Which AI's do you see tend to dominate your games and turn into snowballing menaces?
I don't mean people who spawn beside you and threaten to annihilate you, but have little chance of actually winning the game as a whole (ie. Shaka, who tends to fall behind technologically after the medieval no matter how many people he kills... He also earns the ire of the world and subsequently gets gangbanged, leaving him with little actual opportunity to win games as an AI).
I mean people who are a threat, start to finish, to your victory, not necessarily militarily but on an overall scale.
For me, I've found that Alex, Darius, and Catherine are consistently the strongest and most snowbally AI civ leaders.
Alex because he will have a dangerous army from start to finish, but he won't fall behind on science or policies either because of his UA and the AI's tendency to spam buy city states to support its city growth for science and culture. Not to mention he will always have a giant military, and he will always have oil for airplanes. A huge threat to diplomacy and domination victory, not to mention not a neighbour you want to spawn beside.
Darius, despite not being a heavy warmonger and oft times going tradition, is ridiculously good at it. He will skyrocket ahead of the competition in production (AI gets more happiness AND golden ages), science, policies, and wonders, and become an extremely dangerous opponent whether or not you decide to go to war with him. He will pose a threat to both cultural and science victories (I've seen him go rationalism way too often) if not taken care of quickly.
Catherine has massive production boosts, and the AI tends to use that production for more settlers, army, and wonders. Name it and you've got it. Not only that, but despite her city spamming tendencies she somehow keeps very strong on the science side, on top of oft times maintaining a considerable military presence. The UA does tend to fall off a bit during the late game, however, but a strong early game usually translates to a snowballing unbeatable position, which unless the Catherine AI decided to go piety, she will usually get. She is a threat to science and culture victory, and occasionally also a threat to domination.
Runner up mentions for Atilla, Shaka, Dido, and the Khan.
The problem with them is that they tend to fall off in the mid-late game and become irrelevant because they spent the entire early game focusing on military rather than infrastructure or science, and they themselves and very little chance of actually winning the game as a whole. Atilla, in particular, is infamous for this: It will destroy neighbouring AIs in the early game but burn their cities, making their conquests essentially fruitless in the long run. Eventually other people start settling where those cities were while Atilla keeps making armies, and Atilla quickly becomes irrelevant. A similar case for all of the above mentioned, except they tend to have just a bit more sustainability than Atilla. Never a neighbour you want around, and a danger to your civlization's survival for sure, but they're not necessarily good at ensuring their own survival or victory by any means.
I don't mean people who spawn beside you and threaten to annihilate you, but have little chance of actually winning the game as a whole (ie. Shaka, who tends to fall behind technologically after the medieval no matter how many people he kills... He also earns the ire of the world and subsequently gets gangbanged, leaving him with little actual opportunity to win games as an AI).
I mean people who are a threat, start to finish, to your victory, not necessarily militarily but on an overall scale.
For me, I've found that Alex, Darius, and Catherine are consistently the strongest and most snowbally AI civ leaders.
Alex because he will have a dangerous army from start to finish, but he won't fall behind on science or policies either because of his UA and the AI's tendency to spam buy city states to support its city growth for science and culture. Not to mention he will always have a giant military, and he will always have oil for airplanes. A huge threat to diplomacy and domination victory, not to mention not a neighbour you want to spawn beside.
Darius, despite not being a heavy warmonger and oft times going tradition, is ridiculously good at it. He will skyrocket ahead of the competition in production (AI gets more happiness AND golden ages), science, policies, and wonders, and become an extremely dangerous opponent whether or not you decide to go to war with him. He will pose a threat to both cultural and science victories (I've seen him go rationalism way too often) if not taken care of quickly.
Catherine has massive production boosts, and the AI tends to use that production for more settlers, army, and wonders. Name it and you've got it. Not only that, but despite her city spamming tendencies she somehow keeps very strong on the science side, on top of oft times maintaining a considerable military presence. The UA does tend to fall off a bit during the late game, however, but a strong early game usually translates to a snowballing unbeatable position, which unless the Catherine AI decided to go piety, she will usually get. She is a threat to science and culture victory, and occasionally also a threat to domination.
Runner up mentions for Atilla, Shaka, Dido, and the Khan.
The problem with them is that they tend to fall off in the mid-late game and become irrelevant because they spent the entire early game focusing on military rather than infrastructure or science, and they themselves and very little chance of actually winning the game as a whole. Atilla, in particular, is infamous for this: It will destroy neighbouring AIs in the early game but burn their cities, making their conquests essentially fruitless in the long run. Eventually other people start settling where those cities were while Atilla keeps making armies, and Atilla quickly becomes irrelevant. A similar case for all of the above mentioned, except they tend to have just a bit more sustainability than Atilla. Never a neighbour you want around, and a danger to your civlization's survival for sure, but they're not necessarily good at ensuring their own survival or victory by any means.
