House Rules against the AI

[krpeters]

So what strategy do you employ against an AI horde with 500+ troops and 10+ mages?

[Knai]

Originally Posted by krpeters

So what strategy do you employ against an AI horde with 500+ troops and 10+ mages?

Remote assassination spells are your friend here. Mind Hunt, Earth Attack, so on and so forth. Plus, you can just field much smaller armies backed by far fewer mages, and actually spend gems intelligently to win the fights effortlessly. Army of Gold, Earthquake, Earthquake, win for instance.

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by krpeters

So what strategy do you employ against an AI horde with 500+ troops and 10+ mages?

Ah, but what about following the rules from the OP?:

Originally Posted by Makinus

3. Only 1 researcher per lab.
4. Do not use battle spells that need gems.
5. Do not use global spells (You are free to Dispel the ones the AI casts).

So far, we only discussed 1/lab.

Originally Posted by Doo

Burden of Time

What about with no Globals?

Originally Posted by Knai

Plus, you can just field much smaller armies backed by far fewer mages, and actually spend gems intelligently to win the fights effortlessly. Army of Gold, Earthquake, Earthquake, win for instance.

What about no battle gems?

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by krpeters

So what strategy do you employ against an AI horde with 500+ troops and 10+ mages?

The last time I had to fight AI armies of such size, I would maybe throw a flames from the sky in that direction, then drop a mage SC in on them who can stand in melee while spamming aoe spells.

If you don't have access to such things, then you'll need to deploy an army that can hold the AI army down while you use some BE/battlefield wide spells to bring them down. I use the word army loosely and it doesn't need to resemble an army at all. But some useful spells could include blood rain, wailing winds, fire storm, rain of stones, earthquake, soul drain... the list goes on. And of course things like skellyspam are very handy to keep the opposing army occupied while you slowly chew through them.

[Doo]

Burden of Time

[Rookierookie]

By the way, how does the AI use its gold? I was wondering if increasing the income would help the AI, since I rarely if ever feel in need of money in SP.

[rdonj]

The AI uses its money to buy anything and everything it can afford. Increasing the income *would* help the AI, but it would help you just as much. If you're trying to boost it that way, taking poor scales to compensate for the increased money would be necessary to avoid negating the advantage to the AI. It will recruit even more chaff that way though.

[Makinus]

Originally Posted by rdonj

If you're trying to boost it that way, taking poor scales to compensate for the increased money would be necessary to avoid negating the advantage to the AI. It will recruit even more chaff that way though.

Good idea.... but what would be considered "poor" scales in that situation? If i get Trumoil3 instead of Order3 would i really be handicapping myself or, in a game with plentiful money, it would be irrelevant?

[Knai]

Originally Posted by Makinus

Good idea.... but what would be considered "poor" scales in that situation? If i get Trumoil3 instead of Order3 would i really be handicapping myself or, in a game with plentiful money, it would be irrelevant?

Take the wrong temperature scales, don't use the extra points. The most blatant method is Heat 3 Niefleheim or EA Caelum, or Cold 3 Abyssia, but you can always get at least 3 away from ideal. Take Misfortune and Drain, don't use the extra points. So on and so forth.

[rdonj]

Let's say you take turmoil 3 and heat/cold 3. That's 33% less gold that you get. And if the AI has just order 3 and nothing negative, it's more like a 55% difference. With double money that's huge, and will make things a fair bit more challenging, especially in the early game.