What is the secret behind Alex AI being so consistent?

[Autoclave]

It's not just his CS allly flavor, it's something else besides that, nobody else combines better expansion, warmongering and diplomacy. He seems to be one of the few AI that has the priorities right.

Besides Alex I am only seeing consistency from Shaka, Atilla and Bismark. But they do lack some finesse in diplomacy (although Bismark does a great job as well).

Rest of the AI, a purely just a random coin toss depending on map start. They often do bad.

 

[Moriarte]

Don't forget Hiawatha. I think the secret is simple: early expansionists with good early UUs will have the upper hand.

 

[GoStu]

I think it's because his UA takes literally no effort nor does it require any special playstyle. Also, because being an early expansionist with powerful units to back it up isn't that hard either.

To compare, something like America's UA requires careful thought as to how to take advantage of the discount. (It's also not really that good haha). That and late units tends to make Washington a non-factor in most of my games.

 

[njmfff]

It's not just Alex's UA and UU that makes him good AI. He usually picks very good spots to place cities (not like most AIs that drop city one tile away from coast :angry: ) , does very good job on WC choices and due to his flavor for CS, he has good amount of culture, so he's not easily influenced.

Shaka on the other hand, likes to spam cities and Impi, but he often neglect culture. He's usually first to fall under influence (as well as Mongols), but as far as warmongering goes, Shaka and Huns are probably the best AIs.

In one of my recent games, The Huns attacked me with the largest army I have ever seen AI assembled in all of the games I've played. Too bad that I outtech him very far away, so it wasn't exactly fair fight. It was Knights and Cannons vs Infantry and Bombers\Artillery... but still, he had a swarm of Knights and Cannons. It looks like he's been doing nothing but just pumping units for like 100 turns after our last war.

Siam also plays very good for AI, he picks the right spots for cities and I often seen his capital grow up to 45+ pop. add in his UA and his CS flavor and he quickly becomes powerhouse.

other guys that I've seen snowball are France, Austria, Arabia, Celts and Japan (Oda is usually the one who wipes out most of the civs).

guys that never do anything: Songhai, Egypt, Spain, Babylon, Venice, England and Ottomans.

 

[Peng Qi]

Don't forget Hiawatha. I think the secret is simple: early expansionists with good early UUs will have the upper hand.

No, Hiawatha's secret is a forest start bias and unabashed chopping.

 

[Lord Alexander]

I normally see the Inca as a pretty consistent civ as well. But Alex also got wrecked by Siam in my latest game with Hiawatha.. Random personalities was off so I'm not sure what was up with that normally I would expect Alex to steam role the Siamese.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

I normally see the Inca as a pretty consistent civ as well. But Alex also got wrecked by Siam in my latest game with Hiawatha.. Random personalities was off so I'm not sure what was up with that normally I would expect Alex to steam role the Siamese.

I'm betting that matchup was decided by who was able to complete the most CS quests early. Siam's got the advantage in faith and culture quests so if he allied the right CSs he could get the leg up on Alex.

AI with brute str UUs like Alex's tend to do better at least in the early game since they don't take much planning. Hoplites are awesome in the classical era. Only reason people don't like them is that they have nothing to carry over and are in the dreaded lancer upgrade line. Add in that his UA makes allying CSs cheap and easy and he's going to be really strong early on. Usually it just snowballs from there.

He has a habit of rubbing other AI the wrong way so I usually denounce him early and make sure he becomes the "world-wide whipping boy". Best way to keep him reigned in imo.

 

[njmfff]

They should really change those unique pike units to upgrade into melee units and have Lancers as separate path (or at least, keep pike-lancer upgrade with non-unique units, but have them upgrade to melee units with UU).

Persian Immortals-turned-Rifles would be though to beat.

 

[civ54lyfe]

still not seeing Greek awesomeness consistently, yet plenty of flashes of good AI play from them. Immortal level Greece still does the patented early game attempt at rushing either me or another AI. sometimes they only try once, sometimes twice. but, if they failed their rushes, they essentially do nothing but dominate CS influence for the rest of the game. and once their economy begins to get overshadowed by me or the leading AI, it's certainly not impossible to buy his CS's. although i've heard all the horror stories of Greece having 800 Influence with some CS's etc etc. they at least are guaranteed to stick to their game plan, whether it steamrolls or stalls out.

 

[Enrico Swagolo]

I barely ever see Alex, but Catherine is in my games a lot.


I don't know what happened to her since BNW, but now she's usually failing. I've met her like... 5+ games in a row, not once did she do well. From the most reliable runaway, she turned into Isabella tier. Kinda miss her constant competence to be honest.


She's just like Napoleon - except Nappy stopped being a runaway with G&K, not BNw. Now with BNW and having his better UU replaced with a mediocre UI, UA replaced with one much inferior and requiring wonder hoarding (not gonna happen on higher difficulties, especially since anything with a slot is considered a must-have by enemy civs), he's just a non-issue.


Now the gonna-be-runaway guys are... I don't really know, to be honest. Augustus? He was awful in Vanilla, mediocre in G&K, now he's powerful every game. Usually Shaka does very well too, but I've seen him fail twice. Poland always either becomes an absolute beastly runaway or - if someone very agressive is nearby - feeds that guy into becoming a runaway.

'Murica is always half runaway. Never the best, never the second best, but he's reliable.

Harald and Pachacuti are often running away too, with Pachacuti being more efficient. Hair-ald loves getting the Hanging Gardens and his kinda-agressive gameplay may ensure he's a runaway. Both are usually my best friends.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

They should really change those unique pike units to upgrade into melee units and have Lancers as separate path (or at least, keep pike-lancer upgrade with non-unique units, but have them upgrade to melee units with UU).

Persian Immortals-turned-Rifles would be though to beat.

Or they could add a couple upgrades between the lancer and AT gun. It's that ridiculously long wait for an upgrade that really makes it bad.

 

[Krajzen]

The secret of Hiawatha is to throw the hell out all this expansion penalty nonsence as take every tile in the universe. I "banned" this bastard from my TSL maps (i mean, created by others true start location maps in which I change civ rooster to my own preferences) to avoid Iroquis being in the middle of Sahara, Siberia, Australia and damn continent of the magical dragons. I know that such continent doesn't exist, but probably this crazy bastard is even there. The worst thing in Hiawatha is that this sociopath lack empathy and basic understanding so much that he never realises I hate him, and always is neutral towards me.

It's not just his CS allly flavor, it's something else besides that, nobody else combines better expansion, warmongering and diplomacy. He seems to be one of the few AI that has the priorities right.

That's funny, because in my Civ "career" I have never ever seen Alexander achieving anything, he is always the biggest idiot both in diplomacy and in warfare, who begins ridiculous war, loses it and is gangraped by the whole world
One time when I was playing on earth huge map as Arabia this moron started the war with Rome and sent all forces to... Siam, through the worst terrain possible, and its army was massacred by Gandhi (if your army is massacred by Gandhi, you really suck) and barbarianns

Besides Alex I am only seeing consistency from Shaka, Atilla and Bismark. But they do lack some finesse in diplomacy (although Bismark does a great job as well).

Attila is too often passive, despite he has most warmonger - designed nation ever. Shaka is absolutely terrifying, either he becomes world's Adolf Hitler (seriously, few times he was making regular genocides, with infinite city razing) or at least makes little genocide in the early era. Still I love this guy and his civ

However, there are two true masters of AI in this game - Bismarck and Catherine. Their capabilities, at least in my games, are just ridiculous. Germany and Russia always become either total runaway empires or at least Very Nice Strong Countries, with giant production, GDP, terrifying army and good science. Also, I am nearly always the greatest friend of Catherine and the greatest enemy of Bismarck. Last time he become hostile two turns after I met him (and I was Poland )

Also, Sejong is tall science master, Darius is wonder grabber, Dandolo does suprisingly well with these few cities, ar - Rashid creates powerful economy, and last but not least, die Hiawatha and burn in hell, you bastard!

 

[Smokeybear]

Germany and Russia always become either total runaway empires or at least Very Nice Strong Countries, with giant production, GDP, terrifying army and good science. Also, I am nearly always the greatest friend of Catherine and the greatest enemy of Bismarck. Last time he become hostile two turns after I met him (and I was Poland )

Also, Sejong is tall science master, Darius is wonder grabber, Dandolo does suprisingly well with these few cities, ar - Rashid creates powerful economy, and last but not least, die Hiawatha and burn in hell, you bastard!

LOL @ last well-deserved comment

Thanks for encapsulating my own experiences and feelings towards those civs in a handy nutshell. Matches my own games pretty well... although Catherine very often is NOT my friend when she goes big. And I have yet to see Dandalo do anything more than suck...

 

[njmfff]

Or they could add a couple upgrades between the lancer and AT gun. It's that ridiculously long wait for an upgrade that really makes it bad.

Agree. I thought that's a weird one, especially since melee units get obsolete quickly. Transition from GWI to Infantry is what, like 2 techs? That very late in the game, you'll have enough since anyway, so it won't take more then ten turns to get from GWI to Infantry. Marines aren't too far away too, but I rarely ever use them (since they start anew and I usually have several promotions on my existing melee units)