Re: House Rules against the AI
 

In reading back thru the previous posts....
about giving the AI gold but the drawback is that it aids you.
Most of the nations have room for more capital magic sites. Some well chosen sites can add gold, gems, even special troops. Of course it would require a map and specifically placing the AI on the map so you know where to put the extra sites.

And if that wasnt enough, since you know the location you could always give it another province next door with more specifically chosen magic sites. And add a specifically chosen populace for recruiting and PD. Trolls maybe? Cave men?

Even more fun, if you give the AI two provinces apart from each other. Maybe at opposite ends of the map. Maybe two castles with selected sites. The first thing the AI does is consolidate its position so it would concentrate on fighting to connect the two sites. You can give the AI an early game direction and goal by doing that.

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

I like the idea of giving the AI 2 separated starting provinces so it will try to connect the territories... is it possible to add a copy of the nation capitol sites to the 2nd province?

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

There is one little problem with this. Giving them those kinds of sites aids the player A LOT when he finally conquers his first capital.

Beter would be to give the AI a starting commander that domsummons good troops, or a national spell that summons a monster that has no slots but has default equipment and stats that mimic popular SC loadouts and blesses. (Or give them slots and let the AI randomly dump even more powerful stuff into it).

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

IIRC its treated like a cap site. It would give gold and gems but not troops.

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

AI has always problem with supply for their big armies. They dont using magic items with supply bonus. AI army always has lower morale by supply shortage and diseases. Here is problem.

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

Yeah, but that gives anybody that conquers the cap site (Ea: the player) a huge bonus.

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

Just to add a recent set of house rules i´m playing with that is generating some very fun and challenging games with the AI:

New house rules:
- do not construct any new castles - you only keep your starting castle and any conquered or generated by events.
- Always use max Drain scale.
- AIs at least in Mighty

Old Rules:
- Always use an Imprisioned pretender
- Only attack AIs if attacked first (just declaring war is not enough)
- Do not use battle spells that use gems
- Do not use global spells (using Dispel to bring down ones used by the AI is fine).


I´m not using anymore the house rule of only 1 researcher per lab, but using the max Drain scale and the castle limit i got a similar effect, and the limit on castles really make the game challenging...

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

I'm very glad to read this, as I've commented on it before :)

Of course it's matter of what you want to achieve in a game, but I did try this for a while and for me it took out a lot of fun.