Best AI warmonger?

[henyo10]

im curious about this so i can look out for such dudes. most of the time for me the best warmonger would probably be shaka in my opinion because he sends gigantic stacks at me every game. Monty on the other hand just gets vassalized and being hated by everyone because he keeps changing to his own foudned religion and of course cause he's a ****

 

[mynystry]

yeah, shaka is kinda dangerous, specially in the beginning of the game, but he doesn't tech very well, the he is not so dangerous to the end of the game if you could control him in the early eras. on the other hand, hannibal can get pretty dangerous if he gets a sizeable territory.

 

[Bast]

Julius Caesar is pretty bad because he's the one AI that seems to be always going for a Conquest victory. Sooner or later he will come for you so don't leave him alone. Only leave him alone if he's so weak that he'll never pose a real challenge.

He's the one leader that I've seen constantly do well across all areas.

Like Shaka and Monty are aggressive but their techs are a joke.

 

[r_rolo1]

IMHO the best warmonger is by far Shaka, but only if he vassals someone that feeds him techs ( then he can be extremely dangerous... ). Alone.... JC, Justinian ( very prone to religious wars with cataphracts.... ), Hannibal ( the only Fin AI that knows how to fight IMHO ).....

 

[Ad Hoc]

i always seem to have problems with Alex, hordes of phalanxs everywhere

 

[Pacifist46]

i hate ragnar - if i have a border with him he always attacks.
genghis khan is also pretty hard.
Julius Caesar in the early game with praets - so annoying!

 

[GIO888]

There's a need to differentiate between the nutters and the real threats.

Monty is a nutter - he'd attack you with palm fronds. Any of the Russians are dangerous, they'll attack having bided their time with stacks of up-to-the-minute military units and spank your sorry behind. Same for the French leaders, and funnily enough, the Incan dude. I've been caught out a couple times by him - he looks so pastoral, doesn't he.

Shaka normally makes his move too soon, plus you know he's going to anyhoo (ditto Toku) so you make allowances.

I'm sure there are others........

 

[Desert-Fox]

The early warmongers are not very dangerous even if you 90% expect they declare war on you. You kill off some of their stacks and then take one of their cities and you get peace. Sooner or later they fall back in techs and they no longer be harmful for you. Shaka, Monty, Ragnar, Alexander... all of them are such kind of freaks.

But then lets take hannibal, justinian, zara, mehmed... they have their economy grown up and then come for you... You engage them 20 turns and then when you even get a peace their best friend wang, gandhi or mansa has electricity, radio and mass media when you get physics because for enaging wars you had path for rifling/assembly line. And then you see Broadway has been built in far away lands, 2 turns later Rock'n'Roll has been built... and then Hollywood + bonus Eiffel Tower. Then your feel that game is almost lost because of you lose by culture... if you are lucky and get internet first and then raze some of legendary cities then you can win but otherwise I have to restart.

 

[CCRunner]

Hannibal is the biggest late game military threat. I think Shaka is the worst in the early game.

 

[holiday_hawk]

i hate ragnar - if i have a border with him he always attacks.
genghis khan is also pretty hard.
Julius Caesar in the early game with praets - so annoying!

Every game Ragnar declares war on me, and what our relationship is don't or how far away i am matter he still does

 

[pangu]

Shaka in my opinion. The guy is very scary.

 

[The Almighty dF]

Shaka. To the point where I try to avoid playing games with him. He just spams weak units at me, pillaging all of my resources.
I'm not a warmonger so when he declares war I'm usually not well prepared, just a few defensive units per city.

 

[henyo10]

@The Almighty dF

had the same problem, he threw 16 cats at my holy city @_@ but he had only axemen and horse archers while i had macemen and such but man 16 cats?!? bringing an overkill amount of cats is cheap for me and so he took my holy city but i annihalted his stack.

 

[Fabien]

I agree that Shaka is quite good at fighting, especially against other, more peacefull AIs. Once he wiped out 2 other Civs on his big continent, (2 in total, the one I was inhabiting was a bit smaller and crowded with 3 other of my "Friends",) which was quite scary .

I've never actually seen the AI win a conquest or a domination victory, but then, it's pretty unlikely even for a player to achieve it.

 

[Stoney the I]

this should have been a poll, good subject

i vote Shaka , early game he usually beats my preparations, sometimes even when we are not direct neighbours.

overall: Ragnar
he spams so many units its ridiculous.
If he vassals somebody like mansu or korea, beware....

 

[The Almighty dF]

this should have been a poll, good subject

i vote Shaka , early game he usually beats my preparations, sometimes even when we are not direct neighbours.

overall: Ragnar
he spams so many units its ridiculous.
If he vassals somebody like mansu or korea, beware....

Ragnar is even worse if you're playing as him, or if a human is behind him.
I have a friend who, on his first game of Civ4, and on -noble- difficulty... managed to get a domination win. Accidentally.
He didn't know any strategies or really anything about the game. That's just how powerful Ragnar can be.

 

[oranges]

No one has mentioned it, but I think the effectiveness of various warmongers depends on map size to a relatively large extent. On huge maps, I always consider Shaka more of a nuisance than someone who will wipe me off the map. If he's nearby, I'm forced to build more military than I would otherwise and if he DoWs I'm at a disadvantage compared to other civs that either progress peacefully or wage less exhausting wars. Basically, he spoils the game for me, but never makes any significant gains for himself.
Unless extremely densely populated, huge maps offer enough space to counter his war machine and it takes him longer to arrive and send reinforcements. I imagine he is far more intimidating on small or even normal maps.
Hannibal gets my vote as the best AI warmonger - always a sizable army that will remain up-to-date throughout the game. He also tends to pick his wars more prudently, at least it appears that way from the end results. Shaka becomes a superpower only when he has a few poorly defended civs around. Most of the time, he ends up caught up in wars that do not yield enough to make up for the losses he suffers. Monty is even worse in this respect, but nobody mentioned him as the best warmonger

 

[Iranon]

I nominate Willem. Unlike most AI leaders, he actually seems to attack when it would benefit him rather than whenever he's bored. He invests just enough in his army to remain competitive and abuse total peacemongers while having a robust economy.

Catherine is similar, but easier bribed to war (which makes her an easier opponent if you pay a little attention)... actually, most Creative opponents are credible threats throughout the game.

 

[ICNP]

Yeah if someone like Shaka gets a Vassal then your in trouble. Bismarck can be fairly good at getting some Stacks but he isn't the greatest techer.

 

[Supr49er]

Shaka.