Best AI leaders

[beorn]

I am curious as to others' experience. At present, which leaders do you think provide the best competition as AI run civs?

 

[Shadius]

Well, the one civilization that sticks out is definitely the Malakim.

I have learned to hate Varn Gossam, really. Not only does he usually shoot to the top of the charts - he also seems quick to declare war on you solely on base of religion, even if you're a good civ as well and have acted like his bestest of friends throughout the game. And as if that's not bad enough, he also gives you this condescending speech about "seeing only darkness when he looks at you". All this when he's the one declaring war on a fellow good-aligned civilizations for petty reasons.

So yeah. The Malakim have my vote.

Asides from that, the Ljosalfar and the Luchuirp (surprisingly enough) most always seem to be highly successful. In contrast, it seems like the Khazad are most always a few hundred points behind anyone else.

 

[attackdrone]

Asides from that, the Ljosalfar and the Luchuirp (surprisingly enough) most always seem to be highly successful. In contrast, it seems like the Khazad are most always a few hundred points behind anyone else.

The Khazad do not build cities until their gold/city level breaks 100 I believe. This means they do not expand in the early game and run out of space for new cities before they are able to build any.

 

[kenken244]

some of the time the perrson in first place has a serious disadvantage compared to everyone else. like one time it was the sidar in first place and their civ isnt even finished yet! another time it mwas the lauaun on a highlands map, and another time it was cardith, who hasnt even adopted a religion yet

 

[katika]

In addition to the Malakim, the Balseraphs and Calabim tend to do very well. Varn definitely seems to get some strange bonus. I've seen him have more points than 2nd and 3rd combined. How does he do it?

 

[Polycrates]

I've always found the Hippus to do very well. They REX par excellence (and the mod really rewards rexing) into a big empire, they build up forces early and then they actually declare war and use their fast troops for some serious early-game pillaging, which can really mash up an economy.

Luchuirp seem to lose Barnaxus at least ten times in pretty much every game I've ever played.

 

[R0GERSHRUBBER]

In addition to the Malakim, the Balseraphs and Calabim tend to do very well. Varn definitely seems to get some strange bonus. I've seen him have more points than 2nd and 3rd combined. How does he do it?

Financial and Creative are great traits, and I think his starting placement tends to be around floodplains.

I've seen the Ljosalfar dominate as well, particularly on forest heavy and tribal hut heavy maps. If they explore with both scouts and get some good results from the many goodie huts they find, they're bound to do well.

I don't think I've ever seen the Khazad AI winning.

The Elohim do very well and would likely win (via AoL) of the AIs if I didn't beat them to another victory.

 

[brainpan]

I think AI games are pretty useless except for noob orientation. An experienced player about has to set the difficulty to deity to get a challenge from the bots.

That said, I think Tsunke of Hippus is one of the better AI players. In my experience, he consistantly produces a lot of fast-moving units and plays fairly aggressively with them. It was after being harried by him in a MP game that I discovered how fun that civ can be to play.

My final advice is to avoid playing with magic-using AI civs since they don't seem to take full advantage of that ability.

 

[Chandrasekhar]

Oddly enough, Morgoth tends to do well, that I've seen. Very odd, as I think he has a non-working trait.

 

[vorshlumpf]

Since each of my games has 16 random AIs in them, I tend to see them all leaders to some degree or another.

Bannor - average
Malakim - above average
Elohim - good
Luchuirp - below average
Kuriotates - below average
Ljosalfar - above average; good with Arendel
Khazad - bad
Sidar - average
Lanun - average
Grigori - average
Hippus - average with Rhoanna; above average with Tasunke
Amurites - average
Doviello - bad
Balseraphs - above average
Clan of Embers - average
Svartalfar - average
Calabim - average
Sheaim - average
Illians - below average

I'd have to say that Arendel Phaedra is the toughest competitor, overall, with Ethne the White coming in close behind. My least favourite neighbours are Tasunke (I call him "The Stinker" - yeah, lame, I know...) and either Balseraph leader. I generally haven't had the same issues with Varn as others have hand, though I can certainly see the potential.

The worst two are Khazad and Doviello, even though the former almost always founds Runes of Kilmorph.

 

[[NWO]_Valis]

Hippus in my games always get to the upper regions of the charts but when it comes to war...pathetic. Their raids into my territory are mostly annoying and I lose lots of workers, it is there were I learn that they need a little break for the war time. The raiders became then my learning dummies for my new units while my experienced ones take the poorly defended cities.

Ethne the White is also one of the better opponents, almost always at the top in the charts if she is in the game.

 

[snarko]

I don't really look at leaders, I look at the civilizations.

Elohim tend to tech like mad in my games. It's not uncommon for them to have more techs I don't know than the rest combined - and I rarely play with less than 10 AIs. They pretty much always found order (but rarely switch to it as runes or fol will have spread to their lands).
If it's not the Elohim doing well it's the Balseraph. Somehow they manage to found more cities than others. For example in one very crowded game that comes to mind they had four cities while most others, including me, had two. If I find them near me I prepare for war.
Svartalfar do very well early in my games. Really well, have seen them have twice the power of anyone else. But beyond the first 100-200 turns they start to decline, late game being average or worse.

Anyone else depends on circumstances or I just haven't been paying enough attention. Except the Khazad, they are horrible. The only time I've seen them do well was a teamgame where they were allied to the Balseraph.

 

[Jean Elcard]

Khazad are pretty powerful if played by me, but I'm a NI not an AI. Nevertheless, I have seen the Khazad being very powerful in the middle and late game played by an AI as well. Thy are just a bit slow at the beginning, but when the money starts pouring in, they are great.

 

[Grey Fox]

Elohim usually does well in my games, and the Ljosalfar leaders, Cardith Lorda usually get a strong economy it seems. And his cultural borders help him put pressure on his neighbors (the more the smaller the map is). Malakim usually seem to do well too, and Balseraph as well.

 

[onedreamer]

My list is in bold, and is quite different. Notably, evil civs are always at disadvantage vs good civs, unless I play evil and help them; or especially if I play good and oppose them.

Bannor - average bad
Malakim - above average good
Elohim - good good
Luchuirp - below average average
Kuriotates - below average very bad
Ljosalfar - above average; good with Arendel above avg / good
Khazad - bad below average
Sidar - average N/A
Lanun - average below average
Grigori - average below average
Hippus - average with Rhoanna; above average with Tasunke average
Amurites - average average
Doviello - bad below average
Balseraphs - above average average
Clan of Embers - average average / above avg
Svartalfar - average good
Calabim - average below average
Sheaim - average below average
Illians - below average N/A

 

[onedreamer]

Cardith Lorda usually get a strong economy it seems. And his cultural borders help him put pressure on his neighbors (the more the smaller the map is).

I find that the cultural pressure from Cardith is usually the cause of his death. I can't remember one game in which Cardith Lorda survived till the end. His high cultural pressure provokes wars, and once he is at war he's toasted. He has no means of defense, his UU kicks in when he's already dead, his outposts are undefendable by the AI because it doesn't know the meaning of reinforcements. He might have a strong economy, but if someone declares on him, and this does normally happen, that strong economy won't help him much to survive... Also I don't believe he has such a strong economy. I never saw him owning a big "standing army", as opposed for example to the elves. The elves really have a healthy economy, and you can see it from the sheer number of units they can field. I recognize he might be better in smaller maps, because the total number of cities is inferior and the proportion tends toward his super-cities. However in a large map, or Highlands standard map, it's just plainly better to have 7-8 good cities than 3-4 super cities. Not to mention that the AI is incapable of exploiting the sprawling trait at its best as a human player can do.

 

[Sarisin]

My list is in bold, and is quite different. Notably, evil civs are always at disadvantage vs good civs, unless I play evil and help them; or especially if I play good and oppose them.

I agree with your general statement that the AI Evil civs seem to do poorly, especially against Good civs. When I have played one (Sheaim in the past, and Perpentach my current game), they seem to fare much better. With Good or Neutral AI civs, though, they seem to fare OK most of the time.

Again, I have found in my last few games no Hyborem because the AI Evil civs were so poor.

 

[Arpymaster]

In my games Balseraphs, Malakin and Hippus usually are at the top. It takes half of the game for me to catch up and take them.

 

[felwar]

The Balseraphs tend to drive me nuts with their expanion, especially if I start too close to them. Regardless of which leader they have, they just seem to spread out much faster than anyone else.

 

[Grey Fox]

However in a large map, or Highlands standard map, it's just plainly better to have 7-8 good cities than 3-4 super cities.

Yeah well, I almost never play Large maps, and when I do, I usually play with high shores and 16 civs, so 4 cities is pretty decent amount, especially with his culture.

On a small map, he could basically win a domination victory, peacefully.