AI Leader Behaviors

[Navelgazer]

This is just a thread to discuss predictable behavior/quirks from different leaders as played by the AI. Now that we've had the game for a month and a half, what are some things, either expected or less expected, that you can now expect to come from running into an AI leader in a game? For Example:

Expected:
• Xerxes, King of Kings is a wildly aggressive warmonger, and worth eliminating as early as possible if you're in the position to do so.
• Augustus will expand everywhere he can.
* Ada Lovelace is easy to be friends with (Her agenda is perhaps the most forgiving of all leaders, after all.)
• Napoleon is a total tool in either persona (and specifically will forward-settle you as hard as he can and immediately ask for assurances that you won't attack him.)

Less Expected:
* Friedrich will always be struggling, particularly if he starts as Egypt (in either persona)
* José Rizal and Ibn Battuta are easy for the player to make friends with, but every other AI will detest them.
* Xerxes, Achaemenid is kinda the Gilgabro of this game.

What have y'all been noticing?

 

[Yzman]

Bolivar is super easy to get along with as well, he wants you to have the happiest cities, which is common as player. I think Charlamagne wants celebrations, which is similar.

Xerves and Napoleon will start denouncing pretty quickly because they both want bad relations with you.

Confucious is always my best bud and everyone hates him.

When an AI offers an alliance check ongoing wars, 90% of the time they are trying to drag you into wars.

AI loves to dog pile. I don't know how many time one war declaration has led to everyone trying to go at me.

 

[evonannoredars]

Napoleon I've almost always been on good terms with, even if everyone else hates him - I'm constantly rejecting alliances to avoid being dragged into his wars

Himiko is always very friendly, unsurprisingly

 

[aelf]

I don't find these generalisations to be true. For example, I just had a game where Ibn Battuta denounced me for no reason and later declared war before he was even hostile. Xerxes KoK has generally been a menace, yes, but I've had a few games where he was chill. And Himiko is usually unfriendly to me, even though in all my games with her I've had her leading a distant land civ. Napoleon, on the other hand, has almost always been my friend.

FWIW, there are a couple of AI leaders that have always been a tool in my games, namely Augustus and Pachacuti.

In any case, the latest patch may have muddied the waters a bit. I'm quite sure that any observed patterns have changed since then.

 

[MrRadar]

I've played too few games yet to notice patterns, but it seems that AI leaders have no qualms about DoWing you from Friendly or even Helpful stance. However, if your unit count is respectable, and their's not so much, that seems to guarantee very peaceful ages, even if AI is outright hating you all the time.

 

[Siptah]

I've played too few games yet to notice patterns, but it seems that AI leaders have no qualms about DoWing you from Friendly or even Helpful stance. However, if your unit count is respectable, and their's not so much, that seems to guarantee very peaceful ages, even if AI is outright hating you all the time.

Really? I don‘t think I have ever been DoWed non-formally (which is only possible when the stance is at skull level), except when an alliance was involved. If you declare war on their ally (or their ally on you), then yes, they declare even while having another stance. But this is ok, in my opinion. Do you really get surprise DoWed without alliances?

 

[vorlon_mi]

Ibn Battuta likes people who explore. In the one game I played where he was present, he loved me, because I was always send scouts/ships/explorers to uncover tiles in the fog of war.

Charlemagne likes people who have celebrations. I usually go for narrative choices that provide happiness towards the next celebration, so he liked me also.

So far, I've had only one "Surprise War", declared by Xerxes, KoK. After taking some towns from him, he settled into perma-hate but never declared again. My army was larger than his in that game; my allies in that game didn't really share any borders with him, so they didn't cross swords.

Overall, I've not seen the leaders enough times to draw conclusions.

 

[MrRadar]

Really? I don‘t think I have ever been DoWed non-formally (which is only possible when the stance is at skull level), except when an alliance was involved. If you declare war on their ally (or their ally on you), then yes, they declare even while having another stance. But this is ok, in my opinion. Do you really get surprise DoWed without alliances?

Well, now so pressed I couldn't swear on that, I haven't got any screenshots, I only remember being quite surprised by some declarations from the side of friendly AIs out of the blue, and not as a consequence of some alliance.
I'll try to pay more attention. Anyway, I'm very much OK with this, that's better than unbreakable alliances in Civ6.

 

[Codeword Iroquois]

I think the ones I've noticed so far -
Napoleon has always been a bro - I think partially due to the fact that I tend to prefer good relations over alliances.
Jose Rizal has been a menace - no matter what I do, we end up hating each other, even if we start off on good terms.
Lafayette and I usually get on, but he also usually gets dogpiled by others.
Ibn Battuta tends to be friendly until late modern era, at which point he usually launches a fairly hopeless war.
I'm not sure I've noticed many other trends, but that's because I seem to always roll the same handful of AIs with minimal variations, so I haven't seen the others as much.

 

[Zaarin]

Ibn Battuta are easy for the player to make friends with

Easy to make friends with, but he's backstabbed me in every game I've seen him in.

 

[aelf]

Really? I don‘t think I have ever been DoWed non-formally (which is only possible when the stance is at skull level), except when an alliance was involved. If you declare war on their ally (or their ally on you), then yes, they declare even while having another stance. But this is ok, in my opinion. Do you really get surprise DoWed without alliances?

Yes, I've had this happen to me a few times. But surprise wars, in my experience, are always done when the AI is at least unfriendly. They either can't get to hostile or can't wait before declaring, for some reason.

 

[Navelgazer]

Weirdly, since the latest update, I've seen Himiko go from consistently friendly to me to immediately unfriendly (At least the Queen of Wa persona - I haven't run into High Shaman since the update.) Like, will spend influence to reject any proposal (even though it'd be, you know, free for her to support them) and DOW me as soon as she gets our relationship to thumbs-down.

Trung Trac, true to her agenda, seems to be easy to get along with if you're playing peacefully, and the opposite if you're successfully prosecuting wars. Which is mostly fine (if you're warmongering, you probably don't mind a rival hating you for having a strong military, after all) but can cause problems if you start around a lot of hostile IPs and get some early commander levels as a result of just trying to survive the early game.