See, this is the same problem I have with EVE. AI War stories are cool, but for me, playing it ends up being mostly boring tedium.
It might sound like one of those rare lucky combination of factors that makes the AI seem momentarily brilliant, but it isn’t in AI War. On the higher difficulties, the AI simply is that good at figuring out how to use its stuff to devastating effect.
Either it’s a script or an emergent event (ie, a not quite so rare or lucky combination of factors).
I think you can break down that chain of events to some pretty simple logic choices:
1.) Attack with the fleet you easily defeated: AI War’s advertised zerg harassment waves.
2.) Moving its defenders: Keep the army somewhat mobile in order to keep the player guessing.
3.) Moving its defenders back: If the player’s attacking, move nearby armies in to defend.
That’s the basics. The special stuff:
a.) A custom tailored army: Probe the player, record his army composition, and build hard counters.
b.) The forcefield: A script. Weigh forces, if the AI has a good chance of winning, check to see what escapes the player has available and seal them (especially if there’s only one exit with defenses waiting on the other side to prevent a chase). That or something absurdly random.
Of course, it could all be a fancy script that’s executed when certain conditions are met.
The important thing is, of course, that it seemed like the AI had pulled off some master human-like plan. That’s good AI.
