Going from Normal AI to Impossible AI...

[chrispedersen]

I find you get more reliably challenging games if you pick stronger nations, rather than accepting random nations with impossible difficulty.


For example, in glory of the gods, if you pick one water nation, and then the following land nations -
tien, lanka, van, niefle, mictlan - I believe you will get a pretty challenging game (so long as you are not playing a water race)

[Humakty]

I play difficult but the only independants I recruit are the mages I need to diversify magic, every commanders in my army are national ones. It makes the game really harder.

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by Humakty

I play difficult but the only independants I recruit are the mages I need to diversify magic, every commanders in my army are national ones. It makes the game really harder.

Sounds just like a NI map.

[Gandalf Parker]

There are many AI fixes available. Lowering resources in the game so only castles can recruit much, turning the independents strenth down, NI maps (no independents), creating super powerful AIs with selected gods and scales, Allying the AIs with each other, mods which add new powerful nations or change present nations to play AI abit smarter.

On the subject of "create powerful, start human, then go AI" it is true that the AI settings do give the AI more points than you get to create a god. But by turning off cheat-detection, and using map commands to create the god, you can exceed the player limits to make the best use of both worlds.

Gandalf Parker

[Humakty]

I never tried NI maps, but how does the AI uses its excess gold if it can't recruit indeps ?
I think putting some additional limits on what I do recruit is an easy way to make the game harder, without fighting the endless hordes you encounter on impossible difficulty (I'm always crushed on the big maps I love if I don't have luck on site searching(ie : finding the gems for your mage's main paths) + a good startpos).

The NI mod/maps seems good, but is it compatible with CBM ? I barely can play a game without it, too much reference switching.

[chrispedersen]

How do you use the map commands to make a god gandalf,.. brief overview?

[Edi]

The AI will buy staggering amounts of good quality stuff if the low quality chaff is unavailable. Try the Better Independents mod, which disables the crap infantry types by skyrocketing their gold costs. It leaves archers available and in addition to those, you'll start seeing a lot more nationals among the AI armies.

Nothing like seeing a scouting report that reads that there is an army of 750 units in the neighboring province, consisting mostly of Principes, Hastati, Equites of the Sacred Shroud and Archers and when the 400 Principes 70 Hastati and everything else actually begin to roll over you...

EA Ulm is similarly brutal with that mod, it will bury you if it gets to expand early on. The AI will also build a lot of castles, labs, temples and other stuff with the extra gold.

BI is not compatible with the full CBM, but you cna use parts of CBM such as the gods with that, since BI only modifies units that appear in independent poptypes.

[Epaminondas]

Originally Posted by Edi

The AI will buy staggering amounts of good quality stuff if the low quality chaff is unavailable. Try the Better Independents mod, which disables the crap infantry types by skyrocketing their gold costs. It leaves archers available and in addition to those, you'll start seeing a lot more nationals among the AI armies.

Nothing like seeing a scouting report that reads that there is an army of 750 units in the neighboring province, consisting mostly of Principes, Hastati, Equites of the Sacred Shroud and Archers and when the 400 Principes 70 Hastati and everything else actually begin to roll over you...

EA Ulm is similarly brutal with that mod, it will bury you if it gets to expand early on. The AI will also build a lot of castles, labs, temples and other stuff with the extra gold.

BI is not compatible with the full CBM, but you cna use parts of CBM such as the gods with that, since BI only modifies units that appear in independent poptypes.

Edi, I like your mod over the default game--by a lot. Still, the AI seems to prefer to build the cheapest units, rather than massing formidable sacreds (even when the AI has given itself a nice blessing scheme!).

[Edi]

Originally Posted by Epaminondas

Edi, I like your mod over the default game--by a lot. Still, the AI seems to prefer to build the cheapest units, rather than massing formidable sacreds (even when the AI has given itself a nice blessing scheme!).

Thanks.

The AI has never known how to use a bless effectively, so you can't ever count on it doing that. It will tend to go for a quantity of lesser troops over a quality of high end troops if the cost differences are big, but it gets markedly better still.

Picking the right nations to oppose you with BI will lead to really brutal games. The EA especially is bad. Choose one of the weaker nations, throw in Ulm, Ermor, Vanheim, Helheim, Tir na n'Og, Marverni, Hinnom, Agartha and C'tis as the opponents on a big map like Glory of the Gods and see what happens. Putting supplies at 150% will also give the AI a bit of a boost as it will not starve so easily and research to difficult so you don't get powerful magic too soon. You'll be in for a rough time.

I lose more games with that setup than I win, even when playing co-op with a friend, because the AI will simply roll over you if you don't get to a flying start.

[Epaminondas]

Originally Posted by Edi

Thanks.

The AI has never known how to use a bless effectively, so you can't ever count on it doing that. It will tend to go for a quantity of lesser troops over a quality of high end troops if the cost differences are big, but it gets markedly better still.

Picking the right nations to oppose you with BI will lead to really brutal games. The EA especially is bad. Choose one of the weaker nations, throw in Ulm, Ermor, Vanheim, Helheim, Tir na n'Og, Marverni, Hinnom, Agartha and C'tis as the opponents on a big map like Glory of the Gods and see what happens. Putting supplies at 150% will also give the AI a bit of a boost as it will not starve so easily and research to difficult so you don't get powerful magic too soon. You'll be in for a rough time.

I lose more games with that setup than I win, even when playing co-op with a friend, because the AI will simply roll over you if you don't get to a flying start.

I was a bit surprised that you mentioned that Ulm was a strong EA nation early in the thread. Given that it lacks powerful battle mages and super-units, how is this so? I've found the nation frustrating to play, and the AI rarely does much with it either. I also tend to think Ermor would be weak, because of the old age issues with most of its top-tier casters.

But again, I am a beginner, and I look for any enlightenment on the issue.

Also, what difficulty setting do you recommend? I played 1 with Difficult, and I am gradually winning--though I suspect the fact that I have greatly strengthened PDs for every nation has something to do with it (the AI doesn't seem to use PDs much).

And yes, I hiked up Supplies to 300 percent--and Hinnom still has problems with starvation, LOL!