Hardest 5 AI's

[Gyspsysmoke]

I have begun to develop a warmongering strategy and I want to test it against the worst AI's before I move up a difficulty level to Prince (I have only completed 3 games with it, about to complete the 4th, first time with 5 other AI's).

So far the games have either been really quick (early conquer) or I have been able to make deals with my neighboring AI and use them as a sheild against the others as I conquer them 1 by 1.

I think I might have problems maintaining my levels of research/economy/production (even at Noble) if I was dealing with a bunch of insane AI's who wanted to end my existence (instead of vice versa).

From what I have read here, we are talking Japan (can't think of his name), Isabella, Napoleon, Monty and who else?

 

[Strauss]

Alexander (Greece) also tends to be quite the warmonger. Julius Caesar (Rome) is also dangerous, he often joins in on dogpiling other civs.

 

[Nilrim]

Keep in mind that some AI like Monty are 'warmongers' who are not very good at it. I like seeing Monty in my games means I know I get to kick some butt

 

[StackofDOOM]

It all depends on the starting location. If you can keep Julius happy and away from iron, he's pretty harmless.

 

[StackofDOOM]

Anyway, I HATE Isabela

 

[Nilrim]

Its Katie I really hate! I can't stand that little hair flip she does when she won't give me what I want and I always have a tough game if she is in it.

 

[Marmoset]

I'd have to nominate Huayna Capac as one of them - he seems do well in tech in my games and finds a way to show up with a strong stack of units on my doorstep. Maybe it's one of the reasons I've been playing as the Incas a lot lately.

In general I find most of the warmongers to be the least dangerous, although a pain in the butt. In my current game Isabella decided to declare war on me because I wouldn't give her most of my gold, despite the fact she didn't have troops in place for an invasion, had a weaker military, worse tech, and I had no state religion so there wasn't the 'heathen' problem. So of course I thanked her for her donation of 3 Spanish cities, and I will shortly take the rest.

So I'd go with Capac, Qin Shi Huang, probably one of the Russians, maybe Saladin, Napoleon. Most of these seem to be the most balanced to me. Warmongers with inferior tech and strategy (Montezuma, Isabella) aren't as hard if you're playing as a warmonger- same for those with better tech that tend to leave themselves vulnerable (such as Mansa Musa).

 

[colony]

I find that the harder AIs to play against generally are the aggressive ones, and the problem gets worse going up the levels (the AI gets cheaper units and techs, and lowered support costs, so the aggressive leaders son't hurt their economy as much).

Both Khans, particularly Kublai have a habit of keeping up on military tech and building massive armies with enough offensive units to do a lot of damage if you're not prepared. If Monty gets off to a good start, as in wiping out another civ, then he can be deadly too, but generally he's too aggressive. Alexander and Napoleon both love sneak attacks, usually followed with a couple of big stacks.

I find Mansa and Catherine hard to play against too if I can't get to them early, as they can both have incredible research rates with only very small empires, and because of this it means you have to time wars on them later in the game well, or you'll end up with Knights and Maces facing Grenadiers (although that did only happen once, when I was going for a quick Domination win).

So if you want to make it hard, I'd choose Kublai Khan, Monty, Caeser, Alexander and Mansa (gives them room to expand when he gets wiped out. If he doesn't he could runaway with a tech lead).

 

[Vonreuter]

Mansa Musa. He really hangs on in the tech race and he never seems to anger anybody else but me. Gandhi is similar, but he often gets ground in a war machine.

I've never had any trouble with Roosevelt, but George Washington seems to rock in the current game I'm playing. It's all about whether he gets to expand his empire to really get the advantages of his excellent traits in effect. Financial + Organized + Big empire = Unstoppable victory. Besides, George loves Universal Suffrage, which works really well with a lot of cottages.

Montezuma is chaotic and downright scary in the early game, but later he is like the dog with a bark but no bite. He can still be annoying and force you to defend your provinces when you'd have a lot more better things to do, like researching tech and building all those buildings you get in the late Middle Ages or the Renaissance period.

Alexander is similar to Montezuma, just a little bit more restrained. He's still psychotic and will use any opportunity to his advantage unlike Monty, who doesn't necessarily need an opportunity to wage senseless war.

Tokugawa is a lot more dangerous than Montezuma. He bides his time and gathers an immense military until suddenly letting slip his dogs of war. He can also keep up in the tech race.

But if I have to choose one: Mansa Musa. If I can choose two, Mansa Musa and Tokugawa.

 

[SPQR300]

From the few games I have played I consider Gandhi, Mansa Musa, and Frederick the strongest rivals. Roosevelt and Huayna Capec are powerful too. Gandhi is friendly with all the other civs, if you dont kill him off early, he will outtech you, and you won't stand a chance do anything against him. Mansa techs really fast, he is potentially an excellent ally. He is very good as a friend, you can keep him as an ally for a long while, and still you can kill him off easily whenever you want.(he neglects military :S) Frederick seems very balanced.
The worst AIs were Togukawa, Montezuma and Isabella in my games.

 

[TCGTRF]

I wanted to really practice warmongering, so I set up a Huge Pangaea map with the following opponents:

Saladin, Hatty, Napoleon, HC, Asoka, Tokugawa, MM, Genghis, Izzy and Alexander. I took Monty.

It developed very interestingly. It divided up on Religious lines with half including Napoleon, Izzy and Saladin being Buddhist and HC, Asoka and MM being Confucian. I ended up allying with the Confucian side, since I had a long border with HC and didn't want to spend a lot of time defending against him.

Tokugawa is isolationist on my west with Christianity and is biding his time while fighting a constant war with Hatty.

It's currently 1900 and Napoleon and Isabella are gone, Izzy around 1800 and Napoleon in 1872. Saladin is going under within the next 20 turns or so.

Top 4 scores are HC, me, MM and Tokugawa, all very close together.

Tokugawa and I each have about 20% of the continental area and 20% of the population. I expect a free-for-all starting as soon as Saladin and Genghis Khan are gone, or when Tokugawa loses his patience--he reminds me of a cat by a mousehole waiting to spring into action.

Very interesting thing happened, though. Usually switching to Free Religion doesn't hurt your relations. In this game, all of my relations started to deteriorate RAPIDLY when I switched. I almost had a war with HC before I switched back to his religion.

Tom

 

[Dairuka]

In order of most dangerous. Also note that the most dangerous AI's are opportunists, and the final two are the ones you have to worry about in the end-game.

#1. Alexander {Biggest Opportunist in the game.}
#2. Julius Caesar {Huge Opportunist if he has Iron.}
#3. Isabella {Will convert your neighbors to her religions, then dogpile you if you don't join the bandwagon.}
#4. Louis IV {He will be your rival in peaceful games.}
#5. Mansa Musa {He will be your rival in peaceful games.}

Montezuma, and Tokugawa are pushovers 9 times out of 10 in most games.

Tokugawa's Isolationism usually leaves him weak, and unless he takes over his neighbor, he'll remain weak for the duration of the game.

Montezuma tends to piss off more than just the human player, so he usually has 4-5 other people willing to dogpile on him when he randomly declares war.

 

[shahreevar]

all are easy if they have the same faith as you. however Tokugawa is veeeeeery touchy when it comes to dipomacy. i did get to have open borders with him twice (finally!!!) but he got cautious later on I when declared war on the Greeks, even though he was a heathen!!! hmmm

 

[Koelle]

I makes me suprise that no one mentions Catherine?

 

[MrCynical]

Well in my case I think the AI I least want to see are:

1)Mansa Musa - He invariably sets a blistering tech pace which is a real struggle to keep up with. Probably the most competant of the AI players.

2)Isabella - If anyone is going to throw a spanner in the works of my religious strategy it's her. She's also stabbed me in the back more times than I can count.

3)Tokuwaga - I try to be on good terms with the other civs, but I always end up with poor relations with this guy. He has also sneak attacked me on numerous occasions, and has a tendency to block me in and refuse to open borders.

4)Montezuma - Plain mad, and I know as soon as I find him I have to prepare for imminent war.

5)Alexander - another leader I can never trust, though not as bad as Montezuma. Still means I have to be constantly ready for war though.

 

[thenooblet22]

My 5 hardest Civilziations vary in these catagories:

Technology - Mansa Musa
Warmonger - Montezuma
Religion - Isabella
Wonders - Ghandi
Culture - Hatshepsut

I think these traits are the 5 pillars of power

 

[colony]

I makes me suprise that no one mentions Catherine?

Actually I did

But she just doesn't seem to be the best at anything, just good at everything, so there's generally a weakness to exploit if you don't wait too long. Mansa's better at teching, Cyrus and Hatty are better at cultural pressure, and any of the warmongers are better at attacking.

The reason I think people generally underestimate the really aggressive civs is that in general they don't do too well, but occasionally they can surprise you. With 3 aggressive leaders I find there's normally a reasonable chance that one of them will gain enough land early on to be able to compete in military tech, and with the huge discount on unit upgrades for the AI they can have a massive up to date military always keeping you on your guard.

As for Izzy I've found her to be relatively easy to deal with. Convert to her religion and she'll be your best friend. If you're not she'll attack even when she's relatively weak giving you an easy chance to destroy her

 

[Gyspsysmoke]

Started this game tonight, as per advice given here (last two AI's I left random, got FDR and and unknown). About 880 BC here, have a slight lead, was first to stonehenge, monty just beat me to oracle (money in the treasury at least), so now I am trying to get alphabet. Not getting oracle really screws up my plan to grab ironworking or horseback riding and deal with the barbs that way, will have to output axemen for a long time to get rid of them.

Current needs are ironworking, horseback riding, and I would like to get to code of laws first in order to found a religion (all of this is most likely impossible, probably will just focus on military).

Constant barbarians for the last 500 years, one city that I know of, most likely 3 others (to the north, west, and south respectively), these barbarians are really cramping my style and I am afraid these struggles will hurt me down the road (kept research at 90-100% but I want a 4th city and can't find time to raid the barb city because I am constantly defending my teritory).