I have some more feedback, hope it helps. I’m going to breakdown some games I had with different enemies and give my thoughts on what can be improved. As it would be too long for one post, I will put one civ per post, but I’ll get round to all of them.
This is Spanish (me) vs US on hardest in the latest build of the AI:
AssertiveWall AI Spanish vs US 2.age3Yrec (8.9 MB)
Some notes on this game:
- Ai builds second dock next to their fist dock before making fishing ships or navy.
- Ai doesn’t choose a sea based federal state.
- US commerce age navy shipment is Recruit Manilamen, which cost 300 food and 300 wood, so it doesn’t send it first, sending 8 Militia and 5 Regulars first.
- Ai spends wood in barracks and militiamen instead of fishing ships and navy.
- Ai spends wood in stable instead of fishing ships or navy
- First ship (Sloop) gets trapped between docks because its built on narrow strip of sea. It needs to build the docks at the front or the side, not the back (maaaaaybe its 5th/6th dock, just to have one in reserve? but not at first).
- Because it doesnt have fishing ships, the villager count by the minute 10:18 is 49 for me and 23 for the AI. At this point I’ve been producing fishing ships from my two docks and no navy, relying only in my 2 Caravel shipment for now.
- Ai needs more navy shipments, as I can send a Galleon in Commere age, but the ai in general doesn’t equip more than the 2 Caravels and equivalent in that age.
- Ai starts building fishing ships at minute 12, extremely late in the game. By this point, the vill difference is 53 for me and 27 for Ai.
- Ai builds another dock in another place, but doesn’t protect it with an outpost, even having the wood for it. A shipment of 2 outpost wagon could work well too after the first fishing shipment, if the Ai keeps refusing to build them by its own. It also starts building another dock in a third place, which is good. I don’t know why their first two docks are always together, but after you destroy them, it seems they start to build them in different places.
- Never mind, after destroying the second dock, the ai starts building all their docks in the third place, next to one another.
- Form some reason, here the Ai starts a loop and starts trying to build all their outpost in the same place.
- Lastly, the ai never reaches Fortress age, as it lacks economy without fishing ships.
Now, the US deck is detrimental to them is this kind of maps. Here is the deck it chooses:
Being a island map, it only has 2 navy shipments and one upgrade on Fortress age. On top of that, the only navy shipment in commerce has a cost of 300 wood and food. Here is what a full water deck for us could look:
You can see how the US has a lo of water shipments that the AI should use. Two sloop for free in commerce, infinite sloop too, upgrades to attacks of ships, Steamer and Frigate in third age along the upgrade it already had, and Ironclads in fourth age to siege enemy coastal defences and buildings, along with an upgrade for them and their mercenary manilamen ships. Along with them, fishing upgrades, docks upgrades, the irish and french immigrants to help the economy and outposts shipments in second and third age, which upgrades them automatically and coastal defences. Of course, you can always swap any immigrant or outpost shipment for wood/coin shipment, or maybe a fort, although an age up option gives you a fort too (more on that later), and the US General can build Forts too. A deck like this could really help the Ai contest the seas and prevent the player to gain a free passage through the islands.
Now, I wanted to talk about the choices it made with Federal States. For the second age, the ai chose Delaware, which gives it nothing to work on water. Instead, for the second age, the US ai should pick Rhode Island, which gives:
Slater Textile Mill specially is importat to help them economically, but it is important that they start making fishings ships faster. Maybe this could be sen t after the first two ships? sending it before might make it prone to attacks early. Corliss Steam allows them to have Steamers in second age and Ironclads in third, which might help them siege. It also makes their upgrades to the route free, so having them be more leaned to contest them could help them, as more xp means more ships for them.
In my tests the AI never reached third age because of the fishing ship issue, but for third age, I would recommend Maryland, which gives:
One for attack, one for booming. It may be tricky to balance the Sloops and Steamers between fishing and fighting, but a good ability nonetheless.
For the fourth age, there is not a specific water option, so it can choose any of them, although Ohio, which gives artillery, a fort and gives xp trickle to native sites; or Vermont, which gives interesting bonuses to Mills and States, and the Ai will eventually build them anyway.
For the fifth age. I’d say the best one is Connecticut:
And that’s basically it. Keep in mind this was with US ai, some other ais do some things a bit different based on their own particularities and decks, but still it has a lot that can be applied to all Ais in general. Hope it helps you! Next one will be Japan, maybe in an hour or two when I finish some work first. Can’t wait to try a new update!
