either this stacks or is in each in itself enough - in the end it doesn't matter so much. But the independents must become more resilient.
Another option would be to add a kind of "guarantee" whenever a major civ tries to befriend an independent - forcing war against this major civ if the independent is attacked. It feels frustrating to not be able to do anything at the moment and a guarantee could be factored in by the AI when deciding whether to go to war.

This, the fact that I spent a lot of influence and then the AI just wails on the independent and there is no recourse but to attack their units in a surprise war is BS