[BTS] Best AI?

unas876

Warlord
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Jul 23, 2016
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I have looked around a little and didn't find much on the topic. Anyways, I have seen it now multiple times that certain users have described Justinian as the best AI in the game and I think Lain also mentioned it in one of his videos.

My question is: why do people think Justinian is the best AI? What are the metrics? Is there a list about the best AI in the game?


I can think of some metrics myself:

-First impression. For example Ghandi is a great techer but he has a terrible first impression with most other leaders in the game and especially the warmongers usually start pummeling him pretty early in the game.

-Traits. PHI will be more useful to the AI than PRO just the same as for the human player. On the other hand, Justinian doesn't have the best traits ever, although you could consider IMP good for a Deity AI since they can expand quickly without much maintenance and IMP helps tremendously with that.

-UU, UB. Obvious.

-Trade restrictions. Leaders that don't easily OB don't get TRs (Toku). Leaders that are stingy with techs won't advance through the tech tree (Toku). Similar with trading resources.

-Slider balance. Some AI seem to run their sliders in a weird manner. For example SB typically seems to run his spy slider higher than his research slider or at least you'd think that since he constantly poisons everyones water.

-Unit build rate. If you don't build many units you're more likely to get wrecked in any potential war. On the other hand you don't have to pay much unit maintenance, but afaik Deity AI barely pay maintenance for those anyway.

-Favorite tile improvement. You'd assume that AI that cottage their rivers would do better than those that build farms everywhere. But that doesn't seem to be linear. There are strong AI that have different favorite tile improvements.

-War thresholds. Will an AI be considered more successful if it goes to war easily or seldomly? You'd think a middle ground would be best so that they can be strong techers but also dangerous.

There must be a few more, as can be seen in the Know Your Enemy topic in the Strategy Articles, but the ones I listed seem to be important.
 
I would echo Justinian as best AI. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think at higher difficulties AI gets less maintenance costs so they can build more cities.. makes imperialistic a stronger trait. Also AI change civics too often, makes SPI stronger and his personality traits seem to be the best .

However I also find Pacal to be a quite difficult opppnent.
 
It definitely depends on what qualities define the "best" AI. But if I isolated myself and just watched the AI play, I would expect civs like Justinian, Zara, Cathy or Huayna to win because they expand well and aren't afraid to conquer and vassalize other AI, but don't quite hit Montezuma-level-crazy-warmonger status. However, in more practical games where a human is actually playing, I would say Mansa Musa "Manipulates" the player into giving him an advantage because Mansa will trade monopoly techs and emphasizes research so heavily. Other research juggernauts like Pacal are also good.

Of course, as you've pointed out there are some civs that are always going to be trash (Toku, Sitting Bull, etc.).

If you're interested, Sulla has created several AI-on-AI tournaments ("AI Survivor") which you can watch or just read the results from. Although the tournaments used some weird settings (no tech trading, no vassals), the results do seem to point to certain civs being better than others.
 
As gaash mentioned, traits considered poor for the human can actually be a lot more beneficial to the AI. Imperialistic leaders tend to make the best AI, as their fast expansion is the key whereas they are not hampered by the costs the human feels. I think Justy is the best leader because of the IMP trait, and Spiritualistic helps too, but one important factor is his attitude (for and against). Justy tends to found an early religion and spread it fast, yet is not nearly as zealous as some leaders who do - like Izzy. Likewise, regardless of his religion, opponents tend to still view him rather favorablely. Point being, Justy tends to survive the early game rather unscathed such that he can expand and economy build for a long time before either raging on the map, or peaceful closing out with diplo or space. He also tends not to be overly aggressive early game, getting bogged down in pointless wars of attrition.

Joao is another leader who performs very strong in most games. Zara seems to do quite well too, and seems similar to Justy imo as regards attitudes (for or against).

Some recent all-AI tournaments were done here that proved much of this as well.

With that said, I've played enough of this game to gather than almost any AI has a chance to do well given their land and circumstances. I'd say Sitting Bull is probably one of the worst as he just seems not interested in winning the game, as well as generally being rather disliked by many of the AIs. Toku has obvious problems but he is at least more aggressive. De Gaulle and Brennus also perform rather poorly and foster general hatred among foes. Interestingly, De Gaulle is a great leader for the humans, one of the best really.
 
A lot depends on the map like always, proximity of players, roster etc, and just random chance, as the AIs are inherently unpredictable even if they have strong predilections. AZ has a video of a runaway Ragnar going for Cultural of all things, for example.

But generally:
Spoiler :
-any AI that has Imperialistic or Creative does well, consistently. It helps them grab more land, and with basically no penalty for them being too big as the difficulty increases, this only become more pronounced. Bigger is better for the AI. The era-based handicaps cement it: I have seen Deity AIs turning +300g or +400g profits at full blast 100% 80/20 science/espionage sliders, with thousands upon thousands banked to buy war bribes in some of the 18 AI FFA games I've observed during the late game where era boni are in full swing.

-Financial *can* have a late game effect after they are already big -- at any other time in the game it's more a function of the AIs' flavors that make them good techers or not (ALL of the FIN AIs are Science, Gold, or Culture flavors), and even then, the era-based handicaps that they get are still more powerful! Ragnar is a good example: he is FIN but only has military flavor, so he tends not to tech so great unless he gets huge. Which is highly dependent on how successful his nearly-guaranteed aggression turns out.

-AIs with certain flavors tend to do better consistently. Science and Culture flavor tends to make that AI a fast techer, Religion sometimes too (because many of the same techs are flagged by a combo of Religion/Science or Religion/Culture). Gold flavor can also produce fast techers as many of them are also Financial or pair with Religion/Culture flavor. Some Ais with so-so trait/civ boni (Brennus is one off the top my head) can tech like beasts if they want to and are staying out of trouble with a flavor like Religion.

-Religion itself is something all AIs care about, even a little bit (well maybe not Stalin so much). Even if they do not actively pursue founding one (lacking Religious/Culture flavor) religions being founded and spread by others is one of the major factors that determines the blocs that they will fall into along with peace weight.

-On that note, peace weight is another major determinant of future conflicts, alignments, etc. The "good" leaders are not necessarily that much less likely to get into wars, as they are likely to be attacked by the more "evil" leaders or may even dislike them enough to start those fights themselves. However, more of the "good" peace weight leaders are more likely to play nice with each other, and more of the "good" peace weight leaders have the better traits and flavors which can create peaceful blocs of techers. More of the "evil" peace weight leaders tend to have higher unit probs (which pushes towards war) and more of them plot at Pleased, etc. so they are more likely to get into fights, even with other "evil" leaders.

-The last major point is that the specific quirks of an AI that may sabotage all of the previous, or basic ground rules (like AIs will be much more likely to research military techs if at war) that override it. Extremely hostile AIs like Genghis pretty much eschew the advantages that land-grabbing traits like CRE/IMP give since they are so willing to lock themselves into war so readily.

For example, Willem is a FIN AI with Science and Gold flavors, which should turn him into a teching beast, and he can be, if left alone. Willem however has a middling peace weight value which means he can be universally be disliked or dislike others depending on how the religious game falls out (Willem being alone in his own religion is a death sentence for him), and plots at pleased, leading him into conflict rather easily, along with only fair unit prob leaving him weak to being hit.

Gandhi is a another favorite example of unpredictability for me: he's a good techer and tends to create a massive target on his back between doggedly pursuing religion and being so "good" on the peace weight scale, so it's often inevitable that he gets attacked and vassaled by somebody. BUT, if he gets big enough to survive said attack and the war forces him to turn that powerful tech rate on to military techs, he'll blow his typical opponents (Shaka, etc) out of the water with huge unit advantages. Or if he aligns a religious bloc alongside him, expect him to bribe war allies in left and right that might utterly crush his assailant.


Bleh. All that wordiness aside, there are a few stand out consistent powerful AIs from my observations. I wouldn't really say there is a "best" one as no one AI has the perfect storm of advantages, but several share many of them.

Spoiler The big dogs :
Zara - Creative trait helps grab land, Religion flavor makes a good techer, slightly above average unit prob and fairly "good" on peace weight. Zara tends to pick fights over religion but not with other "good" leaders on his own (he can be bribed easily enough) and can win them. Handily. Kind of a big friendly warmonger of sorts. His Oromo are way better than normal AI muskets due to all the first strikes and how well that works for AIs defending against other AIs. Zara is just downright tenacious: I've seen him get 5-way DoWed (a chain reaction set off by a bribe of mine), lose 40% of his cities and then take all of them back and beat the crap out of the nearest neighbor. He doesn't always do the best in the game, but he's consistently a contender left to his own devices and often very strong. Zara is one of the few AIs that will do perfectly fine if in his own religion alone.

Justinian - Imperialistic trait grabs land, Religion flavor makes him a good techer too, even better unit prob and UU than Zara make him a "better" warmonger. The cataphract is crazy good for an AI as all of them heavily favor Knights fairly early and it is actually capable of defeating Longbows. Why don't I think he's head and tails above Zara? Justinian is more likely to tie himself up with wonders, and Justinian cares more about religion which can be a double-edged sword that either turns him into a juggernauting suzerain or ends in his stagnation.

Cyrus - Imperialistic again, but none of the fast teching flavors. However, Cyrus does have an above-average unit prob, a Military flavor (makes him tech more advanced war units faster) and will have the most highly promoted units in the game this side of Boudica. The real secret to his success as far as I can tell is he's basically a middling warmonger but 1) Doesn't plot at Pleased 2) is right in the middle of the peace weight scale and 3) is Imperialistic along with these things. Only Justinian and Suleiman are similar in that regard, with Justin being more warmongerish and Suleiman being slightly less than Cyrus, though I can't tell you why Suleiman never seems to do nearly as well as either. Along with a high wonder affinity this causes him to stay out of wars longer and build up a lot more through IMP before religion finally tips his hand and he crushes somebody. More than the other 2 if Cyrus ends up getting strong he will be a HUGE problem for others due to his propensity to mass highly promoted units and how giant he can get, and the fact that he'll attack most of the field -- if he goes below Pleased.


Spoiler Less Consistent :

Joao - expands with the best of them, is a decent techer. Even stronger on multiple continent maps as this leads to him abusing his carracks (Astro line is Science flavor and so is J-man!), for expansive as well as aggressive purposes. Downfall tends to be that he gets too aggressive over religion combined with only fair unit prob.

Catherine - the BEST land grabber in the game. She is also a notoriously strong techer. Her unique bribe threshold and the ability to plot at Pleased get her into trouble with her only fair unit prob, and she often gets vassaled by a bigger, badder, real warmonger. In my experience she's always a problem for the human player in one way or another whether it's being crowded out by her, having the threat of her coming in on a bribe, or simply threatening with Space or Cultural victories consistently.

Julius Caesar - of the so-called "big warmongers" he tends to be the most consistent in his success and not relying on having a weak target to bowl over, even though he's slightly less aggressive than the true "radier" AIs (Ragnar, Shaka, Monty, Genghis, Alex, and Boudica) are. This is no doubt due to IMP trait and his powerful, highly used UU --iron is one of the resources that ANY AI bends over backwards for and so along with that IW and Swords are very common in early attack windows like the one the warmongers use! He's not exactly the best techer though, and like all of them, will run out of steam if he doesn't get big enough fast enough.

Suryavarman - Good land grabber, decent techer (Gold/Culture flavors), above average in unit prob AND aggressiveness. He's what a warmonger would be like if they were good at teching and land grabbing at the same time, and accordingly can do very well. His biggest problem is is being just a bit too aggressive (unit prob and can plot at pleased) to really get big enough to leverage it, especially with other big expanders nearby, though this can turn him into one of the worst runaways in the game in the same stroke! He also REALLY likes wonders for some reason, an example of being pulled in too many directions at the same time.

Huayna Capac - HC is considerably worse on AI than for a human, and his pitfalls are pretty obvious. He tends to under-expand and I see him turning into one of those annoying small nations that nonetheless still races through tech and snaps up wonders (fittingly, he is Gold flavor/FIN and IND) generally causing problems diplomatically similar to Gandhi, Rameses/Hatty, etc. The exception is he is THE BEST as doing this, and has the best runaway potential, yet at the same time is inexplicably overaggressive -- especially over religion -- and it gets him into trouble. I have never seen any AIs do as good as he can with so little size/land with he exception of Mansa though, and he's even better at wonder-whoring than him, so his potential is truly frightening.

Mansa Musa - super notorious techer, he also has a Religious bent that causes him to align with others quickly, and while not being unable to start infighting, often doesn't. Mansa is one of the AIs that can do so so much with so very little and due to his very open trading creates a rapid tech pace for all of his buddies as well, so he's quite a problem when his bloc is all nearly as advanced as he is and can protect him. He tends to be a target like Gandhi though and so often serves as someone else's supplemental booster.

Pacal - One of the "small guy" peacenik AIs that tech well with little land and like culture and religion. His particular angle is that Pacal is lower on the peace weight scale, leading to situations where he is more tolerated by the warmongers through that, often tolerated by the others peacy-peacers due to religious alignment, and acts like a dick to the human player. All the while he techs well and pushes culture hard.

Gandhi - powerful techer that shines in any game where he's not gonna be hit early on. His tech rate can be truly astounding sometimes through the combination of Culture flavor and mass GP being settled everywhere, especially if he snags Mids by some fluke. As I touched on a bit before, if he manages to turn this tech rate on to other tasks than racing for Lib or snapping up everything religious or cultural up to Divine Right, you might find him turn into a sort of reverse sweeper where he's the most technically advanced military power whooping up on warmongers he doesn't like or that attack him first...this actually happened in one of Sullla's AI tourney games! Obviously Gandhi doesn't do this very often and someone similar like Asoka is more consistent, it's his potential to do this that is so great and his strong tech power that makes him a great AI. I find that Gandhi makes a great "pet" AI : you vassal him early or protect him and he makes a fantastic trading partner for a lot of the top end of the tech tree you may be too busy to care about.

Elizabeth - Yet another entry in the camp of those small, efficient techer AIs. Liz is just about the only AI that can keep pace with Mansa honestly, but only if she wants to: her strong Cultural bent often leads her into wacky tech paths, and having a massive target on her back for the warmongers often stifle her. Still, shy of Mansa she has an UNGODLY tech rate when she chooses to turn it on: my last 18civ Earth game I played she was out-teching the whole world (me included, as a 25 city GLH + Astro Inca) with only 3 cities after losing 2 of her previous mainland ones to War and AP reassignment! Her major downside is being weak as a kitten militarily, though like all of these small efficient AIs, I'd hate to see what she'd be as 20+ city runaway monster, it'd boggle the mind.



 
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I would also mention Hannibal, he gets along well with the dangerous warmongers usually (same peaceweight as Shaka).
Techs & trades well, builds units at 30% and has no real weakness.
 
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