which seems more difficult?

[Alex Johnson]

From your experience, which do you feel is the more challenging scenario?

I could envision either answer. With few AIs they will each grow larger and more powerful during the expansion phase. With more AIs they will each be weaker early on, but it is more enemies that you may face...and more chances for natural selection between the AIs in conflict to breed the biggest, baddest AI civ to romp you.

 

[vmxa]

The fewer civs the easier it is for the human. That is why they have a min for HoF games. Fewer civs and a larger map is going to hurt the AI and help the human. That is why you see Sid games are often played on huge maps wiht less than the std number of civs.

 

[ac196nataku]

The more room for you, the more profound your advantage as you can better manage things.

 

[gmaharriet]

I voted max AI civs, but if you play with raging barbs, it would take a very long time to get rid of them with fewer AI's. I really, really, REALLY hate barbs!!!

 

[FlowKey]

Maximum AI's is definitely the hardest, at least at the level I (we?) play - emperor and up. Less AI's, means more time to streamline your civ, more time to 'gain momentum' before really having to confront the others.

Maybe on the lowest levels, one might profit from the fact that there are more civ's to milk for tech, gold, cities etc. ... which is why I heartily agree with ac196nataku's sig.

 

[The 777 Hoax]

I think more AIs are harder because you're keeping track of trades and wars and who's angry at you and who you shouldn't make angry and all that stuff... plus the fact that it's more crowded.

 

[azzaman333]

The more AI there are, the more benefit they get from their trade. In a recent COTM, I was left out of the trade circle of the ais and ended up over 3/4 of an age behind.

 

[Underdawg]

I don't know, because as I play mainly Rise and Rule and not vanliia C3C anymore, I would say less AI's mean bigger AI Civs and more stuff for them to work with however I stay mainly around the emperor difficulty, but for normal C3C, more AI's means a greater need to stay competitive in the tech trading unless you want to be a total age behind, especiall from emperor - deity.

P.S. Bored of Vanilla C3C? Try Rise and Rule or Goldflash's Modified Tech Tree Mod (With MUCH More Units!)

 

[Koelle]

I'm not sure which is more difficult since i've played a game with less than 18 on huge map for a long time. But it's definitively more interesting playing with all of them in a game

 

[Swiss Bezerker]

if you play a standard size game with 4 total players, assuming you are at the same skill level as the AI percentage of winning: 25%
if you play a standard size game with 8 total players, assuming you are at the same skill level as the AI percentage of winning: 12.5%

 

[Jazzmail]

It depends on many factors.

How peaceful are the other civs? If you can pick on one civ at a time you'll become impossible to beat. More civs means less territory/power for everyone.

Are you alone on an island or continent? If you can't trade, but the AI can, you're civ will become backward. Alone you will have time to grow your empire and prepare though.

Are you on an Archipello map? If so, you'll want more civs. Each AI civ will be weaker and they can't launch a sea invasion against you or anyone anyway.

Worst case scenario: pangea, with you alone on an island and maximum civs on the mainland.

 

[Fifty]

For my playstyle, more ai civs is more challenging.