hey guys Spirit of the law here anyone familiar with the nuts and bolts of AI scripting knows that
the AI plays by following basically a long list of step-by-step rules where given a specific game
condition it'll respond with a scripted action While most of these rules are consistent across
civilizations there are civilization specific rules added to help saves perform a bit better
and use their strengths and bonuses whether that be when to research certain texts or which units
to prioritize because of those differences and the fact the AI is inherently better equipped
to utilize some bonuses over others it stands to reason there must be some civs it's better
or worse at playing that leads to the question then of what are those civilizations of course
there's a few possible ways to go about trying to figure out what those are you could play against
the extreme AI 42 times perhaps and decide which felt the hardest and easiest or maybe
more objectively you could have a tournament where AIS eliminate each other to compete for
the top spot the problem is if you ran that tournament several times you'd probably get
very different results even better what you you could do is have all the civilizations play each
other I delete more than once even three times would be pretty good meaning Aztecs play three
games against bengalis three games against berbers three games against Bohemians and so
on with every civ combination and then track all of their performances unfortunately that would
require 2583 games which would all have to be set up manually and would take over a thousand hours
of real time even if the games were played on fast speed who in their right mind would undertake such
a project well not me but someone has done it and is sharing the results if this sounds familiar
these same Anonymous hero had a similar project a year and a half ago that I talked about at the
time back then Archer civilizations dominated as the AI would go for skirmishers and archers
basically every game 1v1 so since with bonuses for that or surprisingly if the civ had battle
elephants they tended to do well which led to Vietnamese being unexpectedly best AI Civ at the
time since then the AI has actually gone through a lot of updates and improvements though as well
as having new civilizations added and is much better at full Castle age play on just one or
two Town centers it's also now able to dress with militia make men at arms and has a scout
rash Cavalry civs in particular are also much more likely to make Knights now and altogether
it's enough that the results are in fact very different this time around admittedly this
might only give a rough idea of how well the AI plays each civilization as beating other AI isn't
necessarily a perfect indication of how hard it is for a human player to face but even Beyond just
wins and losses the tests are recorded for every game the advanced times and other statistics so
we can get a reasonably good idea of even why the AI is doing as well as it is so let's check it out
we'll start with the ai's worst civilization which is the Burmese at just a 30 win rate one-on-one
against other AI now Burmese aren't a stellar civilization online with a human at the wheel
but certainly not in 30 win rate territory which is pretty abysmal the AI typically makes archers
and skirmishers with them in feudal leading to Castle age crossbows and Elites skirmishers
followed up with a rabbi or eventually Champions all of that sounds pretty reasonable but the fact
the AI doesn't really micro arambai means it often falls behind after some bad engagements in Castle
age if you're going for the easiest match against the AI possible for an achievement Burmese would
be a good choice or at least the Other Extreme AI seem to be pretty good at beating up on it
rounding out the other civilizations with under a 40 win rate we have saracens Portuguese Celts
garage Ethiopians Italians humans and dravidians the person who put this together gave a few notes
they observed about each ai's typical behavior and saracens for example tend to open archers and
skirmishers but underutilize their Market bonus compared to how a human player would which is a
pattern displayed by many of the civilizations mentioned here many of these lowest performing
civilizations are also surprisingly Archer civs which is interesting given archer civ's previously
had been the strongest cohort over a year ago the reason for that is the AI used to just go
for Mirror archers and skirmishers basically every game so sips with archer bonuses end up
winning the slugfest in contrast now it seems the newer strategies and employs especially in
Castle age are much more effective the AI also had a strange habit of giving archer upgrades
top priority meaning civilizations not making archers were then putting themselves behind which
is no longer the case that said I'm a little surprised to see Celts here at the bottom as
the AI will often Rush with them which is a new and one would think effective strategy given the
ai's ability to micro then again at times it's easy to wonder if the AI can properly execute a
successful militia raid consistently or if it just leads to throwing away units more often
than not another pattern with the low performing civilizations is the AI seems more often to wait
and see what its opponent's unit choice is going to be and then focuses on counters rather than
preemptively making Cavalry or Siege at least that's the impression given to me by the person
who ran and watched at least part of thousands of games now good jars are a really interesting case
here as well as they're a top tier Civ online but the AI really struggles to make the most of
them they do Garrison their sheep in Mills as a matter effect and the reputation at least is
that's a strong bonus in its own right that said the AI sometimes has difficulty keeping a steady
Dark Age food income maybe thanks to bad scouting which can then lead to some idle Town Center time
potentially putting it a few villagers back the AI likes to play guitars with archers and skirmishers
followed up with any of elephant archers driven Riders chocolate throwers or camels in Castle age
so it's not that the AI isn't making use of its options it seems to be more a matter of not being
able to micro its units well and capitalize on gurjara's strengths like a human player can now of
course most civilizations fall between a 40 to 60 win rate and if I wanted to make this a one hour
video I'd love to go through all of them and their respective strategies but I think it's really the
extremes that are the most interesting if we're trying to keep things to a reasonable length with
that said there's seven civilizations I want to look at that had over a 60 win rate meaning these
are theoretically the civs the AI is strongest when playing the first is the byzantines they also
go for Archers and skirmishers often with spear German if they see Cavalry units but of course
they have a discount so there's some extra synergy that other civilizations don't have in Castle
age they typically go with crossbows and Elite skirmishers though on some maps they like to fast
Castle putting down an early defensive castle and defend with Pikeman and camels an imperial which
they tend to hit a little faster than average they go for cataphracts supported by Cheap trash units
interestingly the AI seems to prefer countering infantry with arbalester over the cataphract
though it does love its Elite cataphracts and endless trash units which makes for a strong
combination against other AI civilizations the next top performer is the hunt they're a little
unexpected for me here at the top as the AI tends to use houses to wall now which is something Huns
aren't able to do as Huns the AI will sometimes try to drush but again often open with archers or
skirmishers whether it's because of resources saved for houses or not Hans typically attack
a bit earlier than other civilizations and on average reach Castle age about 30 seconds
faster once subtle Advantage they have is that that many civilizations can temporarily house
themselves by trying to add to their house wall but giving villagers an unexpectedly long way
to walk Huns of course not needing houses don't have to run into that problem another strength
is a Hun AI is very eager to switch to Knights as a counter to skirmishers and will even adding
Cavalry archers or sometimes fast Castle into knights in opportune moments to follow that up in
Imperial they typically go for paladins hazards and heavy Cavalry archers capitalizing well on
their civilization's strengths next up at number 5 we have the Bohemians as you'd expect they also
typically open with archers and skirmishers continuing with crossbows or knights in Castle
age it's then common for them to end up making a castle during Castle age and collect relics as the
AI knows to prioritize a monastery and grab fervor for their villagers their Imperial age is actually
one of the strongest out of the AIS where they go for elite hussite wagons and halberdiers or
occasionally hand cannoniers depending on their opponent's units they also reach Imperial age
about 50 seconds faster than average typically around 36 half minutes given the AI doesn't make
great use of Mobility either the bohemian's lack of Mobility doesn't hurt as much as you'd expect
in the very late game as well they'll also add in houfnice says and trash monks really playing
the civ to its potential moving on to number 4 we have the burgundians the AI is actually
quite diligent about getting tax and age early leading to slower Advanced times but the other
AI don't seem to be able to punish this it'll typically go for a bit of a slow Scout rush and
follow that afterwards with archery range units during Castle age they sometimes use crossbows
and Elite skirmishers but more typically make a Cavalier Tech switch giving them one of the
most effective Castle ages in Imperial they typically go for Paladin and hussar making use
of the cheaper upgrade costs though occasionally they'll also use coustillier instead of Paladin
and of course are also happy to add in counter units like hand Cannon ears the AI will even try
to quickly end the game with Flemish Revolution on occasion if it's banking a lot of resources
entering the top three we have the sloths similar to burgundians the AI typically opens
Scouts and then follows it up with an archery range the AI then likes to boom and will often use
a defensive Tower early on to protect any forward resources in Castle age they logically follow up
with knights or depending on the map will happily fast Castle into Knights later in Imperial age
they tend to prefer the elite Bowyer and hussar adding in Elite skirmishers as a counter to any
halberdiers and will even make use of their farming bonus by selling extra food as needed
at the market unfortunately it doesn't really prioritize Georgina Champions but against Cavalry
civs will spam halberdiers and boyars which can be quite effective against an enemy halberdier
and Paladin combo that said the AI could probably be a bit better about using dead Nets as it tends
to pick it up quite late and spam castles and locations they really aren't needed moving on
at number 2 we have the Teutons again this is a strong Cavalry civ that the AI is more likely
to use in that way though the AI is varied in its opening strategies either going with men at Arms
or archers and skirmishers alternately depending on the map the AI will also prioritize a defense
offensive Tower and fast Castle into Knights one of the secrets to their success is that spamming
Knights and Pikes against other civilizations doing that same strategy they tend to perform
well thanks to their better armor and of course early Towers can also be very effective against
the AI despite being labelled an infantry civ and of course having the Teutonic Knight the Titans
in Imperial age will almost always default to full Paladin which can be quite strong though of course
the AI always loves to add in halberdiers and hand cannoniers as counter units apparently the AI will
also shamelessly use Scout Cavalry in Imperial age to deal with monks or onagers without fear
of ridicule of using Scouts in Imperial age but now we come to number one where you might
expect Franks given all the top tier Cavalry civilizations being represented here as well as
their reputation online among players similar in skill to the extreme AI the last three years have
definitely primed us all to think they would be number one but no the ai's best civilization ended
up being the Vikings with a 72 win rate one-on-one like most civilizations the AI prefers and archers
skirmisher's opening but it'll also do a man at Arms rush in feudal age on occasion despite
having free wheelbarrow they surprisingly have a slower than average 21 and a half minute Castle
time largely because they're so aggressive with feudal units leading to an early Advantage they
then regularly overwhelm the AI with crossbows and skirmishers adding in a few Rams to finish
things off even if the enemy AI successfully fights off the first big wave in Castle Age
The Viking AI is unusually persistent and can follow with a successful second wave attack as
the other AI is trying to boom and add in more Town centers alternately if certain conditions
are met Vikings can also go for a night rush and even without Bloodlines and husbandry
they regularly beat top Cavalry civilizations thanks to their strong economy they also reach
Imperial age over a minute faster than the ai's average at about 36 minutes typically and prefer
to follow that up with Champions and research achievements which the other AI seem to have an
especially hard time dealing with the main point is if you want the ultimate extreme AI challenge
then Vikings seem like a great choice if you're curious to check out the data yourself there's a
great little website put together summarizing the results and even more impressive a little write up
on how the AI typically plays each civ along with more cool AI stats it was a huge project and I'm
absolutely Blown Away by the dedication to seeing it through the results are very interesting though
especially for any players who primarily like to test their skills against the AI that'll do it for
this one though big thanks to Seb Woodruff John jockster Justin Kyle James Jean-Paul Samantha and
everyone else on patreon for their awesome support thanks for watching and I'll see you next time