So I’ve tested a lot of games vs AI, and they seem to give up pretty quickly – even if you don’t attack them. If you ward off their inital attacks and Boom and just build a massive army-- they will just basically stop doing anything-- that or just do things really-- really slow.
I have seen this before. Especially once I build extensive fortifications!
Yeah, after losing a big engagement, the AI usually never recovers.
It would be great if the AI was more persistent in building large armies with expensive units (armoured/gunpowder), and spamming 5-6 castles with well-garrisoned Stone Walls (as in the Campaign). That’s mostly how the AI worked in Age 2 DE. I personally don’t care if the AI cheats or not. I think a bit of AI cheating is necessary for the good of the game (most people in the Total War community have accepted it for the good of their games, otherwise it’s impossible to challenge humans).
Also, I think the AI should have an independent settlement garrison, which is separate from its main attacking army. Even allowing extra population space for the garrison could work well. 
I know some people think it’s excessive, but I think many of us would enjoy having an Extreme AI with the described characteristics.
1 Like
This might be the bit-- Walling half the map-- it never even got past age 2.
This might be a thing-- but in the last AI game I played actually only had one minor engagement-- afterwards I began to boom, built my walls across the center of the map-- and it just-- never did anything.
1 Like
I noticed when the ai goes dead” after its initial attacks- its fortifying for end game. Walls, and units that will just camp at its tc…
1 Like
Geh, hopefully that will change, I’ve done it on Easy, Int and hard-- I still wanna try it on Hardest.