Going from Normal AI to Impossible AI...

[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!