A nation the AI could use *well*

[Sombre]

It's simple enough to mod a specially built AI nation which could provide more challenge in SP games; Discounted recruitables, crazy starting sites, overpowered units and commanders etc.

But a more interesting topic might be what kind of nation the AI could use *well*. By this I mean rather than simply giving the AI better stuff, I'd like to discuss what the AI can use in a way which is more like a human. If a nation were created to be played well by the AI rather than be powerful it could also be balanced and even interesting for a human to play. Perhaps even a good one for beginners, who like the AI tend to make some odd choices and play in a rather simplistic way.

I'm not putting this in the mod forum because at this point I just want to identify the traits of existing nations/units which suit the AI well. Some thoughts:

The AI isn't capable of intelligent bless usage.
The AI doesn't tend to send battle mages with its armies that much.
The AI only VERY rarely uses stealth troops.
The AI likes to make blocks of troop types, so 'standard' units aren't a good idea for it. Remember the Honk Honk marverni hornblower army?
AI pays no attention to supplies.
AI can't really use blood properly.

The AI is generally pretty good with straightforward armies of medium infantry and missile units.
The AI can be relatively good/irritating with assassins.
Spellcasting AI in battle isn't too bad if the mage is suited to useful evocations. An AI abysia shows some appropriate mage-artillery usage. An AI TC generally doesn't.


To get the AI using more battlemages, it might work well to have all military leaders be spellcasters. So if the AI brings a swarm of 1000 troops and it mostly uses 40 or 80 ldr spellcasters, you will automatically get quite a few mages present and slinging spells. This is more aimed at NI maps, because otherwise the AI would still be using indy commanders.

Issues like supply ignorance can be countered by strong nature magic in the nation, troops that don't need to eat or leaders that otherwise give supply bonus. Any of these solutions would also be perfectly acceptable to a human player, given thematic justification and appropriate balancing.


So are there any traits/nations you've noticed that suit the AI well? Remember the idea here is to find stuff that the AI uses in an interesting and sensible way, not just stuff they win more with. How do you think the AI manages with the heavy infantry of Ulm