Why is the AI always so strong with Suryavarman???

[azzaman333]

If Sury gets space, he is very difficult to deal with.

 

[DMOC]

It seems like Suryavarman pops up in almost every one of my games, and almost every time he ends up being one of my most formidable opponents.

I find it somewhat inexplicable. Objectively speaking, Sury's civ doesn't seem particularly advantaged vs. other civs:
A. UU sucks.
B. UB is okay
C. Traits (expansive/creative) have okay/pretty good synergy in getting him lots of sprawling, powerful cities.

The reason for this is that the Creative trait is the best trait for AI's.

This is a general statement, but is often true.

 

[DMOC]

Surveyor Man does pretty well in my games too. Zara creates gigantic empires in every game I've played with him, but he's never really aggressive military wise.

Yeah, Zara seems to be the best AI in my opinion. He is part of the elite crew of himself + Sury/Louis/Huayna Capac/Willem/Catherine, etc.

If you don't think he's that aggressive, then you haven't played enough with him.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Sury has a > average unit prob, he's creative, and he's pretty aggressive, especially over religion. His tendency to spam and develop cities easily is all he needs with such characteristics to become dangerous.

 

[DMOC]

Agreed. This guy expands quite rapidly, almost as fast as Joao or Catherine.

 

[azzaman333]

Yeah, Zara seems to be the best AI in my opinion. He is part of the elite crew of himself + Sury/Louis/Huayna Capac/Willem/Catherine, etc.

If you don't think he's that aggressive, then you haven't played enough with him.

I've never seen Louis be little more than a pushover.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I've never seen Louis be little more than a pushover.

Disagree. Louis is a mega-cultural, REXing, vexing, border popping beast, who gets way to close to me and flips my border cities.

 

[mechaerik]

The Ballista Elephant is not a bad UU, but the ivory prereq kind of kills the unit. Its excellent when you are under attack, since the AI usually sends in mounted units, and the B Elephant is formidible, and can do serious damage to HAs, Knights, and even Cuirassiers if its promoted right.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Disagree. Louis is a mega-cultural, REXing, vexing, border popping beast, who gets way to close to me and flips my border cities.

Everything but the REXing is true. His buildunit prob is 30, same as toku/JC, and he does whore wonders/otherwise be annoying. He usually doesn't get UTTERLY HUGE though unless he gets a lucky spawn...but any AI is dangerous then .

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Edit: I posted in the wrong thread indeed ^_^. My bad.

 

[azzaman333]

I think you've posted in the wrong thread there, TMIT.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Everything but the REXing is true. His buildunit prob is 30, same as toku/JC, and he does whore wonders/otherwise be annoying. He usually doesn't get UTTERLY HUGE though unless he gets a lucky spawn...but any AI is dangerous then .

Hmmm. I guess he must spawn lucky with me.

 

[PieceOfMind]

I think you've posted in the wrong thread there, TMIT.

TMIT probably meant this thread.

 

[bestbrian]

Hmmm. I guess he must spawn lucky with me.

Don't they all.

Louis has never been a factor in any game I've played of Warlords or BTS, although he appears on the list as being many players' top nemesis. Strange that.

 

[jake1er]

pacal, zara, and sury are always my number one competition if they spawn.. pacal is the ultimate techwhore, usually i can conquer him decently easy though.. if you leave zara or sury with too much room for expansion they are gonna become monsters

 

[jollycynic]

pacal, zara, and sury are always my number one competition if they spawn.. pacal is the ultimate techwhore, usually i can conquer him decently easy though.. if you leave zara or sury with too much room for expansion they are gonna become monsters

techwhore? pacal from my experience is the one who every 3 turns tries to "tempt" me with ridiculous trades like 40c for feudalism and is always asking for a tech ive had for the better part of a millenium. I usually end up just conquering him to make him quit bugging me.

 

[DMOC]

I remember when Pacal won Liberalism in ALC 24 with 2 cities.

 

[MkLh]

Creative AI's seem to do pretty wel, generally speaking. Don't kow how that is.

They don't build monuments , so their early expansion is slightly faster. That probably has a significant cumulative effect later. Sury's Expansive certainly helps too.

 

[DMOC]

That's why Creative is the best AI trait. I made a thread about this and posted some sample games but it seems to have died out.

That thread also pointed out that Wang Kon is a terrible AI....

 

[AncientPlayer]

Sury is one of those that seems to do really well sometimes and terrible others. I think it has a lot to do with whether he has the good, productive land to take advantage of his building lots of cities and growing them. Also keep in mind that without ivory, he's going to be a bit weaker, so that might be another factor.

In my current (Prince, large map, epic) game he's running 3rd of 11, just barely behind Qin of China who is just barely behind me, I tried HRE/Charlemagne to see how his UB would work. China and HRE have traded places for 1st and 2nd the whole game, we both got excellent starting positions. Sury got a mediocre start but jumped across to another landmass, got ivory there and is now out building everyone. Gonna be an interesting finish--China's friendly with me, the same religion and I have the AP. Sury's annoyed with both of us and allied with a couple others.

Anyway, I've seen him do well and terrible. His UU isn't one I like but when he's got ivory he seems to use it fairly well.
Dick