Re: House Rules against the AI
 

In other words the strategy to beat the AI with limits on research (whether none or 1/lab) is to use strategies that don't rely on research. High bless sacreds or maybe SC pretenders.
It probably also helps to use a fairly small map. With ~20 opponents you might have had more trouble by the end.

The other easy choice for a nation would Nieflehiem. E9N4+ bless. Buy nothing but Neifel Jarls, and Giants when you have cash left over. Maybe 1 PD, just for visibility.

A interesting challenge I played with a few years ago was LA Ermor with an imprisoned pretender. No research, or extra reanimators, until he breaks free. Though you could get lucky with Etimmu or hire mercs to build labs for indy mage recruitment.

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

I never managed to defeat Impossible AIs using the 1 researcher/lab rule, but i can half the time do it against Mighty AIs and consistently against Difficult ones...

I like to play with all empires in a given era, so the maps are normally large (i specially like the Latus one, it is good for some epic games).

I rarely finish the games i start with, normally ending the game when i´m at 1st place with a considerable lead on the 2nd place empire.

As others have said, some empires/tactics make it easier than others... bless factions have a clear advantage here, also a good SC pretender from the start (or at least dormant) will make you go a long way.

Even with the 1 researcher/lab rule i notice that the AIs rarely get ahead of me (with some exceptions when playing AIs above Difficult level), specially since i use all research boosters possible. Lately, instead of building labs everywhere i´m also restricting myself to build labs only where i can recruit a mage type commander (either from a castle, indys or sites).

Finally, i noticed that a higher number of mages in combat will make, at least in the beggining, a good boost to conquering indy provinces... massed fire flies/darts are fun...

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

Very big maps benefit the AI in my experience. If only becouse boredom makes micromanagment very unfun at large scales, so I tend to overlook a lot of things in the late game, do half-arsed turns and so on.

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

I like to play with more than all the empires of an age and maps larger than large. Maximum on both even. (didnt finish the game of course, but it was fun not to know what nation you might run into)

In case anyone is wondering:
the maximum map is 1500 provinces.
All of the nations in the game is 73
the maximum number of nations in a game is 99

If you chaos the map, throw in random alliances between the AIs, and add in the Special Monster AIs as Independents then you can get a game which can continue much farther than usual.

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

Don't forget about scales. Taking something like Caelum, Niefleheim, or Abyssia you can take Order 3, Luck 3, Growth 3, Cold/Heat 3, and Magic 3 if you don't bother with a bless. Early on, focus on troop use - the AI is good at massing troops, but their ability to pick them is substandard at best - use heavy PD, and just expand outward leaving no province undefended. You will want some low level of research, focused towards getting thugs and battlefield mages in play, these back your armies up. Eventually, the battlefield mages will be far more impressive, and the thugs will have transitioned to SCs, at which point you basically win.

Against a player, this strategy is a good way to die horribly. It only works against the AI because the AI is incredibly dumb, and even then you have to be careful.

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

Against the AI, I like to set Research to Very Difficult and pump up the independents to slow things down, and set up large games on larger maps, because a lot of the fun for me is finding stuff randomly dispersed around the map. Hidden Kingdoms and Towers of mages and stuff are awesome. Slowing down the game lets me play around with all of that.

I also like to go hard on the roleplaying aspects, so, for example, try EA Pangaea with 3 Turmoil, 3 Sloth, 3 Growth, 3 Luck and 3 Magic and never hire human troops (except maenads - lots and lots of maenads). Play MA Marignon without ever using undead or blood. Try always to rely most heavily on your sacreds as EA Agartha, eschewing inferior surface dwellers. That sort of thing can be amusing, although the AI folds pretty quickly anyway.

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

I too like to RP a lot in games... like never using death/blood magic with "good" nations and so on...

I find also challenging to try to play as a "good guy" in a more "evil" faction... like using blood oriented nations without using blood hunting (i only use the natural blood supply from sites, etc.)... the main advantage is that i reduce the horrible micromanagement of blood economies and at same time give the AI a small advantage...

As from my original house rules, i also limit myself only to attack AIs that attacked me first (simly declaring war does not count)...

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

I wasn't aware of any good nation in Dominions 3 :p

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

The majority of the factions can be played as neutral or evil empires, but only a few can be roleplayed as a good nation... from the top of my head i can point out Man and Arcoscephale (except for the slavery thing)... most of the other nations can be considered neutral at best, with a few (MA and LA Ernor, Ryleh, etc.) being outright evil...

I believe there was a thread about good/evil factions some time ago and the general consensus was that all factions could be played as "Evil", about half as "Neutral" and only a handful as "Good" nations...

Re: House Rules against the AI
 

MA Ermor is not evil, just misguided :P