is the AI cheating
 

Topic. The AI seems to collect troops at an extremely fast rate, even with ALL negative scales on easy/normal difficulty level. I've tried this out a couple of times. And even if they have death3 turmoil 3 etc. they still manage to send out tons of expansion parties during the first turns while I struggle with keeping my first alive. ??? Maybe this is a bit of a whiner topic, but I've had this game since it was released and the AI always beats me badly even on EASY difficulty. I've only won against it 2 or 3 times with MA Ulm. Even my gamer buddies can't keep up that much resistance:D

Re: is the AI cheating
 

Turn up the Independents in your next game.
YOU will tend to make much better decisions on who to attack and when to attack them than the AI does. If you turn Indepts down (as many new players do thinking it will make the game easier) then it just allows the AI to swarm you early in the game.

Gandalf Parker

Re: is the AI cheating
 

At Easy difficulty, the AI gets resource and gold PENALTIES.

MA Ulm starts with a good fortress (good admin -> more resources), tends to start in or near mountainous provinces (more resources) and gets extra resources in all of its forts as a nation-wide bonus. Their national units are very cheap on gold. It probably got lucky and the pretender had scales that fitted the nation, and the capital was surrounded by high-resource provinces.

In addition, while it's not cheating per se, the AI is way more efficient at recruiting from independent provinces than any human player. It can recruit from all provinces it has conquered, every turn. Most of those units are useless, so once you learn how to take care of chaff the number of units doesn't matter any more, and that's when you up the AI difficulty and/or use mods/maps with AI-friendly features.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

You can see the AI bonuses in the FAQ.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

Endoperez, I think you misunderstood me. I was the one with MA Ulm:) Great nation against the AI, only a bit boring:D
I have turned up the indies to lvl 9 in several games which only resulted in my SC's brutally slaughtered. The last time Baelor, the fomorian king got his face kicked in by like 40(!!!) lizard warriors, so I've lost my faith in SC's unless they are wyrms or Melqarts/Adons:(.
It's just like in HOMM, every time I thought I had a reasonable army, the AI came in and raped me with a bigger one.
That aside, how do you take care of a 400/500 army chaff that the AI manged to gather in a couple of turns?

Re: is the AI cheating
 

The enemy, sounds like you are not building your SCs right. A properly built SC should be able to defeat any number of regular troops (unsupported by mages). Occassionally, there are some niche troops that can take down an SC, but its rare. Perhaps you should post some of your builds and ask for advice on how to use them instead of giving up on them entirely.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

You just need more practice. A lot more. I mean if the AI on easy is trouncing you,... I don't know what to say. Focus on the basics, don't worry about SCs or spells too much.

I suggest taking a nation like MA Abysia, good scales and something like an E9 bless with a sleeping or imprisoned pretender. They're fairly easy to play and above par units work well against what the AI likes to build.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

lol a decent army of good units should help you beat most armies the AI on easy can throw at you.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

the AI is not only cheating in the game, it's sleeping with your partner when your at work...

it also likes to raid your frige.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

theenemy,

This is a hard and complicated game. I lost every game for a few weeks. In all likelihood you are doing what I did and try to play the game like it is Civilization. That does not work.

You are probably expanding too fast, recruiting maximum crappy troops in every province, getting bankrupted by the support costs for these troops and hoping that you can bludgeon your way to success. While the capabilities of the AI are often derided, it performs at its best against this strategy (sic).

Read the guides and various national threads. The tactics and strategies may seem arcane, but they are tired and true.

You will pick it up. I did, and I'm an old man.