posted 03-08-99 08:54 AM ET
I've noticed that the computer is often a good ally, but not necessarily a coordinated one. For example, after capturing an enemy city, the computer will often either garrison the city with defenders or transfer control of a unit to you to use for that purpose.Unfortunately, what it doesn't do is take things like resources into account. What typically happens (particularly if your ally is Yang) is the computer transfers a huge stream of units to your control. Unless you've captured a huge enemy city with lots of production (or have a nice beefy Support rating), most of these units will be immediately disbanded, leaving the city far less defended than if the computer had retained control of them itself. I'd love to see the computer simply have units march into the city and wait there until the perceived enemy threat has abated (no enemy units nearby, etc.).
I'd also like to see something added to "Coordinate battle plans" to allow for defensive suggestions to be given to allies. Once I've established a beachhead on an enemy continent, it would be really nice to tell a computer "Defend city X" to allow me time to a) bring reinforcements to bear or b) contruct offensive/defensive improvements. Currently, the only defense is a good offense (tell your ally to attack the nearest city, and hope his unit ZOC ties up enemy attackers and/or diverts attention away from what you've just captured).
Although I'm guessing that time-coordination of attacks might be a bit tricky to implement, a reasonable step in the right direction might be an estimate of whether the attack request is reasonable or not, based on the computer's available forces, and whether they can reach the target area ("Yes, we shall crush the enemy!" vs. "Our troops will not be able to reach the lines quickly enough").