Classic Builds

[alexti]

HoneyBadger said:
With various discussions of AI in mind, one solution in particular has presented itself, that of starting a new game and setting one's opponents "by hand" so that the single player game AI is not at a randomly imposed disadvantage-example, creating a Helheim nation with W9/F9 bless. Because of this, and because it also may serve as a source of education/inspiration particularly to newer players, I propose a thread which will feature (hopefully) insightful, well-crafted, and time-tested Nation/Pretender designs, preferrably by experienced and talented players, but I'll also be posting to it, so anyone who thinks they have a good strategy is welcome, and the rest of us are welcome to critique, or even compliment, the proposed "Classic Builds".

I think that you need not a "Classic Builds", but rather "Build for dummies". A lot of classic builds won't work when handed to AI, because AI won't have a clue how to use them. Probably the only reliable build for AI is uber-bless build (it's still not a guarantee that AI will be buying sacred troops though). Other than that you just pick good scales and generally decent pretender and hope that Ai can make some use of it. Anything more complex is bound to end up in AI playing it totally wrong.

Another issue I can see is that these builds will cause AI to lose their bonuses. If started as AI, AI player gets a lot of bonuses (design points and I think more gold/resources during the game). But if you use prebuilt pretender AI won't get extra design points. Not sure about other bonuses. Or is there some way around it?