is the AI cheating

[Epaminondas]

Originally Posted by Fate

The first strategy I was able to pull off successfully was a bless strat. In that vein I would suggest taking a god bless nation (such MA Arcoscephale) and taking a heavy bless.

I like a pretender (Mother of Rivers) with Water 9/Fire 9, imprisoned, magic -3, turmoil -2, productivity +1 (because the heart companions are resource expensive), and dom 6. Then make your starting commander a prophet and recruit ONLY heart companions. Script your commander to divine bless and tear up indies. (Indies should be at 6 or so).

This strategy works in two ways. First, you should be conquering 1+ provinces per turn (you can spend surplus money on mercenaries to keep expanding, just overbid by a small amount to block the AI). Second, anytime the AI looks like it is going to attack you move your entire holy army up and attack the AI. Your blessed units can take almost any mundane attacks (they have a little trouble with tramplers) so an army of 50 heart companions can easily take 200 AI chaff.

How is Arco a good Bless nation?

[Taqwus]

The AI is quite willing to let its hordes starve. *shrug* Depending on what you're playing, it's likely that you shouldn't be very often.

In my experience, they're also often quite willing to remain at peace with you for many years if you maintain strength on the frontier and you refrain from attacks on them -- and meeting engagements in what was independent territory (when you gave the movement orders) don't count. If you're not ready for multiple wars on multiple fronts, don't start them.

[Edratman]

Illuminated one,

Make sure you start your games in a corner of the map. That will reduce the potential enemies significently. With less adjoining pressure from enemies, you will be able to pickup the game easier.

If you continue to have troubles, start your game on the standard maps that come with the game. Then post a save game and you will find many helpful advisors.

And don't get discouraged. This is a very hard game. I've been playing computer games since 1980 and this is the only game that I ever encounteed that kicked my butt for a month before I finally beat it. That's a big part of its attraction.

[Illuminated One]

@Edratman

Yeah, I did that on my first game, created a random map via generator and started it again and again until I got the corner.
But it made the game boring somehow only fighting one enemy and I guess in MP I can't hope for the nice spot, too.
I'll just stick to trying to learn from being defeated.


By the way one other strange thing I noticed.
In the demo the AI was actually using combat spells but in the full game it seems not to do so. Has this to do with the ages (LA vs EA) or with the difficulty or am I the only one experiencing this?

[rdonj]

Personally, I would never try to fight more than one AI at a time unless I was one of the top two or three nations. If you're having trouble beating them because you're fighting 2 or 3 AIs simultaneously by the start of the second or third year, you probably should be losing. Unless you're using a strong bless on a good chassis, you won't be able to maintain enough armies of size to hold them back really early in the game.

[Taqwus]

Originally Posted by Illuminated One

@Edratman
By the way one other strange thing I noticed.
In the demo the AI was actually using combat spells but in the full game it seems not to do so. Has this to do with the ages (LA vs EA) or with the difficulty or am I the only one experiencing this?

EA tends to feature stronger national mages and also defaults to a somewhat higher magical site frequency (and thus, higher gem income).

[Irishmafia2020]

Originally Posted by Illuminated One

@Edratman

By the way one other strange thing I noticed.
In the demo the AI was actually using combat spells but in the full game it seems not to do so. Has this to do with the ages (LA vs EA) or with the difficulty or am I the only one experiencing this?

I never played the demo, but my armies are definitely being defeated by combat sorcery in my game. I am MA Ashdod, and it is primarily LA Atlantis that has deployed a ton of mages. That seems to be the personality of the faction though, since I haven't faced any other neighbors who are equally aggressive in their use of magic...

[Gandalf Parker]

If you really want your strategies dissected and discussed, joining the IRC channel for Dominion on GameSurge will do it. Plenty of experts hang out there who are more than willing to lay out the pros and cons of any strategy or tactic.

On the other hand its kindof like asking for cheat codes or reading the end of a book first. I much preferred stumbling thru things on my own.

[Gandalf Parker]

the AI has been much changed since the demo was created