Do AI have fog of war?

**The Evil Team** · December 07, 2012, 02:55 PM

So I'm playing Norway only 30 turns in and saw an opportunity to snag a Danish general by ambushing him with defending troops. So I leave one viking raider in Oslo and move the army to attack the general and end turn. Then out of no where Scotland brings half a stack over by sea and attacks Oslo. They didn't have any Scout ships and defiantly didn't have any spies.

So do the AI just know whats going on at all times, if so that's kinda lame.

Oh and difficulty is hard/hard

**Kaidonni** · December 07, 2012, 04:19 PM

Is it not possible that the Scottish army was already en-route prior to your ending the turn?

**Pyres Δt Varanasi** · December 07, 2012, 04:38 PM

I believe they don't have Fog of War or maybe is not as limited as the one the player has.

**TWWolfe** · December 07, 2012, 04:40 PM

Originally Posted by Kaidonni

Is it not possible that the Scottish army was already en-route prior to your ending the turn?

I'm guessing this. Scotland AI loves going for Norway.

**Andytheplatypus** · December 07, 2012, 05:42 PM

the ai does not have FoW. even if they did the ai is not smart enough to think like a person. its more like random events that make the ai seem intelligent.

**Vissewalde rex de Gerzika** · December 08, 2012, 02:15 AM

I was wondering about this, I always kept a large garrison in Nicaea in my Byzantine campaign and when i moved to away to upgrade armor for it Kiev attacked from Constantinople which they were holding for a long time.

**sbroadbent** · December 08, 2012, 09:03 AM

Originally Posted by Kaidonni

Is it not possible that the Scottish army was already en-route prior to your ending the turn?

Originally Posted by TWWolfe

I'm guessing this. Scotland AI loves going for Norway.

Yep, I played a 6.4 Norway campaign and right around turn 30 (about the same time as the OP) Scotland landed a full stack outside my starting city settlement (the one that isn't Bergen) which I only had 4 Spear units garrisoning. Mind you, for about 10 turns prior they had a single ship sitting just off the coast who brought over a princess. The princess completely ignored diplomacy with me in favor of travelling over to the Danes which I had pushed to having Skara as their last settlement. They allied with the Danes at a time I was at war, so I shouldn't have been surprised when the stack landed and sieged. I tried to prepare by recruiting troops in Bergen, but I eventually had to pull troops from my other settlements leaving them all dangerously at risk of being easy targets in order to accumulate a force I was sure could boot the Scots out.

The short answer of course is that the Scotland AI was likely already planning an invasion and made a mathematical decision of a single unit garrison as an easy target.

Originally Posted by Andytheplatypus

the ai does not have FoW. even if they did the ai is not smart enough to think like a person. its more like random events that make the ai seem intelligent.

If the AI can see every town and unit everywhere without having to consider what it couldn't see otherwise if fow affected them, the AI could easily be smart enough to mathematically realize that attacking a settlement with a 1 unit garrison would be a whole lot easier than one with a full garrison.

Considering that the game gives the player the odds such as percentage chance of success with agents as well as army strength ratios it's not a stretch to believe the AI is making a calculation each turn with each potential target. This can also make the AI easy to take advantage of.

**Talonite** · December 09, 2012, 05:58 AM

The AI must have some sort of FOW, otherwise their units wouldn't get stopped by other factions' unrevealed armies or cities while moving across the campaign map. Also ambushes wouldn't work and they wouldn't ask for map information.

**Ichon** · December 09, 2012, 12:03 PM

As far as I know AI have full FoW except they know where all cities are even in unexplored parts of map. So they can send a stack directly to a city in unexplored area but be ambushed on the way. Scotland attack Bergen in every campaign I have played with SS though so I think that part was just timing.

**Snakes** · December 10, 2012, 06:12 PM

If I had to guess, I'd say it's most likely that the AI was simply designed to behave in accordance with FoW even if it doesn't get affected. Much like they player, it can detect how many enemy troops are in a nearby territory, which would explain why a garrison being deployed into the field would be noticed.

All of the player's limitations are most likely programmed, whether it's the campaign map or a battle. Ambushes and hidden troops are the most obvious examples I can think of.

**napoleonic** · December 10, 2012, 06:25 PM

If I had to guess, I'd say it's most likely that the AI was simply designed to behave in accordance with FoW even if it doesn't get affected.

this

**DeliCiousTZM** · December 10, 2012, 07:45 PM

No.

**Andytheplatypus** · December 10, 2012, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by Ichon

As far as I know AI have full FoW except they know where all cities are even in unexplored parts of map. So they can send a stack directly to a city in unexplored area but be ambushed on the way. Scotland attack Bergen in every campaign I have played with SS though so I think that part was just timing.

fow is not associated with ambushes. if you have ever played with toggle_fow then you would know you still cant see hidden units. play with toggle_fow and see if ai is any different.

**Ichon** · December 11, 2012, 12:33 AM

Originally Posted by Andytheplatypus

fow is not associated with ambushes. if you have ever played with toggle_fow then you would know you still cant see hidden units. play with toggle_fow and see if ai is any different.

The point was AI can't see all armies, full fog of war vs just saying fog of war conveyed that. The only thing as I said before is that AI can see city garrison even before discovering them. However even player can click on discovered cities and see the garrison size so its not a huge advantage for AI except for sea invasions. Of course there can be armies between target city AI has chosen and it normally ignores them.