AI now building too close

[Boris Baconbeer]

I thought this was fixed in the last version of the game. Now with "Gathering Storm" the AI is settling way too close. I'm getting the AI settling only 3 hexes away??? this has happened a few times now. It cant be good for the AI Civ to settle that close even if it is a strategy to gimp my cities. It's just not a smart move for all concerned.

[tempest.of.emptiness]

The minimum distance between cities is four hexes. Are you using any mods?

[Kimmaz]

Wth the new loyalty stuff, Isnt it smart to settle cities as close to eachother as possible?

[Boris Baconbeer]

Originally posted by tempest.of.emptiness:

The minimum distance between cities is four hexes. Are you using any mods?

The Only two mods I'm using apart from dlc's is the TSL Earth remastered mod (which I'm not actually playing using but is on I guess) and the WASD mod.

Originally posted by Kimmaz:

Wth the new loyalty stuff, Isnt it smart to settle cities as close to eachother as possible?

I'd think it may help with your own cities on occasion. But planting a city really close to your enemies, like what the AI is doing to me may annoy me but wastes their own settler eventually. Means I will need to raise them, they have fallen further behind for wasting resources on a city that will never achieve. I had the AI plant 2 cities City 3 hexes either side of one of mine. immediately losing loyalty because there were more of my cities in the vicinity and they had space in the other direction. I play deity all the time so it doesn't make sense for stupid moves. Unless the AI thinks it can sacrifice 1 civ it controls to help its other civs that it's controlling. lol if only it was that smart.

[Prometheus]

It's called forward settling. It's a strategy that also humans use, and also towards each other. You nerf the city that you forward settle by depriving it of expansion tiles, you frustrate their plans, you block further settlement in that direct, which can be used to seal of good land, and you set up a base for possible military action.

Your choices are to deal with it, either through military action (to capture and keep/raze) or loyalty pressure to take it over.

[Martin]

Originally posted by tempest.of.emptiness:

The minimum distance between cities is four hexes. Are you using any mods?

3 hexs between them.. dont know why they count the hex your city is in as a 4th. But the ai will literally settle on your border if it can get a circle of hexs around it.

Originally posted by Prometheus:

It's called forward settling. It's a strategy that also humans use, and also towards each other. You nerf the city that you forward settle by depriving it of expansion tiles, you frustrate their plans, you block further settlement in that direct, which can be used to seal of good land, and you set up a base for possible military action.

Your choices are to deal with it, either through military action (to capture and keep/raze) or loyalty pressure to take it over.

Yep, just be careful not to do this too early or you'll loose your city. Best to wait until you have a spare governor. Or build 2-3 settlers and plop them down at the same time.

Also killing a 1 pop city won't really harm your reputation. So if you really want to remove it, do so. Just check before hand which era your potential enemy is in, and don't give them any warning to the attack. ie Don't use Denounce, or they'll ramp up defences. 150 points isn't much.

As for building cities as close as possible, that's a strategy for building wide, rapid civs. Which maybe have 2-3 powerful cities. I like to place my cities 5 tiles apart then build high if possible. Reduces the amount of amenities etc needed in the early game.

[Boris Baconbeer]

Originally posted by Prometheus:

It's called forward settling. It's a strategy that also humans use, and also towards each other. You nerf the city that you forward settle by depriving it of expansion tiles, you frustrate their plans, you block further settlement in that direct, which can be used to seal of good land, and you set up a base for possible military action.

Your choices are to deal with it, either through military action (to capture and keep/raze) or loyalty pressure to take it over.

Yeah I know but it is a losing strategy. Whenever I see them do this instead of going somewhere where there there is space I think they are going to lose now. All they did was annoy me. Doesn't seem a good idea in the end. Oh well. I rather settle a couple more away then buy tiles next to them. 3 hex away well meh I just don't see the sense. Anyway I will accept your explanation.

[Prometheus]

Originally posted by Boris Baconbeer:

Yeah I know but it is a losing strategy. Whenever I see them do this instead of going somewhere where there there is space I think they are going to lose now. All they did was annoy me. Doesn't seem a good idea in the end. Oh well. I rather settle a couple more away then buy tiles next to them. 3 hex away well meh I just don't see the sense. Anyway I will accept your explanation.

It's not at all a losing strategy. I just did it this morning to the AI. It consolidated my loyalty pressure to other cities, allowed me to defend my religion from the zealous Poles, and lo and behold, they took a city from my neighbor, which I then held an emergency session about.

Took one of their cities and razed it, crushed their army completely, took the emergency session target city, got the rewards, sold the city back to the civ in question and sued for peace with the poles for ALL they had to offer!

How is that a losing strategy?

[tempest.of.emptiness]

Originally posted by Martin:

Originally posted by tempest.of.emptiness:

The minimum distance between cities is four hexes. Are you using any mods?

3 hexs between them.. dont know why they count the hex your city is in as a 4th. But the ai will literally settle on your border if it can get a circle of hexs around it.

Cities with three hexes between them are four hexes apart. Starting at one city, you count 1 2 3 hexes and then 4 to reach the other city. It is important to use this convention consistently because this is how you count when finding the range of production bonuses from industrial zones, or amenity bonuses from entertainment districts and water parks, and religious pressure (although in civ 6 the need to count out pressure distance is much reduced because of the religious pressure overlay). If the game counts distance one way and we count it another way, confusion is inevitable.

[Dendonker]

In my recent experience this is how the AI settles cities in general, it having nothing to do with another player spotted. I think it's a little too dumb too.

Alexander's Settlements[i68.tinypic.com]

[Sentient_Toaster]

I've seen an AI lose two of its first five (counting capital) cities to loyalty problems, settling them too far away from friendly cities and to close to unfriendly cities and without being prepared with policies / governors to mitigate. That's... just self-maiming.

[Kimmaz]

I think the whole 3 vs 4 tiles comes down to wording and language. My cities has 3 tiles in between them, BUT a unit would have to use 4 movement points to move from one city to the other. Here are a few screenshots:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1665413641
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1665413681
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1665413749

The "red" Around a city is always 3 tiles around that city, or 4 tiles if you count the city itself. I use 2 mods, "got lakes?" and a user interface mod that is currently not compatible with the new dlc.

[Boris Baconbeer]

"I think the whole 3 vs 4 tiles comes down to wording and language. My cities has 3 tiles in between them, BUT a unit would have to use 4 movement points to move from one city to the other."

The scenario I mentioned earlier the two Ai cities only had two hexes between my larger city and their two smaller ones. A better strategy for them would have been to settle with three or four in between and buy the hexes straight away before I think of it. But instead they run into land they will obviously struggle to control and lose. Also making me angry. But anyway. The AI has always been a bit silly.
The only time i'd ever consider such a move is to grab a resource I really need and put a big effort into keeping it until I've upgraded everything or produced enough from it.