AI tournament, season 2

[GKey]

It seem FFA rules of thumb apply here. You rush someone and 3rd guy takes the win.

 

[enKage]

Impressive by Justinian nevertheless, although it became a boring matchup given his fast expansion and war success. Very good AI though, so he should do well later.

Thanks for running this btw, quite interesting.

Maybe this is mentioned earlier in the thread, but what are you putting in your capital to get so much espionage from the getgo?

Reffering to Last Chance game

It is a pity, you took Lizzy instead of Vicky, and too easy victory for Justinian was the effect of it. Vicky expands far better than Lizzy and is in my experience always a better AI of two English ladies.

Anyway, Justinian was the pre-game top1 leader, so no surprise, but I hoped Wang will be more competitive if Byzantium had less land early.


Playoff
I cant believe, how Pericles could spoil such an opening! Louis was ma leader here as he had great starting position, but luck was on other site.

Final:
1 Frederick
2 Ragnar
3 Gandhi
4 Boudica
5 Hannibal
6 Pacal
Can Justinian win again? I think he has great chances, as Ragnar has a very strong warmongers as opponents and Justinian is a strong militarty guy too.

I think there is a possible spacewin or culture win by a vassal here: Gandhi, Pacal. Or Justinian wins again by any way. The only guy i dont give any chances is Fred. Who starts near Gandhi, wins!

 

[MarigoldRan]

Looking forward to more results. This is fascinating post.

 

[Ray Patterson]

Finals, opening position:



Fred the underdog starts the safest. Ragnar and Ghandhi have some remarkable land behind them. The three likely to found religions, Boudica, Gandhi and Justinian start near each other. Gandhi has 2 flat gems in BFC and one more just outside it. Nice starting cities but between Ragnar and Justinian he probably won't stay independent. If he does somehow stay independent I can't see this game end in anything but a Gandhi win.

 

[lymond]

that's an ugly looking map...at least from the bird's eye. Rag's looks like he has the most available land.

do you have this set on "arid"?

 

[Izuul]

Could be another Rags steamroll. He can get big easily be expanding north and/or taking out Gandhi. Good chance Gandhi founds Hinduism and Justinian founds Buddhism. That will be interesting too.

 

[Ray Patterson]

Buddhism: Justinian

Hinduism: Boudica

Judaism: Gandhi

First to 4 cities: Frederick/Justinian

2650: Hannibal goes WHE

Stonehenge: Pacal

Oracle: Gandhi. Uses it to pop Code of Laws/Confucianism, 2425 BC

First to 6 cities: Frederick

Great Wall: Hannibal

The world 2000 BC


Ragnar has the fewest cities while he would have had the best chances to expand, as evidenced by the barb cities around him. Hannibal's empire has an akward shape, and if he attacks Gandhi as I expect he will, he sets himself up for some very nasty flank attacks, just like happened to Augustus in round 1.

GNP: Gandhi, 2nd: Pacal
Prod: Gandhi, 2nd: Justinian
Crop: Frederick, 2nd: Boudica



Gandhi's playing a very dangerous game as usual. And it's positive for this round that he does so: Justinian isn't the type to wage the early war, and if there were no obvious targets for the warmongers to be succesful against the opportunists like Justinian would win easily.

 

[sinimusta]

Looking good for Frederick, maybe he surprises us. Safe starting spot and getting a reasonable amount of land. Freddy won space in AZ's latest hatsepsut game so I bet he does it here again. I think he's ok AI leader if he gets into the late game.

 

[rey1103]

I'd like to see Ghandi winning again, but I think that Ragnar and Frederick have the best chances. However, this game is going to be difficult for all the powers IMO.

 

[Ray Patterson]

1925: Hannibal DOWs Gandhi

Temple of Artemis: Gandhi

1450: Justinian and Boudica are WHE

1425: Boudica DOWs Hannibal. Ragnar DOWs Boudica

Pyramids: Hannibal

1200: Justinian DOWs Gandhi. Frederick DOWs Hannibal. Only one not at war is Pacal

1125: Hannibal makes peace with Gandhi. No cities were ever really in danger, it only helped Hannibal getting dogpiled as his power plummeted

The world 1000 BC


GNP lead: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi
Prod lead: Pacal, 2nd: Boudica
Crop lead: Pacal, 2nd: Boudica



Looks like we have a frontrunner and it's not Ragnar

Gandhi has lucked out so far by very stupid attacks. Like in the first round this stimulated him to arm up and he might sit this out a while longer. Bizarrely he's confucian and so is the frontrunner, which indeed means that confucianism is the most popular religion at this moment!

 

[Timo33]

Just looking at the starting positions i would have bet for Ragnar, but after the first round I'd bet for Boudica. Freddy seems like a favourite as well but with Boudica and Ragnar in the game, i dont think Freddy will be able to win space or something like that late game.

EDIT: damn, Pacal is looking great

 

[Izuul]

Ragnar is wasting his time attacking Boudica. Can he even get to her? I bet he doesn't have OB with anybody over there. He can still become a player if he back-fills and gets those barb cities though.

 

[Ray Patterson]

950: Boudica makes peace with Hannibal. She still has Hippo

850: Justinian makes peace with Gandhi

Christianity: Gandhi. That's the third religion he founds... culture?

Great Lighthouse: Justinian

Parthenon: Pacal

525: Fred turns confucian

Great Library: Pacal

Statue of Zeus: Pacal

Colossus: Justinian

Mausoleum: Gandhi

345: Fred makes peace with Hannibal. Only war left between Ragnar and Boudica

290: that last war also ends. No war, no WHE

Hanging Gardens: Justinian

245: Ragnar changes to Confucianism

230: Boudica goes WHE

215: Boudica DOWs Hannibal. Justinian DOWs Boudica

Taoism: Pacal

Sistine Chapel: Pacal

Chichen Itza: Pacal

110: Ragnar DOWs Boudica

Hagia Sophia: Gandhi

The world 10 AD


So far one city has been conquered, once. Does that mean there wasn't much warfare?


Far from it.



That is not a golden age at the end there btw. Pacal's just that good.

Prod lead: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi
Crop lead: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi

As for Fred:


His tech situation is even worse than Boudica and Ragnar, while the clear best is again Pacal.

I think it's a nobrainer really. Pacal is winning this one, convincingly. And I think that's well deserved, the way he manipulated a very tricky start last time into a swooping win makes it clear he's a very impressive AI.

 

[rey1103]

Seeing the current position, Pacal is my favourite candidate. He's a lucky guy. But Gandhi can win by culture.

 

[Ray Patterson]

Shwedagon Paya: Pacal

Angkor Wat: Pacal

Apostolic Palace: Gandhi. Could this be the game that gets AP cheese?

Notre Dame: Justinian

370: Boudica capitulates to Hannibal. This time around the dogpile was on her and the armies were better prepared

Islam: Gandhi



GNP lead: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi
Prod lead: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi
Crop lead: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi



Gandhi's doing ok. And he's building an academy already... Pacal is strong but he's not very focused. Gandhi might still run away with the victory especially if Pacal and him remain buddies.

 

[Timo33]

Yeah, Pacal is my favourite as well, even though i still have hope for Boudica.
Diety pacal seems amazingly good, it surprises me. At lower levels he never got close to impressing me at all

 

[Izuul]

Pacal is still a wimp if someone gets after him early. He's pretty easy to deal with for a human player.

 

[Ray Patterson]

520: Hannibal goes WHE

535: Hannibal DOWs Gandhi

550: Frederick DOWs Hannibal. Hannibal makes peace with Gandhi. Lucky for Hannibal that Gandhi is so quick to negotiate

University of Sankore: Gandhi

Spiral Minaret: Gandhi

Taj Mahal: Pacal

775: Ragnar DOWs Hannibal

Liberalism: Gandhi

880: Ragnar becomes Pacal's vassal, so Pacal for the first time is at war, with Hannibal

900: Hannibal makes peace with Frederick

Physics: Pacal

Versailles: Gandhi

Economics: Justinian



GNP: Pacal/Gandhi (virtual tie)
Prod: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi
Crop: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi



Justinian might be seen as a dark horse still, he's the only one apart from Pacal and Gandhi that really should be considered. But in my experience so far, if someone wages an offensive war, captures cities, and keeps rocketing up in power as leader meanwhile, the game is over. And with a tech situation like Pacal's, that seems clear.

 

[Ray Patterson]

1060: Boudica breaks free. Hannibal capitulates to Pacal. Justinian goes WHE

1210: Justinian DOWs Boudica

1220: Boudica capitulates to Pacal

1290: Pacal goes WHE

1310: Ragnar breaks free of Pacal

1330: Pacal DOWs Frederick

1335: Boudica breaks free of Pacal due to cultural pressure

1370: Ragnar rejoins Pacal's vassalage and therefore also the war agains Fred

Kremlin: Ragnar

1405: Gandhi is now in 100% culture slider. And he has the 2nd strongest army in the world due to having Infantry while most still use Musketmen

1410: Justinian goes WHE

1430: Fred capitulates to Pacal

1475: Ragnar breaks free again and goes WHE

1485: Justinian DOWs Boudica

Pentagon: Gandhi

The world 1530


Boudica might be eliminated, the second one after Sitting "surrender isn't in my vocabulary" Bull iirc. It seems for now Gandhi doesn't feel safe enough and is out of culture victory mode for a bit.



GNP lead: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi
Prod lead: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi
Crop lead: Pacal, 2nd: Gandhi



Gandhi could hold out against Pacal for a while, but nobody else really could, so this looks like domination for Pacal after all.

 

[pomthom]

I don't think Pacal can get Dom before Gandhi reaches Culture. Pacal might win UN however. This game won't last until Space that's for sure.

Actually I really think Gandhi is going to sneak a culture win...