How do I tell if a friend is cheating?

[JohnTheBaptist]

We are a group of 5 friends that usually play games together. We recently picked up Civ 5 and have been playing it quite a bit.

We always add AIs to our games too. We have a turn timer on, and usually after we're done with our time (but the turn timer has not run out) it takes some time for the AIs to finish up too and for the next turn to start. This friend claims it's because of overall computer performance, and I don't know enough about the game to dispute it.

Because of this, he always insists he should host, his game is installed on an SSD drive, and he has the fastest internet connection between all of us, and around the same processor.

Some other factors that have made me suspicious are:
a)He's the most likely to cheat in any game. The rest of us don't like cheating at all. But he always feels like he should win and can get grumpy when he doesn't.

b) Some crashes have been happening now that he's hosting that were not happening when anyone else was hosting. Sometimes it goes from game to loading screen back to game without anyone actually getting disconnected/crashing. Or sometimes he just crashes and the host gets passed over.

c) He always seems to have the surprisingly biggest army, best starting location, find the best random wonders, etc.

Is he cheating?

 

[Foffaren]

A. Oppinion.
B. Normal in civ5 multiplayer. Happens now and then. More frequently when you have more players.
C. Maybe he's just better than you guys? Not that hard to plan city location to max productivity.

 

[sendos]

A) Unless I see actual evidence of noticeable cheats, it's just opinion as Foff said. Then again, if you check leadership, there are people who claim to beat the game in 0 turns and end up getting 100,000 points. That cheat probably is similar to the Age of Empires cheat that enables you to "defeat" other factions by a simple command. Other than that, this person you accuse of cheating is probably a person who knows how to play.
B) Crashing is a big issue if you're hosting. Other issues involve connection freezes and when someone can't end turn and the game takes a very long time.
C) Biggest army: probably he tries to either go for domination or intimidate you guys from attacking him. Best starting location: does he have legendary start enabled? Otherwise, he's just lucky, but if he is constantly starting next to salt, then I might understand some of your suspicions.

 

[CraigMak]

I think that cheating is very unlikely. It Sounds like he's just better than you guys and you think he has better land and natural wonders when in fact he just grabs the stuff first.

Biggest army allows you to bully city states and get lots of money for free. This can snowball into a pretty big advantage.

 

[reddishrecue]

I have no idea, but a random stranger showed me a cheat once where he or she took all my cities except for my capital. However, I won that game.

 

[Smote]

Yeah, the trading exploit. Its a pretty big cheat but its very obvious.

 

[reddishrecue]

You can easily tell if someone is cheating online because it is obvious like the trading exploit for example.

 

[klaskeren]

you just started playing civ V? I think that the probability of him cheating is very low.

 

[Diesel47]

Maybe he just goes tradition all the time