Re: Balance Issue? (From a total newb)
 

I've setup and played many games against AI opponents with and without humans, but Niefielheim is the most scary AI Opponent for late game. Here's the reasons:

1) It's commanders and mages are stronger and larger than the average nation because they're giants, thus ritual spells from humans such as seeking arrow, fires from afar, murdering winter, flames from the sky, and even wrath of god will primarily leave only afflictions on commanders/mages/units where most other nations will have its units/mages/commanders killed. Even mind hunt will be less likely used because the nation has astral mages.

2) Niefielheim uses blood and eventually learns claws of kokytos... matching the Jotun Skratti unit. Niefielheim uses this spell and will cast it during battle to remove a humans SuperCombatant(SC)!! It's happened during my games thus causing me to keep my SCs off the front line.

3) The majority of Niefielheim commanders/mages are useful for the AI opponent... it's also more likely to have priest commanders marching with it's armies based on the ratio of commanders/mages available and thus more likely to bless its sacred units.

4) The Niefielheim capital by default has only one magic site which allows the human map maker to provide 3 other magic sites using map edit commands. Many other nations would require modding of the actual nation to allow 3 extra magic sites.

5) The Niefielheim capital has admin_30 and defense of 750... which means breaking inside will be more difficult than most nations. The admin_30 helps with gold income.

6) Because it has blood mages which arrive with 2 or 3 blood it will be casting ritual spells such as rain of toads, bind frost fiend, spine devil, blood rite and even others as time passes and it empowers its mages to higher levels.

7) It's wide range of magic paths allow it a better chance of finding magic sites for provinces it owns... thus a faster growing gem income.

8) Now this last one is where it really shines: Niefielheim has a wide range of magic paths where it's mages can start at level_3 thus once it's completed most of the research you'll see it casting battlefield buffing spells such as: Anti_Magic, Mass Protection, Mass Regeneration, Rush of Strength, and more.

Also other deadly battlefield spells such as charm, wither bones, disentegrate, horror mark, both curse spells, blood vengeance, life for a life, curse of the desert, etc.,

One minor note: Niefielheim did summon some bog beasts which hurt some of its armies... some may want to change or remove the bog beast spell.
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I speak from experience on the Faerun map where my armies and SCs were marching and killing opponents easily than I ran into Niefielheim. The first blow was losing many of my SC's to the claws of kokytos, second was knowing the vast majority of ranged ritual attacks would not kill their commanders, then the battlefield buffs was purely shocking. I eventually won... but Niefielheim definitely provided the greatest challenge compared to all other AI opponents during late game.

Re: Balance Issue? (From a total newb)
 

Admin 30 is actually worse than most nations. I'd hardly list it as a positive.

Re: Balance Issue? (From a total newb)
 

Interesting. I've probably never run into it late game in SP. That may explain the difference in our perception. On the other end of the map and with the boosts you've given it, it'll do well against other AIs, so it'll reach late game.

Actually, I usually get bored with micromanagement and lack of real opposition before getting into the endgame in SP.
My usual SP challenge involves small crowded maps, where you're forced into conflict early on when the "impossible" AI bonuses still matter and you don't have all the counters that come along later in the game. "Better Independents" helps a lot. Avoiding SC pretenders and uber-bless strategies adds to the challenge.

Re: Balance Issue? (From a total newb)
 

Yes for small crowded maps I would recommend Helheim or one of the other glamour nations for the greatest challenge. Using the #allies command also increases the challenge.