Theory: Battling AI

[Captain Garak]

I have a theory I would like to put forth, and I'm interested to know what others think about it.

Perhaps the reason that human players can eventually beat any AI character in the game is due to the fact that human players can "look ahead". In other words, I think that the AI characters tend to only look at where things stand at that immediate moment, and can't really consider situations several moves ahead. I know that, when I battled Whirlwind on Kazatega, I used my Gouda repeatedly, while his just sat in his hand for turn after turn. Since I could see what sort of spaces were coming up for me several turns ahead, I could "plan" as to when I might want to use this card, or when I might want to exchange a placed Gouda for another creature in my hand, in order to recall the Gouda to my hand for offensive purposes. I don't think that the AI has the capability of doing the same thing, as I believe that it really only looks at "this turn".

That's just one example, but would anyone else agree with me on this? Anyone care to disagree or to provide another viewpoint?

[BlueTorch]

Agreed. The biggest exploit of this that I use is making the computer waste items. If a computer has a creature that it CAN save with an item, it WILL save it. So if a computer has a horrible creature on a level one property, you can attack with something like a giant spider or nike to make them ditch their armor, should you have the potential to kill that creature.

An easier example; in the final level, I had a Vampire sitting next to the computer's Odradek. It was only guarding a level 1 territory. Every chance I got, I had by Vampire territory-move onto the odradek, and the computer ditched card after card after card, creature after creature, to keep it alive, while I didn't even need to use any items :)

[Lord Blade]

But when setting up an AI, you have that section for "moves ahead" or whatever it was called. I think that has something to do with it making plans for future moves (and probably "peeking" at what cards are coming up).

[Sterling]

I distincly remember an AI character (I think Ryvern on Kazatega) drop a Decoy two squares away from my level 5 land and move it over to take the land afterwards. That's either thinking three steps ahead, or some really lucky decisions.

[Captain Garak]

Is that actually "thinking ahead", or did the AI make moves that were simply best for it at that time? Perhaps the best play the AI had was to drop a Decoy down on that Territory, and it just happened to be two squares away from your Level 5 land. Then, on subsequent turns, perhaps moving it toward your land was the best option it had at that time.

Hey, it was just a theory...

[Sterling]

I was thinking the same thing was possible, Garak. But when I replayed the same Story cepter in VS. mode he held on to his Decoys for dear life, only pulling them out when he landed on a 100+ toll land.

Could still be luck combined with different AI rules in Story and VS. It's impossible to say for sure really.

I can agree that the AI doesn't seem to think ahead most of the time.

[Chaos]

I've seen on several occasions the AI save cards to thwart me, just before I pulled off a good combo. I have seen it done enough I have a very hard time believing it's luck.

Example: I put an old willow down. On my way back around, when I get within 2 or 3 spaces from (coming back around to level old willow up to 5) my willow the AI will use haunt or backwards on me. This has happened more times than I colud count. These cards have usually been held by the AI for atleast 5-8 turns before.

[Captain Garak]

Like I said, I was just throwing it out as a possibility.

Of course, Lord Blade's observation (which I have also made in the past) is a good one. Depending upon how each game-supplied AI character was created, some may have the ability to think further ahead than others.