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Thread: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

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  1. #1
    Gettin' Medieval Member King Bob VI's Avatar
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    Default Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    Hi, I've had MTW (and VI) for about 5 months, and I just joined the forums here today. Before I got MTW I was a huge Age of Empires II junkie, and I spent a lot of time at the Age of Kings Heaven forums, but I guess I'll be hangin' out here for a while now.

    Anyway, whenever I'm playin the medieval campaign game, it seems like some factions with similar strengths at the beginning usually do much better than others. In my experience:

    English: Get their butts kicked by France, often only surviving in Ireland or another remote province.
    France: Take over England and often overrun the HRE and Spain. If there is one faction that almost always does well with the AI, it's the French.
    Byz: Grow rapidly in Early but are toppled by Turks, Egypt, and the Horde.
    The Horde: Get most of the steppes, and stop.
    Egypt and the Almos: Often one or the other takes over a large part of the western or eastern part of the map.
    HRE: Does OK, but never great. Often killed by France.
    Spain: Usually beats the Alamos, and If France doesn't overrun Western Europe, they will.
    Papacy: Always there, often takes what Sicily had if they attack the pope.
    Turks: Usually beat up by Egypt, almost never gets very big.
    Danes, Sicily, and especially Argon: Sit and do nothing, (which is understandable considering their one-province starting positions) but Sicily often does pretty good before biting off more than they can chew with the Pope or Italy.
    Russia: Not much, esp. when the Horde arrives.
    Poland and Hungary: Often burn each other out, if not, HR > Poles, and Byz > Hungary.

    Of course, every game is dramatically different, and it often depends on who I'm playing as , but overall, I would say that the worst AI faction is Aragon, and the Best is France. Is any of this usually true when you play?

  2. #2
    Senior Member Senior Member Tricky Lady's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    It's been a long while since I played MTW, but I still remember the Western side of the campaign map colouring blue and/or bright yellow, as the French and/or the Spanish dominated a large part of map. Very rarely another faction (England) became a major player.
    I usually played at the Eastern side of the map, so France/Spain always went on its traditional blitzkrieg in the West. They were also the major Crusading factions who regularly paid my Byzantine/Turkish terroritories a visit. I've rarely seen HRE or English crusades.

  3. #3
    woudloper Member viermaaldomi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    Wow,your experiences are in sharp contrast with mine.Here's what happens mostly when I'm playing(I have mostly played in Early so far:I conquered 100% with all factions in Early and am now playing on High Period):
    -Almohads almost always win in Spain,only once did the Spanish win(when I was playing with the Byz)
    -The English win most of the time vs the French(+- 2 times out of 3)
    -HRE gets attacked by everyone else and has never played a major role
    -Egyptians do very well all the time
    -Byz do well on Early,very bad on High
    -Sic always get medium-sized before they are run over
    -Turks don't often get big,but when they do,expand very quickly
    -Poles and Huns never get big
    -Russians always get big on High
    -Aragonese attack Spanish or French in Early,attack Almos on High
    -Danish invade Pomerania and move further east(however,when I recently played as the English on High,the Danish almost immediately invaded Sweden and Norway! )

    I must say I don't have any Mod installed,do you?Maybe this explains the differences,otherwise different tactics do I guess.(I can't believe the Spanish lose against Almos most of the time when you play,they usually get crushed very soon)
    "Gold , Frankenstein and Grrr!"

    Richard Richard

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    Uber Soldat. Member Budwise's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    I agree with the last post. If I see a crusade while playing turks, its English plus Spanish is always out within the first hour of play.

    Maybe we are all playing different starting factions?
    Last edited by Budwise; 04-21-2005 at 21:59.
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    Edit October 17th, 2007
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    Uber Soldat. Member Budwise's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    I'm going to play Danes, Watch the whole map and start from early just to see who wins what.
    Work, Girlfriend, Responsibilities, Reality, Kids, and MTW - all things in life make life worth living.

    Edit October 17th, 2007
    Work-Still hate it but I appreciate having it more now.
    Girlfriend - ? - looks like I am helping Nga now. Miss sex though.
    Responsibilities, Too many bills to too little money
    Reality - (Censored)
    Kids - My son is improving a little bit each day, still far behind but I may have more kids in the future.
    MTW - Kingdoms installed but...Urggg, too soon.
    ----------------
    Conclusion, Life is worth Living now.

  6. #6
    Gettin' Medieval Member King Bob VI's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    No, I don't have any mods. Most of what you said is more or less the same as what I've seen, except:
    -Almohads almost always win in Spain,only once did the Spanish win(when I was playing with the Byz)
    -The English win most of the time vs the French(+- 2 times out of 3)
    I've been playing in the east for my past 3 or so games, and the winner in that area has been France twice and Spain once (though it went back to France after a massive civil war/french reappearance.)

    I guess, now that I think about it, the Spain/Almohad conflict is more like a 50/50 split.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    for some reason in GA mode sicily always seems to get pretty big, and the AI overall seems to be more aggresive

  8. #8
    Senior Member Senior Member Tricky Lady's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    Quote Originally Posted by viermaaldomi
    Wow,your experiences are in sharp contrast with mine.Here's what happens mostly when I'm playing(I have mostly played in Early so far:I conquered 100% with all factions in Early and am now playing on High Period):
    -Almohads almost always win in Spain,only once did the Spanish win(when I was playing with the Byz)
    -The English win most of the time vs the French(+- 2 times out of 3)
    I believe this is the case especially in MTW 1.0 without the VI expansion installed. Last year I bought the Battle Pack but I played a long Byzantine campaign in 1.0 first (I didn't know that VI+the patch added so many really nice features ) and then the Almohads defeated the Spaniards and England ruled over France. I've never seen those two countries expanding after installing the expansion pack.

  9. #9
    Gettin' Medieval Member King Bob VI's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    Ah, that may be it. I have the Battle Collection too, I wonder if viermaaldomi doesn't have VI.

  10. #10
    woudloper Member viermaaldomi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    That must be it,I don't have the VI expansion installed yet (I first wanted to experience the original game,but I'm getting pretty tired of those Almohads)
    "Gold , Frankenstein and Grrr!"

    Richard Richard

  11. #11
    Camel Lord Senior Member Capture The Flag Champion Martok's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tricky Lady
    I believe this is the case especially in MTW 1.0 without the VI expansion installed. Last year I bought the Battle Pack but I played a long Byzantine campaign in 1.0 first (I didn't know that VI+the patch added so many really nice features ) and then the Almohads defeated the Spaniards and England ruled over France. I've never seen those two countries expanding after installing the expansion pack.

    I believe this has been the experience with most players who played the original MTW and then got Viking Invasion later on, myself included. With the original Medieval, there were very few games where the western half of the map wasn't dominated by the Almohads--the Caliphate's AI was not only aggressive, but it was also simply too good at taking advantage of the fact that it had the best troops in the Early period, particularly its urban militia.

    On the other hand, England's troops aren't anything special in the Early perioed. This didn't matter, however, because in the original Medieval, the French AI was so weak that the English could've beat them with the proverbial one hand tied behind their back. This was the other major reason why the Almos were able to push into Western Europe so easily.

    Once I installed Viking Invasion, though, I noticed that the Almohad and French AI's were essentially reversed. The French became much more aggressive (hence one of the reasons they get ex-commed so often), and the Almos generally reverted to fighting on the defensive against Spain and Aragon. With Viking Invasion installed, about the only times I see the Almos take any kind of offensive actions is that they sometimes invade Portugal (which of course is a foolhardy excercise, especially if they haven't converted the Portuguese first), or to retake a province that's been conquered by someone else. Aside from that, I never see them in an aggresive posture at all anymore.
    Last edited by Martok; 04-23-2005 at 07:49.
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  12. #12
    woudloper Member viermaaldomi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    I haven't got anything installed yet,but I'll install VI right away now that I know some of the improvements (however,if now the French always get very big instead of the Almohads it's not much of an improvement).
    "Gold , Frankenstein and Grrr!"

    Richard Richard

  13. #13
    Member Member hr.oskar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    It's interesting how variable it really is... my experience has been quite different from King Bob's for example, though mostly I've noticed sharp differences between versions. In v1.00 for instance, I remember the Spanish steamrolling the Almos every time and marching to Egypt through North Africa.

    In various versions of the game I've always seen many English, French, German and Spanish crusades. I've also seen a couple Italian crusades and IFIRC a Sicilian one too (against me as the Turks).

    In VI v2.00, which I play now, I mostly see the following patterns:

    French - very aggressive. In early they do quite well, probably because of excellent generals, usually attack Lorraine. Seem to crusade more in High than Early.
    Germans - the empire tends to fall apart in civil wars, I usually see half their territory controlled by rebels.
    Hungarians - also very aggressive, usually expand east to the steppes or into Italy or Germany depending on the situation. I've almost always seen them do well.
    Turks - usually strong or at least they never quite go down without a fight.
    Russians - for some reason they do horribly, unlike past versions - get beaten up by the rebels. Speaking of which...
    Rebels - I notice they're much stronger than in past versions. They hold on to the steppes quite fiercely, in my current game they're even threatening to destroy the Polish after completely rolling back their early expansion eastwards. Pretty scary, but an interesting change!

  14. #14
    Bosna Member PittBull260's Avatar
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    Default Re: Computer-Controlled Factions: Best and Worst?

    here's what I think about most of the factions

    French-95% of the time are the strongest and richest country on the map
    Alhomads-they always expand far into Europe, until they meet france or me
    Egyptians-in the normal version they do well, in the XL mod they get beaten up by the crusaders
    Mongols-do very well at the beggining, then stop at polland
    Danes-usually expand into the eastern part, into russia and mongolia
    Germany-gets beat up by everyone
    England-france kills them
    Byz-do good in early, but in HIgh and Late get owned badly
    Russians-I usually play as them, so I don't really know how they do

    thats my 2 cents

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