Which AI are real players?

[InFlux5]

Basically those who tech quickly and maintain peace are the "players". Mansa Musa and Gandhi come to mind.

 

[Arksa]

Pacal II is sick techer. He's always my toughest rival in science.

 

[Brownie]

Pacal II, Zara, and Hannibal are always top tier in my games. The Khymer leader tends to do well if he can team up with a good tech partner. Willim seems to over expand, get involved in bad wars, and capitulate before too long. Gilgamesh tends to be a bit of a terrorist early, by making insane DOW's, and losing cities (kind of a pain, because he is protective, the wars cost too much for too little gain - he'll still tech well until you start pillaging). Izzy is my late game terrorist, launching stacks of obsolete troops against my mech infantry in harbor towns, which is just plain annoying. I'd rather start next to Julius than Augustus, because if you can weather the storm to machinery, he will be no problem.

 

[madscientist]

I guess the AIs come in certain cats

1) Most dangerous war-mongers: Shaka, Khmer and Ragnar. Shaka knows how to fight (he's the best AI at it) and Ragnar is one of the few war-mongers who does not fall behing in tech. The Khmer guy will always go to war fairly early and is relentless.

2) Scientist: Musa, Pacal, Ghandi.

3) Overexpansionists who do not get burned: Joao and Catherine. Both expand very fast and get alot of territory but never seam to crash the economies and have a good army.

4) Classic backstabbers: Qin, Alexander, Napolean. Never trust them.

5) Wonder builders: Ramses, Bismark.

6) Zealots: Isabella, Charlemange, Justinian. They just don't dislike you, they will attack you.

7) Top Notch and well balanced: Put most of the above together: HC and Hannibal.

 

[RockTheCazbah87]

Using madscientist's categories...

Warmongerers - Shaka, Napoleon.

Scientists - Mansa, Pacal, Asoka

Expansionists - Justinian, Zara, Joao

Backstabbers - Alexander, Sitting Bull, Catherine

Wonder Builders - Hatty, Freddy

Zealots - Izzy, Saladin

Generally Awesome - Hannibal, Pericles, Gandhi (excluding war)

 

[athelious]

Well if I am wrong about Mansa then someone should tell DJ Anion that his reference guide is wrong also. He has Mansa as the only leader that is "very averse" to tech trading. He also has the known technologies AI would want to trade at 0%, the lowest of any leader.

 

[madscientist]

Musa will trade any tech at almost any time for a price.

 

[athelious]

Well I will concede that he will trade but he always wants way too much. Maybe in some respect DJ Anion's sheet has to be erred but in another respect he is right.

 

[stuttrboy]

The only AI's I cringe at when I run into them are Zara Yacob and Shaka, and Shaka only in the early game. Suryavarman and Charlie will always have big empires without overdoing it and both can be a pain if not controlled early. Gilgamesh is usually strong and so is Hannibal and Willem. War Mongers are usually easy to deal with, Shaka is the only one I ever have problems with because he is harder to trade with his Toku-esque style. I don't really have more problems from any civ as long as I'm paying attention to things except for those top two. If Shaka is on another continent I'm not too worried about him but Zara is a powerhouse from open to close of the game. I've lost more games to him than any other civ since BTS came out.

 

[Diamondeye]

Mansa Musa trades too easy? Which mod are you playing? I believe he is coded to be the most unlikely civ to trade techs in the whole game. And that is certainly the case in my experience with him.

somebody has random personalities on!

The only situations where Mansa Musa won't trade you is if you're his worst enemy, and WFYABTA.

Using madscientist's categories...

Warmongerers - Shaka, Napoleon.

Scientists - Mansa, Pacal, Asoka

Expansionists - Justinian, Zara, Joao

Backstabbers - Alexander, Sitting Bull, Catherine

Wonder Builders - Hatty, Freddy

Zealots - Izzy, Saladin

Generally Awesome - Hannibal, Pericles, Gandhi (excluding war)

Generally agree, Shaka is a expansionist aswell though - and Ramesses is THE wonderbuilder. Also, I have one more cat to add:

Completely Loony Maniac: Monsterzuma

 

[Gliese 581]

Have to agree on Mansa Musa, he almost always wants to trade techs, from my experience he suggests tech trading more than any other leader.
Ramesses(Ramses?) is nice to have as a neighbour. I'm currently playing a game as William and started out on one end of the continent with only Ramesses between me and the other two civs. After rexing a bit and establishing borders I eliminated Ramesses in a three-part war. Even though it's on aggressive AI his resistance was truly pathetic and I got three wonders out of it as well.

 

[kakitadairu]

My huge issue with Mansa is that in my experience if you have good relations with him (perhaps from "Our trade relations have been fair"), unless he is building a wonder, he will trade you *any* tech, even the dangerous military ones: Rifling, Industrialism, Rocketry, Stealth, whatever.

That's just dumb and no human player would do that with a rival.

Otherwise, Mansa's "plan" I think is above average. In the early game you don't go after him because he is a good trade partner (and has Skirmishers). In the late game he outtechs you and is generally on parity with you in terms of military technology, so you inevitably leave him alone and go after weaker/ more dangerous targets.

The problem is that I've never seen him leverage his tech advantage towards an actual victory condition: culture, diplomacy or domination (sorry space fans, my games have always ended way before anyone could win the space race).

I would change my mind and say he is a good player if he had both the military strength *and* went after victory, but right now just use him for his techs and he survives to the end but he's not a real danger to actually winning, so he's a chump.

Cheers,

Dai

 

[Felix Luce]

Willem plays to win.

Hells yes. One game he isolates himself and wins a culture victory, the next he declares war on every being within his sight.

 

[URSExelcior]

Charles de Gaulle... who knew competent french generals existed?

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Mansa Musa is extremely dangerous because his generosity with techs means that aggressive, military oriented AIs who are normally technologically backwards can cozy up to him and get techs from him. If you don't like, say, Shaka normally, you'll be goddamned terrified of him after he sucks from Mansa Musa's technological teat.

Mansa doesn't win, but he can boost a different AI way ahead of you.

 

[Eunomiac]

If you don't like, say, Shaka normally, you'll be goddamned terrified of him after he sucks from Mansa Musa's technological teat.

(can you guess who clicked on the 'More Smileys' link for the first time today?)

Permission to add this to my sig? Honestly, I just spit coffee all over my keyboard.

To redeem this post as on-topic, I'm going to assemble everything that's been posted here into a summary that I'll post down the road. So please keep posting observations, particularly if you disagree with something someone's said (so I'll know to include a caveat that the observation is controversial).

*snorts* "technological teat..."

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I like being sigged. Do it.