How is the AI after 2 Expansions?

[Green_Power]

The strategy for Epic speed is as follows:

1. Declare war
2. Wait for AI units to come and decimate them with archery units
3. Enter AIs now-empty lands and pillage, burn and capture to your fat black heart's content
4. Profit (cruise to your preferred victory).

This is how you do it on Standard too, but the thing is that on Epic the AI has no time to reinforce its forces before and during phase #3. On Marathon it's even more easy to wage war in this regard.

Sounds too exploity for my taste. Sure, the combat AI is terrible, but I don't think I would have fun playing a strategy like that. Why play at all?

And, that strategy will depend on certain factors, like the archery technology you have, the type of terrain around you, and the difficulty level. Not sure if that works that well on Immortal and Diety.

 

[redwings1340]

Stopped reading when you said you moved back to emperor. For me, there is no fun playing a game where the chance to lose is 0%.

The point is that, sure, you can beat deity sometimes and immortal most of the time by going tradition/consulates/rationalism most of the time while focusing on science above all else, but what if I want to roleplay as a massive Roman empire going liberty/honor and city spamming, or play as a money hogging Venice with exploration/commerce with diplo victory off? These aren't optimal builds, and on deity you'll be punished for them, but on emperor you can get away with it and have more fun in the process, because you'll be doing something different.

 

[illusiondrmr]

but what if I want to roleplay as a massive Roman empire going liberty/honor and city spamming, or play as a money hogging Venice with exploration/commerce with diplo victory off? These aren't optimal builds, and on deity you'll be punished for them, but on emperor you can get away with it and have more fun in the process, because you'll be doing something different.

Because for me, and im sure for the majority of hardcore experienced CIV fanatics, there is no fun playing against a stupid AI that cant even avoid a freaking citadel or put melee units in front of archers. As i said, below deity there is no challenge and for me no fun. On the other hand, playing diety is still no fun, cause u need to do certain things to achieve a win. In other words, we need a better AI (especially combat wise) and not 8 levels of difficulty with some stupid AI bonuses.

Im already missing stacks of doom..

 

[Greizer85]

Sounds too exploity for my taste. Sure, the combat AI is terrible, but I don't think I would have fun playing a strategy like that. Why play at all?

I don't often go for Domination for this very reason. It's just tedium in wasting the brain-dead AIs one after another. Otoh I can't stomach gimping myself on purpose and entering their lands before I've killed all their units (or using melee units, or some other suboptimal strategy).

And, that strategy will depend on certain factors, like the archery technology you have, the type of terrain around you, and the difficulty level. Not sure if that works that well on Immortal and Diety.

Trust me, it works well enough. Well -- on Deity the AI spams so much troops that you will have some trouble on Standard speed. One of the reasons why I don't play Deity. I still like to kill an AI or two on Immortal, simply to get access to prime territory; but I generally stop after that and go for another victory type.

 

[Alatan]

There is a reason why "difficulty" in civ5 means only more % bonuses for AI.
To put it bluntly: AI is awful and it will never change until civ6.

Why do you whink the AI will get better in civ6 ? Everything they can code then they can code now + they already have tested game mechanics, numbers, curves etc.

I have played a lot of strategy games and AI there sucked as well, aldough most of them were rts.

Does anyone actualy know a game that has a good AI ?