18 Civ World Map AI

I play Civ IV mostly to have fun. Normally I will play monarch or emperor. I have been playing Civ since 91 on DOS so I have a pretty good grip on the mechanics. This being said I rarely take the time to monitor diplomacy, I trade without regard, micro my cities very little, and try to end a std speed game in 2 hours or less and maybe 3-4 for epic. I was getting bored with the way I play. Basically I play continents take my island and then go kill the backwards island or space race if I don't want to build all those units. So I read Neal's 18 civ post and get inspired.

I pick the map, grab Germany because I like the country IRL (thought of doing Japan, next time), and choose emperor. Now this is what I find really odd. I was able to take the early tech lead while conquering cities with only militia in them. I have played up to me having Calvary and everyone else is woefully behind and the game is about to be over. I am not bragging here though because I know that on emperor I normally have to play catch up in tech unless I get a great start and build peacefully. I also know that I never get a group of axes out before they have at least axes and definitely archers in their cities. Not only do they have the correct units they have far more than I do. I rarely am able to take an early lead and dominate in the mfg/GNP/Power. I do well in MFG and GNP normally but power I lag at less than half for a lot of the game.

So long story short I think the AI on 18 civ world map is not up to handling the map. What is weird though is they don't even have archers and the civs on aren't able to REX well. I understand the ones in Europe having trouble because I killed them but the others?

I have long played the most standard options because that is how I grew up playing and it also makes the game most challenging because it is how the AI was optimized. The lack of competition on this map is just weird to me. Emperor normally is a pretty fun challenge but when the game is already won and I still have to build 100's of units to technically win it gets boring for me.


I am not saying I am great and I own AI opponents and I am the best. I am just wondering if anyone else feels the AI on the 18 civ world map is not right.

 

Yeah... The bugs are there in all games, but the Earth18 map does tend to lampshade some of them. Particularly annoying are the "No naval routes on the same continent" (HC, Monty, Isabella), the "This is my starting spot, so I'm gonna settle here" bug (Freddy, Isabella, HC, Mansa, arguably Elizabeth and others) and the "We're not gonna do anything aggressive for XX turns" problem (pretty much everybody). That, plus it's a scenario, so starting techs and units don't get "scaled up" by level.

My suggestion? Ratchet up your difficulty by a level or two, or Worldbuilder in some fixes like Archery and land bridges. The map is flawed, but I like it.

 

"The map is flawed, but I like it"

I will give you that. Honestly it is a lot more fun playing with all the civs. I have the most fun when I play and there is a super power growing somewhere that I can't stop immediately. Maybe this goes back to the old days when the Russians would show up out of no where with battleships and armors.

 

Try something more challenging, that's what I would suggest.

If you want to stay on Earth 18, then you could give MM a try, I know Neal's win there was a close run thing. HC is probably a little easier as if you can get off the desert and chop down the Amazon (wow, never thought I'd ever hear myself say that...), then you got some of the most prime real-estate in the game.

If you really want to get owned hard, play Earth 1000 AD as either Monty or HC, they have choice land, but you got to move quickly as the Europeans show up fast and you start out waaaaaay behind.

The problem with playing on Earth 18 as European nations is that the land is great, and you get early and easy access to just about every resource you need. Since human players tend to benefit the most from playing aggressively (pretty much the only way we can counteract ai bonuses is be destroying them) Europe really sets the stage for domination, and the only way to really make it a challenge is by limiting yourself to a challenging victory condition (see: Neal's iteration on Frederick). The only other way to make it a challenge, I suppose, is to do as Neal said, go into WB and give the AI some assistance, as with Neal's relocation of Isabella's starting position, and the removal of the Panamanian Mountain Wall/Andean Mountain Wall, if you'll notice, although Monty didn't do what Neal wanted, he was less of a joke then previously, and HC isn't stuck in the desert. Moreover, Isabella actually founded more than one city! SO anyway, yeah, basically either give yourself handicaps, or make the AI's position a little more manageable (They aren't human, so you basically have to lead them with a leash)


By the way Neal, if you decide to do WB adjustments again, could you see what moving Lizzy to the west would do? I'd love to see what a London not swamped by Parisian culture would look like.

 

I've changed Spain to Portugal and moved the capital to Lisbon, added a food resource to Mongolian starting position and replaced Gengis with Kublai (who performs moderately better), removed Rome and added the Khmer.

Replaced Tokugawa with modded-in Meiji.

I replaced Louis with De Gaulle to harness the French culture monster. That should suffice in dealing with the problem of frech-culture-swarmed London.

When playing European nations, I play under a self-inposed rule of not declaring wars before a certain date - the AI is bad at preventing early rushing.

And I replaced America with Native America.

The thing is, in that map the AI does not have its beginning Emperor bonuses, like extra archers.

The land in Europe is so good that if you control it, you own the game.