After a few more games I must say that the AI aggression has definitely decreased, and more than that the AI disposition at building huge armies has also drastically decreased.
I played so far 6 games
1) Arabia, Emperor, standard, inland sea
2) Morocco, Emperor, small, Pangaea
3) France, Emperor, standard, small continents
4) Zulu, Emperor, standard, Hemisphere
5) Zulu, Prince, small (raised to 8 civs), Hemisphere
6) Poland, Prince, standard, small continents
-The first game as Arabia didn't go well, I had heavy development issue and I got attacked by Assyria with a huge army supported by siege weapons, this was fairly early and I got killed out of the game.
This didn't happen very frequently in my G&K but sometimes a bad start would lead to that.
-The second game I was never attacked by anyone, However the Zulu went on an early conquest. They conquered a city state then they proceeded to erase Assyria from the map and they started a war with Poland. At that point I attacked them and that became an incredibly long war that lasted almost the whole game. The AI has been pretty clever at using those Impi. It usually came at me with three of them at a time. I only had regular cannons and so it wasn't easy.
Late game Poland fought against the weakened Zulu and the Shoshone after it became a major power. The game was won by me with a diplomatic victory.
I had prepared myself for a Poland invasion, but it never came.
-The third game as France again I was never attacked by anyone. Assyria however started an early conquest against Brazil which was successful. I took that chance to DoW on them and I almost wiped them out of the map living them with just a small city that they founded when they were at war with me. Brazil has been ambivalent with me the whole game because I had liberated their capital but I kept one of their cities for me. They never attacked me but they never were friendly until we adopted the same ideology.
As Assyria became a weakling everyone started to hate and denounce them. During the industrial era Brazil finally got its revenge and erased them from the map.
Meanwhile I attacked Venice and conquered its capital. Again Venice became weak and not much later Morocco, Brazil and the Shoshone started a war against her.
Portugal hated me with a passion and late game built a good army but mine was bigger, they never attacked me nor anyone the whole game.
Late game Indonesia attacked and conquered a Brazilian colony in their own continent.
The Shoshone then asked me to attack Gahja Mada and I accepted. I can't say if he would've attacked anyway. At any rate Indonesia and the Shoshone were fairly equal in military power and without my help it would have been a stall.
The game ended with a cultural victory from me.
-Fourth Game as the Zulu, this one didn't go as I expected. I tried to go for an early conquest which was initially successful. I conquered an Inca city and then I wiped Austria from the map. The Inca army was decent, Austria had basically nothing.
After that I found myself struggling very badly with low happiness and the slow development took a toll on me while someone in the other continent got all the wonders I needed. Even in my own continent I was getting behind in tech.
Span attacked me with a consistent army of conquistadors and Tercio. It managed to conquer one of my cities. I took it back and tried to retaliate but I was getting to many losses.
Again the AI changes are pretty noticeable for me. The AI taking one my cities by land was a very rare occurrence even if it came at me with a huge army.
Moreover a failed invasion always resulted in leaving the AI without defenses, making it an easy conquest for me, it is no longer the case.
Seeing as how I was slow teching and seeing as how one of my cities pop plummeted from 12 to 3, I abandoned the game.
-Fifth game, I decided to lower the difficulty but I made the map more crowded with 8 civs on a small map. In the beginning I struggled to get a foothold on the continent because somehow there were 5 of us there instead of the expected 4.
Babylon Attacked me first, but that was about the time I got my Impi, right when I was building an army to start my first conquest.
Perhaps because it was Prince difficulty, this time fending off the enemy and conquering its city was moderately easy.
Then I attacked Portugal which was going for wonders and religion. Portugal had basically no army and went down incredibly easy.
At that point everyone in the continent hated me, the Chinese and the Danes were on my left and right sides, however they never DoW on me.
On the other continent Persia, Egypt and Arabia (funnily historically consistent neighbors) were all buddy buddy and lived and prospered together. Egypt particularly grew strong with tons of wonders and high tech (higher than mine). I invaded Egypt with Artillery and riflemen, surprisingly Egypt had basically no army and in spite of its superior technology it was conquered effortlessly.
Persia, which has always been one my strongest opponents in my past game, not only had a weak army but also an undeveloped one. Arabia had a more decent army but was stuck with Camel archers.
Well the only thing I had to fight against was my internal happiness, the rest was way too easy.
The only other war that wasn't initiated by me was by the danes against Babylon which only had its capital and a few unremarkable colonies.
The game ended with me conquering everyone.
-Sixth game I played as Poland and nobody ever DoW on me.
The first war in the planet was initiated by a very expansionist Inca against Carthago. This was around the late renaissance era for them. After the DoF with the Inca expired I attacked them and with a few help from Carthago and we removed them from the continent splitting the cities between us. The battle was only made difficult by very unfavorable terrain conditions, but otherwise it was easy and I was also quite above of them in technology.
I had contested borders with the Dutch, but they never attacked me. In G&K they would have done that with 100% certainty.
Again Portugal hated me and they were bordering with me, they never attacked me and only attacked Indonesia late game once they had but one city left.
The Indonesian were wiped out by Brazil which asked my help to attack them. I helped them a bit with my navy.
Even more late in the game The Dutch attacked Assyria which happened to found a colony in a small spot between me and the Dutch. Assyria fared pretty bad in that game. The Dutch conquered their colony a few turns before I won a space victory.
Conclusions:
-The AI tends to build less military units, being on par with them is a lot easier than I experienced in my past games. In my opinion this is due to lack of resources and a focus on other priorities.
-Some AI tend to have a higher focus on wonders and development, but that causes them to neglect their military to ******ed levels.
-The AI shows the same aggression I was used to against weaklings but almost none against opponents that are as strong as them. This makes them smarter but at the same times makes DoW against the player extremely unlikely, especially once the player becomes the dominant power. When an AI attacks a player they usually have a pretty consistent army and they are more dangerous than before.
Personal speculations:
I remember how many times in G&K I found myself thinking: "DoW on me? Is this guy serious? He thinks he can defeat me when he has just a few more units? I'm going to wipe him out of the planet!"
Now this doesn't happen anymore, the AI knows "better" than that. But somehow I miss it. I think that the reduced aggression is a good thing and the fact that the AI thinks twice before engaging in a war against an equally strong enemy is only objectively smart as it would just lead to a waste of resources. However I think the AI should act differently depending on the era. It should be more aggressive against bordering nations in early eras and then it should be more aggressive against other ideologies in later eras. Just a bit I guess.
