As you probably know, some AI leaders are better than some others. But who is usually the best? That Khmer leader (Dammit, I can never spell his name correctly!),
he always gets tons of vassals and has high score (Unlike Bismarck, who really SUCKS)...

Zara Yaqob.
He is such a pain!

Willem van Oranje is a pain, because he always goes to techs giving specialities for those researching them first, just like me. I've many times tried to get something really expensive at the time as Liberalism's free tech (like Rifling, Democracy or Steam Power, Noble difficulty), and he's always been the one (sometimes along with Zara Yaqob and a couple other research-maximizing leaders) who is there to stop me going for expensive free tech, so I've had to take Astronomy, Constitution or Military Tradition instead.

Well, depends on what type of leader we're talking about. I think Shaka is the best warmonger AI leader. Mansa Musa or William van Oranje might be the best tech leaders for the AI.

Catherine always seems to do pretty well.

Korea (Wang Kon) tends to always put in a good show in my games, as does Byzantium (Justinian).

Mansa is still the most persistant runaway AI. Zara Yaqob is another one that seems to cause me a lot of problems, though looking at his traits I'm not too sure why.

Shaka
Mansa Musa
Peter
Brennus

Darius usually gives me economic/teching trouble when I play as khmer - Pacal II usually is the first civ to declare war on me in ancient/classical ages.

Shaka is annoying to me when there are a lot of weaker AIs. He does pointy stick research and keeps close-ish in tech, his ridiculously large militaries can be a threat, and his excellent UB stops me from wrecking his economy with corps. Builder AIs are less of a problem; if one is close to my score they can be invaded and dogpiled. It's much harder to do that to Shaka.

Also, Mansa Musa can be a very annoying AI leader (just like Willem van Oranje AI), because he sometimes pushes me to take Economics from Liberalism to get free Great Merchant, while he's going to it, and fast!

The newer AIs (except Lincoln, he always seems to be slaughtered) seem to do better. I have a theory, and I'm sure it's wrong, but I have one. I think that the newest AIs benefitted from being designed concurrently with the expansion, while the others had the expansion set up on top of them. Did that make sense? I probably butchered that explanation...

Anyhow, people've said Shaka, and he deserves another mention. Shaka always has a good run in my games, usually taking one civ entirely, and stopping at vassalizing another. In the couple games I've seen him, he's even been able to tech along well enough... I didn't significantly overtake him in the tech race until about 2/3 of the way through.

Yeah, Lincoln always seems to get slaughtered in my games as well. Everyone hates him and declares war on him. But I think Lincoln is one of my new favorite leaders to play with.

Lincoln always is one of the last in score and get dogpiled...I don't know why.
Alexander deserves a mention here, considering that he is very close of domination in my current game. He attacks one, vassalize/destroy, wait like 15 turns, and attack next. It is scary.
Maybe the fact that he is Alexander from the French has something to do with it..But I can't see what. French are not really made for fight...Are they?

Qin, Zara, Justinian, Mansa Musa, Wang Kon are the 5 strongest AI's based on my experience. I've never seen Suryavarman or Shaka be the strongest civ.

Not particularly, no, but it's still interesting to see how Napoleon fights anyway and gets away with it =)

Louis seems to build a lot, but he isn't above trying to kick some butts.

I haven't seen enough of Charles DeGaulle to really say anything about him, though. The only game he was in, he came in mid-way through as a colony to someone.

Shaka is number #1 in my current game...he has been fighting just about everybody. I think he has started 4 wars, although I'll have to check to the log after the game to confirm that.

The only AI that has seriously run away from me in tech, to the point where I couldn't keep up, was Darius. I've managed to catch Mansa Musa every time he got ahead, but Darius was simply amazing in his tech lead. Unfortunately, he didn't have any metals in his land...and so was a relatively easy conquest despite his massive tech advantage.

Justinian is a surprise to me...I'll put him in my next game and keep an eye on him. The one game I've played with him so far, he didn't strike me as particularly powerful.

asoka and elizabeth do well.

shaka does alright but i've seen him get worked over a few times by a larger civ, all he does is spam units.

i'd have to say asoka almost always does well, hatty usually does pretty well too.

also either rome..

The new BtS leaders seem to always do very well, at least in my games. Joao II in particular is very good with the AI in charge, always seems to be in the top of the leaderboard everytime he's in.

Shaka, Alex and Hammurabi are scary, as not only do they build massive armies but they also keep up in tech reasonably well. Mansa and Huayna can tech like mad if they don't get invaded. I haven't seen Pacal or Darius in more than 1 game yet, so I don't know how well they normally do, but they're traits would suggest to me that they'd be alright.

I'd have to say ultimately it's Huyana Capac, he's always at least first in tech and has a huge army to support it. But I'll also give special mention to Mehmed in my last few games he's either been steamrolling everyone or just having huge territory and a very good tech pace and a big army.
When I look at everybody elses candidates I realize that some of them haven't come up in my games since I've had BtS, there's what 30+ leaders now?

Zara Yaqob is usually pretty good in all of my games both science and militarywise, but he is pretty easy to befriend.
Wang Kong tends to tech well but is usually too weak and gets taken over by one of his neighbours.
I always play as Russia so can't comment on Russian leaders.

Zara Yaqob is usually pretty good in all of my games both science and militarywise, but he is pretty easy to befriend.
Wang Kong tends to tech well but is usually too weak and gets taken over by one of his neighbours.
I always play as Russia so can't comment on Russian leaders.

Even as a 3 city empire Wang Kon has still be a tech leader in many of my games, I'd love to know how he does it.

Zara Yaqob always does well in my games. He really knows what's important: Techs and Military. He spends almost nothing on espionage in my experience.

Look at what he's willing/not willing to do to Ragnar for money on the left in this picture. ;)
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/8131/zarayaqobtt7.th.jpg (http://img295.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zarayaqobtt7.jpg)

Look at what he's willing/not willing to do to Ragnar for money on the left in this picture. ;)
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/8131/zarayaqobtt7.th.jpg (http://img295.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zarayaqobtt7.jpg)

Haha! :lol:
Smart! :crazyeye:

Hannibal seems to be at the right place at the wrong time every time i face him, with a massive army of Numedian Cavalry, Catapults and Macemen / Pikemen.

It can hurt bad, if you're not prepared.

That's funny, Suryavarmn was teh one who *became* the vassal in the two games I've seen him in.

Zara Yaqob.
He is such a pain!

This. Yaqob is always at that top of the tier in every game I've played. Maybe it's all the cheap buildings that Organized and Creative grant...

I also have a hard time against Mehmed and Pacal because they always have so bloody many cities.

I'd have to say ultimately it's Huyana Capac, he's always at least first in tech and has a huge army to support it. But I'll also give special mention to Mehmed in my last few games he's either been steamrolling everyone or just having huge territory and a very good tech pace and a big army.
When I look at everybody elses candidates I realize that some of them haven't come up in my games since I've had BtS, there's what 30+ leaders now?

Huayna is a pushover... a money and tech whore and a wonderholic to boot.... his armies are pushovers and even the human (me) usually has the bigger army (and I don't often go over the middle of the pack in the power ratings).

But I play with random personalities now so I can't really predict who's who anymore. :crazyeye:

That's funny, Suryavarmn was teh one who *became* the vassal in the two games I've seen him in.


That's the thing with the AI's who have their aggression levels set to 'high', they either dominate their neighbour(s) or they do poorly and end up as someone's lapdog/vassal.



And to everyone who has trouble spelling the Khmer leader's name (including me until recently)

Sur - ya - var - man

The syllables help the spelling since it is phonetic. :D

I most often see powerful Pacals, Huyana Capacs, Shakas, Persians (either leader), and sometimes that Khmer guy or Catherine. Never seen a powerful Stalin, though.

Either Persian leader, Mansa Musa, Sitting Bull, Mehmed and Asoka always do well in my games. On Balance I'd say Mansa is probably the best, but bizarrely, he often offers himself up as a vassal. I've had him do this to me 3 times, once while he was 3rd in the scoreboard and not at war!