AI Napoleon in BNW : out of touch ?

Within the high amount of hours I spent playing Civ V BNW, I think I didn't see Napoleon very often. Never, perhaps.

So, I was looking at the AIs' personalities and flavours in the XML files, and it looks like Nappy's personality hasn't been updated for the New France. He just got the new lines for trade routes, archaeology and other new items, but is apparently still programmed to play the way he's been doing since Vanilla.

He has a low wonder flavor (4), a low growth flavor (5), and high expansion flavor (8). These numbers were suited to the Old France, good at REXing, going wide, planting many cities while somehow neglecting growth.

Now France plays exactly the reverse way. To leverage France's UA, you need a very strong capital, that will build tons of wonders.

But, since I haven't seen Nappy in play for a while, I can't tell for sure.

So, is he the worst AI in terms of poor synergy with his assets ? I know, AIs aren't intelligent, but most of them at least have flavours that suit their abilities. We don't see peaceful Zulus or expansionist India.

Napoleon AI now plays very horribly from the times I've seen him in King. He generally will just have 1-2 cities and then die to whoever invades him first. He's basically a city state with capability of major civs now.

Magean said:

good at REXing, going wide, planting many cities while somehow neglecting growth.

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I would describe it more as Chieftain level (which the AI played at in G&K and Vanilla) is very good for REXing & going wide.
And if the Human was at King or above, the AIs happiness was even better and it got growth bonuses.

Magean said:

Within the high amount of hours I spent playing Civ V BNW, I think I didn't see Napoleon very often. Never, perhaps.

So, I was looking at the AIs' personalities and flavours in the XML files, and it looks like Nappy's personality hasn't been updated for the New France. He just got the new lines for trade routes, archaeology and other new items, but is apparently still programmed to play the way he's been doing since Vanilla.

He has a low wonder flavor (4), a low growth flavor (5), and high expansion flavor (8). These numbers were suited to the Old France, good at REXing, going wide, planting many cities while somehow neglecting growth.

Now France plays exactly the reverse way. To leverage France's UA, you need a very strong capital, that will build tons of wonders.

But, since I haven't seen Nappy in play for a while, I can't tell for sure.

So, is he the worst AI in terms of poor synergy with his assets ? I know, AIs aren't intelligent, but most of them at least have flavours that suit their abilities. We don't see peaceful Zulus or expansionist India.

Click to expand...

Perhaps Napoleon could have used a bit of tweaking to his AI flavors in BNW, but it's not that big of a deal.

Many civs have UA's, UB's, or UU's that tend to contrast with each other (classic case of Ethiopian UA which emphasizes tall while Stele encourages wide). So it's okay if his flavor doesn't fully take advantage of one of the civilization's unique traits.

Old France has strong culture in the first half of the game. You got the culture immediately, but lose it with Steam Power.

New France, can "replicate" the culture with Chateaus. Presumably, most if not all of your cities will have at least one luxury which can result in a Chateau. Now you do need to wait until Chivalry and need a worker to build it, so the culture boost is more mid-game and onwards.

Musketeer is the same. The French lose the Foreign Legion but that comes so late that it doesn't really noticeably affect AI flavors. And then there's City of Light. I agree that France probably could have used an increase in Wonder flavor since other than Industrial era museums, all the theming bonuses come from wonders.

France works well going wide. To make good use of his UA, you need wonders, and those aren't always that reliable to get, especially on higher difficulties. Outside of the museum, Oxford, and Hermitage, there's a real possibility you won't make good use of your UA.

A more reliable strategy is to simply spam chateaus wherever possible, and to that effectively you'll need lots of wonders. I played a wide France game recently, and did remarkably well simply I had placed a chateau on every hex possible. Hiawatha had gotten most of the culture wonders, but even after we both hit Internet I was trouncing him in tourism almost 2::1.

Sheershaw said:

France works well going wide. To make good use of his UA, you need wonders, and those aren't always that reliable to get, especially on higher difficulties. Outside of the museum, Oxford, and Hermitage, there's a real possibility you won't make good use of your UA.

A more reliable strategy is to simply spam chateaus wherever possible, and to that effectively you'll need lots of wonders. I played a wide France game recently, and did remarkably well simply I had placed a chateau on every hex possible. Hiawatha had gotten most of the culture wonders, but even after we both hit Internet I was trouncing him in tourism almost 2::1.

Click to expand...

It's true that City of Light isn't very useful for the player at high difficulties, because wonders are hard to get. At most you'll snatch the Louvre and one Renaissance wonder. With theming bonus from Museum (+2), Ermitage (+3), Oxford (+2), and presumably +6 from wonders if you're lucky, you get a basis of 13 theming . This in turns is doubled by aesthetics finisher and once again by the internet : 13*4=52. Now City of Light further doubles it, so you gain a whopping 52 . If you're lucky with wonders. Great.

For a player, France's strength comes from the chateau improvement.

But this thread isn't about how the human player should play France.

It's about how the AI plays it, and I'm arguing that it does exactly the contrary of what it should. Especially with wonders : the AI can chain-build them on Immortal-Deity. Instead of letting others build them all, AI Nappy should be extremely competitive for cultural wonders.

EDIT : by the way, I played a game yesterday and Nappy showed up. Unsurprisingly, he's been terrible. Lots of cities, but no wonder, low tech, low culture (and easy influence). He managed to destroy Byzantium (actually, Portugal finished Theo off), only to get trounced by Netherland + Arabia.

I had Boney as a neighbour to my India the other day. He built a giant army and was proper hostile, extorted CSs a dozen times. I was quite worried until he decided to invade Colombo, who had St. Sinai, and managed to get his swarm of Spearmen and Compos massacred in a chokepoint. He ended up bagging GW and invading me with a swarm of Riflemen. I had a high hammer Petra HE city that churned out Gatling Guns, between that and Volunteer Army I forced him back to hiding cannons behind GW until he surrendered. Then he was Friendly all game. What a weirdo.