Mod: Better Independents v2.1

[MaxWilson]

Endoperez said:
So... how good results do you get from this? Does it help AI in the early game, or does the benefit continue to middle game?

I'm not sure what you consider the "midgame" but I was doing pretty well in a recent game as Helheim against 4 or 5 AIs. I had researched up to Cloud of Death and was winning my wars against Lanka and one other nation when Ulm declared war on me too. "Poor little Ulm!" I cackled and got ready to lay some Cloud of Death down on their little MR-less troops. And then they started raining down Steel Maidens on me--I had forgotten how good they are for their cost. After a year or so of warfare I think I was stalemated--I could have turtled and gone for SCs and still eventually won, but I decided I had made a strategic mistake by not paying proper attention to geography and national borders and I conceded defeat and started a new game. I don't always lose to the AI(s) but it happens fairly frequently if I don't take a humongous lead in early expansion. I don't know if that's just because I'm a poor player, but I don't think it used to happen before I started using the NI/BI mods.

So yes, I think it improves the AIs in midgame. I think if Ulm had been raining militia and barbarians on me I would have annihilated them quite easily.

-Max