Who is the hardest AI?

[azzaman333]

Huanya Capac is the one I dread. Powers through tech, and if you don't get along with him he will attack you. Zara Yaqob is a pain in the technological ass, but fortunately is fairly easy to get along with. Kublai Khan is the agressive version of Zara, with an ability to get a lot of land, a big army and tech decently, but fortunately he's fairly easy to make friends with.

But with the number of games I've played, I've seen every leader have incredible power one game, and then get stuck with a 3 city tundra empire the next.

 

[vicawoo]

Creative and Spiritual? Really? I find they are pleasant and make the game more relaxed, but I wouldn't say they are the best.

Top tier traits

1. Philosophical
2. Industrious
3. Financial

Medium tier traits

4. Creative
5. Charismatic
6. Expansive

Low tier traits

7. Aggresive
8. Imperialistic
9. Spiritual

Bottom tier traits

10. Organized
11. Protective

That's just my opinion of course

You're mad. I've never seen spiritual below imperialistic.

If financial is widely considered (with dispute) a top trait, if people debate between financial and organized, if financial/organized was considered an economic wrecking machine...

 

[ICNP]

Darius FTW

 

[Bast]

The only leader that I've had as an opponent that I thought played really well - in that, I had no solution - was Victoria. In that one game she founded Hinduism from Polytheism and had a huge empire and tech lead. This was after the Financial/Imperialistic change. She must've had an awesome start and must've settler spammed.

 

[J-man]

Hannibal is one AI that does consistently well. Although I have had him only a few times as an opponent

 

[Crowqueen]

Shaka, Zara and Mansa. Surprising how they are all African, but never mind.

Shaka because he is more of a nutjob in many of my games than Monty, who will at least stay on his own continent for much of the game.

Zara because he leaks, constantly, into my REXing space. He's a pushover as long as you get him before he gets his Oromos.

Mansa Musa's only saving grace is that he doesn't necessarily go for gunpowder earlier than, say, Nationalism, expecting no doubt to trade it for he's got that you need. Needless to say it hardly ever works out because if I'm the only person on a map with gunpowder, I'm going to use it, not trade it away. By the time he's caught up...he's a puff of smoke in the barrel of a musketman.

This is of course all at Warlord level but I'm surprised if the AI can research Gunpowder, why doesn't it?!

@Bast...you're right. Victoria seemed to sprout cities like, as the Poles say, mushrooms after rain, even while I had a large army camped on her doorstep.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

I watch out for:

Creative leaders - because the AI works better for them - they get their cities developed quicker and get more of them.

Financial leaders - always at the top of the tech race.

I only really fear the aggressive leaders in the early game - more from the threat to my development they pose.

I don't rate the Philo AIs very highly - I've never seen Sitting Bull, Alex, Suleiman or the others being a contender late in the game.

 

[Gumbolt]

Pericle of the greeks is nasty to play against!! Philosophical and creative. He never seems to start next to me and always builds a huge army halfway across map and then sends a huge stack which i have to throw a lot of my resources at to defend. The greeks do seem to play a very aggressive game.

Problem is I am not going to send my army halfway cross map to attack him while the Russians or other Ai attack me by the back door while i do so. If i declare war against him chances are 2-3 other nations will also declare war against me too if they share his religion. Perhaps he has just been lucky on my games??

 

[SharpMango]

Come on guys, i've heard most people agree that any AI can run away with the game. that is simply not true. give the germans a free continent and found yourself on a one tile island and they will still mess up the game.
i feel really sorry for the german AI though, the way it gets kicked about by all comers in any game they are unfortunate enough to partake in.
Zara Yaqob produces the meanest craziest stacks of doom in history, because he techs reasonably well, so i do have a visceral dislike of him. however he is easy to befriend, but if you do, the chances are he will leverage your friendship for a shot at victory so i would rate him pretty near the top.
and about shaka, everyone knows his gameplan, if he's in the game, he will either win by domination or will die trying, and sometimes its up to us to stop him, so that can be quite terrifying, personally though, since im not a big fan of tech trading, shaka doesnt present a big threat to me.

 

[Iranon]

Hmm, I never saw Bismarck making an embarassment of himself... Frederick, however, tends to be one of the worst unless he gets an excellent start.

Apparently a complete focus on production together with double discounts on factories is too much of a good thing; when he's in charge Germany tends to lose half her citizens or more to starvation once the industiral age begins.

 

[The Lemon]

I agree with mad scientist. Shaka is the hardest because, if playing on a hard difficulty, will get up the tech tree extremely fast, making his army better. And when he takes over more cities, it will make his science better so on and so on.

 

[Bigv32]

Hmm, I never saw Bismarck making an embarassment of himself...

That is funny, because every time I play against him, he is always a vassal state of me or another weak AI before gunpowder.

 

[ICNP]

Yeah when an AI has as much land as Zara or a Conquering Shaka they will run away with the Game. LiP FTW!

 

[Abegweit]

Definitely, the best trait for the AI is Creative and so all the Creative civs are strong.

 

[CCRunner]

Shaka and Hannibal are always problems for me.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I hate hate HATE protective civs that camp and won't trade with you, teching extremely poorly. Hard to dislodge, useless alive, a serious annoyance.

Other than that, creative civs and shaka when he spawns somewhere where he can kill 3 ai's before you meet him can be a big problem.

Financial leaders usually aren't a problem for me although sometimes they'll get a lot of land peacefully due to how they spawn and that can spell trouble, especially if it's HC.

 

[DMOC]

Come on guys, i've heard most people agree that any AI can run away with the game. that is simply not true. give the germans a free continent and found yourself on a one tile island and they will still mess up the game.
i feel really sorry for the german AI though, the way it gets kicked about by all comers in any game they are unfortunate enough to partake in.
Zara Yaqob produces the meanest craziest stacks of doom in history, because he techs reasonably well, so i do have a visceral dislike of him. however he is easy to befriend, but if you do, the chances are he will leverage your friendship for a shot at victory so i would rate him pretty near the top.
and about shaka, everyone knows his gameplan, if he's in the game, he will either win by domination or will die trying, and sometimes its up to us to stop him, so that can be quite terrifying, personally though, since im not a big fan of tech trading, shaka doesnt present a big threat to me.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=262056

In the first game, Frederick ended up being the best AI

In the second game, Suryavarmann II was an absolute monster.


Really, any AI with a great starting location and favorable surroundings will do well, but creative AI's just have a greater probability of being dominant.

 

[ICNP]

I had a game where Monty and Shaka spawned next to each other... and got different religions. Needless to say they we're at constant war. However Zara wound up running away with the game and having more military than the both of them. I couldn't even see how I was going to manage that game with Zara owning a third of the world.

 

[J-man]

Really, any AI with a great start... on purpose? Or has anybody see him do great?

 

[DMOC]

You would expect that Willem van Oranje would be a very strong AI, being cultural and financial. However, in every game I met him he's doing horribly. Usually his army is to small and he attacks civs that are more powerful then him. Perhaps this was coded in on purpose? Or has anybody see him do great?

I can remember many of my own games.

Also, for Willem, check out Lonely Hearts Club for Sury where Willem was almost always the first to discover liberalism, and in a lot of obsolete's games I remember Willem nearly ruining his game because of his cultural victory.