AI Jumbled Rumble : another set of AI Survivor Alternate Histories, with a twist

[Thrasybulos]

S2 Playoffs

Spoiler Game 1 :

This felt like the real Championship game : with the exception of Asoka, all participants are top leaders.

Mansa's initial results led to believe he'd beat the peaceweight and pull through, but that wasn't to be in the end.
The real shocker here was HC's extremely poor showing. It wasn't Willem S1 Championship level, but close.
Willem, on the other hand, thrived.
So the top two finishers here are leaders which HC crushed in S1's championship.

Spoiler Game 2 :

I was expecting Hannibal and Suleiman, got Hannibal alright, but De Gaulle outperformed both Sully and Cyrus ?
Mind you, it's not by a wide margin, but still...

Poor Hammy and Vicky were doomed by their peaceweight, and they very rarely were able to overcome it (mainly taking advantage of the few occurences where border tension and religious differences sent the low peaceweights at one another's throats.

This map felt like the most balanced so far, and I ended up selecting it for the Championship.
The bottom positions were the best, but that was balanced by the fact they were the most exposed to deadly conflicts.
The top right position usually led to the best early game research.
Top left and top center were subpar, but still could be made to work occasionally.

Spoiler Game 3 :

None of the leaders in that field felt top material.
Charlie and Boudica I consider so far as rather poor.
Stalin so far has performed better than the fraud I suspected him to be, but hasn't been exactly stellar either.
Mao does feel a fraud, but then there was his Opening Round result.
Saladin feels undervalued, and his Survivor Season 7 results have redeemed him somewhat in people's view. But Championship material ??
Qin was the only one which felt right : I would be shocked if he won the Championship, but he's been so far consistent enough that reaching it seems fair.

And in the end, that's what happened : Qin and Saladin make it. But Saladin being actually dominant was pretty unexpected.

 

[Keler]

Darius winning 6 times yet scores less than others with 2 victories in game 4 kind of gives signals victories are not that valued compared to survival. I am excited to see what your new formula will be
Also surprised to see Mansa Musa winning that many games against Justinian in the play offs.

 

[Thrasybulos]

S2 Championship

If S1's result was unexpected, how about this :

Spoiler Championship :

This was a field where 4 leaders cannot declare at Pleased, and with the other two unlikely to do so.
One of Justinian or Saladin tended thus to be a marked man : they were the two most likely to found the early religions, and spread was usually unequal, leading to a religious block and a pariah. Justinian did better than Saladin because... he's just a stronger AI ?
Willem fared poorly, as he did in the previous Championship game : it would seem that his high risk game plan doesn't work too well when there are no high peace distractions around.
Hannibal often delays culture far too long, which leads to a weak early game. And by the time he could do something, if he's survived, he can't because Cannot Plot at Pleased.

The real surprise was that no AI was dominant. S1's Championship was dominated by Shaka and HC ; here, with the exception of Willem and possibly Saladin (he did throw a few games by delaying a winning attack until it became a losing attack), all felt like they had a shot.

In the end, in a game with few opportunities, was that an actual shocker that De Gaulle's opportunistic AI would come on top ?

Now, someone go and tell Sullla that De Gaulle was S3's best AI !

 

[Keler]

On the other hand based on 5/2 finish points the results become:
Justinian: 35
De Gaulle: 33
Hannibal: 22
Qin Shi Huang: 22
Saladin: 15
Willem van Oranje: 13

At least I also see De Gaulle high on my rankings too, top 15 AI more or less, consistency is good