@Grimus:
Although, I dislike the OP, your latest posts have been entirely reasonable, and I find them interesting to read. They are stimulating enough that I would like to break my relative silence and offer you an alternate perspective.
As I can see from what you said, you don't dispute the fact that playing Aggressive AI means you almost always have to spam units like the AI, do you? Only then can you be sure that you're safe, no matter what the diplomatic relations with your neighbours are like. While that is certainly realistic in a way, Civ4 doesn't have a very good system of unit maintenance in that you can afford inordinately large armies. This then often leads to a sort of arms race with the AI, who can easily build more units than you on the higher levels. Building and managing a lot of units is something that I do not like to do and is what I would say is the flaw of the diplomatic system under Aggressive AI (in that it leaves you no choice but to go through this tedium).
I prefer games where you can compete more with the AI in the economic department, employing various long and short term strategies, instead of just building a large number of units and waiting for the AI to fall behind due to the arms race. And when I employ a diplomatic strategy as part of my plans, I expect to see it work as long as I've planned and executed it well. If I really invest in a relationship with a neighbour, I'm almost guaranteed to not be interested in attacking him/her. I have even managed to coexist with Napoleon peacefully on the same continent when he's my only neighbour left (I took out the other one). And I just didn't see the point of attacking him even though he was a smaller and less advanced power. I had diplomatic victory in my sights (which, if you want to talk about effeciency of winning, can often better domination or conquest through an early victory date).
That doesn't mean I'm shy of doing a rush or of taking out neighbours, though. Sometimes it is necessary for the economy. However, when I do go to war, I'm aware that war doesn't win me the game by itself. In fact, it can even be counter-productive, especially when it saddles me with extra upkeep and lots of WW. War also has the sticky side of building upon itself like a tumour - once you capture some cities you want or need to keep, you might have to capture the cities surrounding those to keep them, and you might have to finish off a neighbour who might now be permanently pissed. I stand to lose a lot by falling behind the rest of the world. Note that I play on higher difficulties (Emperor or Immortal), where this is more likely to happen and where the normal AI isn't so defenseless anyway.
I have my reasons for prefering the normal AI, which I find challenging enough. It's not that I'm dumb or that my ego needs to be stoked by defeating a bunch of weak defenseless AI, as many people like to say about players like me.
::shakes hand::
I'm sorry if the OP was offensive to anyone. I really was sincerely asking the rest of the community if I was missing out on something because I'm continuously tryng to find the most challenging, fair, and fun gaming experience I can. Im also not as concerned much by what others may do, if I happen to disagree or prefer differently. I just care about my own, little worlds which I create and play in during singleplay.
Though, like others, perhaps I do care when others criticize my way of playing, otherwise I wouldn't be posting in this thread!
I wasn't trying to cause a big stir of emotions. I came across Sir Blake's post and was shocked at the time because I never thought of EVER trying out Aggressive AI because I had misunderstandings of it. But after reading everyone's experiences and views, and trying it out for myself, I've grown to like it. Who knows if Ill stick with it or if it's just a new flavor of the month, and I'm sure I'll go back to Normal AI and try that out as well after the whole experience, but right now I enjoy it. Maybe I'll throw in Raging Barbs too with Aggressive, I don't know, I'll continue to experiment and see what I like.
Yes, indeed, when playing with Aggressive AI and their unit spam... you MUST spam units yourself, otherwise you're a sitting duck. This is why some may not like Aggressive AI, for this aspect (very big aspect) alone. It all comes down to your personal taste and style of play. Ill admit, sometimes I may even say to myself, Boy, this might be getting out of hand now., while Im cranking out units, lol. But the little kid in me just thinks its way cool when battle ensues.
So, I can see where some may believe the unit spam a bit tedious and distracting from all the other good aspects of the game. Im a bit like that too, but on the opposite side of the spectrum. I play on standard-sized maps because I dont like managing many cities, especially when Im conquering lands. I also prefer not to deal with so many AI personalities in one game they can get annoying continuously hailing me and asking/demanding things, haha.
I also don't care much for realism, and seldom compare it to that anyway (most of the time anyway), because it IS a game and balance of play is my biggest concern, even to sacrifice realism. But to others, again, maybe realism IS important since it IS a historical game.
You're right about the unit maintenance too, it's nasty, but luckily it hurts everybody in the game with their armies. Though, like you said, on higher difficulties the AI certainly gains an advantage because of its discount on things like that. That's where hopefully the human's battle tactics overcome those benefits they receive... same as in other peaceful aspects of the game.
Also, for instance, when pursuing a diplomatic victory (a victory I havent ever tried yet!) it WOULD make sense to probably not crush your little, weak neighbors because they probably have friends too and you want everybody to like you. Only recently have I ever accomplished an alternative means of victory, a culture victory
usually my victories are either domination or space race.
You're an exceptionally skilled player, there should be no doubt about that by anybody, and you contribute some good stuff to this community. Everybody has their own style of play, their own preferences... even the pros.
That's also what's great about the game, you can pursue your victory in many different ways, as well as customizing it and playing the way you like. Either way, if youre playing at your appropriate difficulty level and not seeking to exploit, Civ is challenging no matter what AI youre playing on, its just a different style of game.
All in all, it pretty much comes down to one, particular, wise saying by Confucius: Hey, whatever floats your boat.
