House Rules against the AI

[Makinus]

I nearly exclusively play single player against the AI and i use some House Rules to give a "fair chance" to the AI, i´ll post my house rules here and i´m curious to other house hules:

1. Always use a Imprisioned Pretender.
2. Only attack an AI if attacked first (you are free to attack independents).
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).

By using these house rules and setting AIs to Difficult i find the SP more of a challenge...

So, any house rules against the AI that you think are fun?

[Sir_Dr_D]

Do not over bid on mercenaries.

[Sombre]

Don't bid on mercs at all :]

I also refuse to use geared out thugs (gear is reserved for ordinary commanders that have proven themselves)

I use NI maps.

I stale the first 5 turns.

I don't use archer decoys or arrange my troops in an overly clever way.

[cleveland]

Set all AIs to Impossible Aggressive, and starting provinces to 9.

Also set Supply to 300 and use Edi's Better Independents mod.

[Gandalf Parker]

There is a switch called SuperHost. It runs host over and over and over. You can add it to your dom3 icon and use it to force the game ahead many turns before stopping it, take the superhost off, and then join the game in normal mode with the AIs having a big head start.

Ive actually been outbid on mercs lately but the AI doesnt tend to bid more than a slight amount. Most of the outbids I thnk are the newer changes of "merc preference" which makes some mercs cheaper for certain nations to hire over others. My rules might include only one set of mercs at a time.

I like to RPG abit in my solo games so I treat AIs as if they were players. I even send messages. In some case, gifts. Particularly if I see that a nation I can probably beat easily is on the "other side" of some nasty nation. Such as, if I see that an undead nation is getting close then I might send "Herald Lances" to a nation on the other side of them, or even between me and them. The lances allow the AI to hold back the undeads but dont cause me much problem later.

I even form NAPs (non-aggression pacts) with AIs. On the one hand some will find that really funny. On the other hand some will say it works exactly the same as it does in MP games with humans. Everything seems good for awhile then suddenly the AI "changes its mind". At least with the AI its rarely a surprise attack. It tends to build up on your border giving you a chance to RPG an exchange of disappointment and threats of counter actions. Its good practice for the real thing.

Other things you can do:
Maps such as NI, Tower, or Pipe can give you a better game with AIs. Pushing up the resources setting for new games can help also. And lowering the strength of Independents.

You can add some commands to the end of your favorite map that makes the AIs allies with each other. Or team up. The commands are ignored for human players of those nations or if the nation isnt in the game so you can create some interesting alliances and forget you did it.

Maps can have designed AIs added. Things such as giving it only small gods, or immobile gods. The AI doesnt tend to use SC (super combatant, big mobile gods) very well unless its a small map. It also helps to use designed AIs so that it doesnt choose scales that can kill itself.

Other ways to get Designed AIs is to start the game as human for all players. Build the nations pretender and scales logically, then after a couple turns use the games Options screen to change that nation to AI for the rest of the game. Or use the SemiRand which can add random designed AIs to a map.

[Foodstamp]

Mercenary preference is definitely what causes the outbidding. For instance, if you are outbid trying to hire Hannibal, he probably went to Machaka. A year ago it was impossible to get anyone to believe this.

[pyg]

Originally Posted by cleveland

Set all AIs to Impossible Aggressive, and starting provinces to 9.

Also set Supply to 300 and use Edi's Better Independents mod.

I second this as a general setting as I dislike handicapping the way I play to accommodate the AI. I differ from these exact settings by using NI maps instead of BI mod, set starting provinces 2-5, independent strength 0-3, and use an all ages mod to select some good opponents.

[Fantomen]

I always play SP only to test out MP strategies, so crippling myself isn't really an option. I still enjoy those games and roleplay with myself on the way.

I prefer to buff the AI by designing good pretenders for it, basically maxed out scales since the AI can't handle SC or bless. With special considerations for nations that need it(LA ermor, Miasma, Mictlan). This also seems the most effective way to me.

[Sombre]

If you set the AI to impossible they get so many free design points and so much extra income that it totally outweighs economic scale design (though it doesn't change that they sometimes pick scales which are ridiculous for non economic reasons, like cold 3 with agartha or a misfortune/turmoil combo).

[Fantomen]

Are you sure?

The AI often funnels these design points in super uber magic paths that it is too stupid to use, then cheerily sends the supercharged pretender out to die. All the while succumbing under some completely ridiculus scales.

To me it has seemed more effective to design an imprisoned god, preferably immortal, with some death for skele spam and other paths suitable to cast the nations need of globals, plus good income scales and suitable other scales.