Aggressive/Expansionist AIs

[AntiDamascus]

I never seem to find a power get too big. I'm always waiting for the lesser powers to die out as some get stronger and take over more land but they never seem to do that. I'm not sure what "expansionist" is then

[Hooahguy]

All the AIs around me are tiny one-settlement nations, Ill need to venture further south to see what happened to the other nations.

[HopAlongBunny]

With the discussion of AI aggressiveness/expansion: Can the AI win the game?
This seems to be a basic test of the game's soundness; is the AI a real competitor or is it just a punching bag?

[AntiDamascus]

That's a good question, if I just sat in my starting areas and just turtled the entire time, would another AI eventually grow out of control or would it just be turn after turn of endless stalemate?

[Quillan]

It depends upon what you mean by "major power". In my Rome campaign, the Eravisci got up to the point of controlling 7 regions (all of Dacia and Pannonia plus Nori) before they declared war on a client state of mine. However, in the Levant region in this game it's been a series of "faction grows to be 12-15 regions and dominates the area, faction runs out of food and starts to suffer attrition, faction loses province to rebellion and a previously eliminated faction returns, previously eliminated faction grows and goes on rampage, first faction eliminated by resurgent faction plus other enemies, resurgent faction grows to be 12-15 regions and dominates the area,..." repeat ad nauseum. I've seen the Seleucids come back at least 7 times this game. At one point Cappadocia owned everything from Pergamon to the mouth of the Euphrates, from the Black Sea coast down to Petra. They lost most of it and the Seleucids took the majority of what they lost. Then the Seleucids were displaced by Rhodes, who were then displaced by Nabatea. Right now Nabatea is in the process of losing their eastern holdings to Media.

[AntiDamascus]

I mean I applaud what I consider to be a semi realistic setup where one power doesn't run the map. I just wish I'd see a little more consolidation among groups basically cutting the powers in half.

[Bramborough]

In my campaign there have been a few factions which grew decently large, but yeah, then fell apart. The most durable over time has been Pontus, which, although fighting wars and losing/gaining provinces here and there, has managed to maintain its territory in the 8-10 region range for at least 100 turns. I think that's pretty good for an AI faction.