Keep winning by default in first few rounds

[InaneDugong]

Not sure what setting I have wrong (first time playing anything like this), but I keep either winning immediately after I end my first turn, or a few turns in from 'independents destroying capitals' (whatever the victory condition is called).

What should I change to stop this from happening?

[I>U]

AI's difficulty. Anything lower than Count tend to suicide sooner or later.

[InaneDugong]

Originally posted by I>U:

AI's difficulty. Anything lower than Count tend to suicide sooner or later.

Ahh gotcha, thanks for that!

[Draken]

First of, add more AI.
There is always going to be some early losses.

And no, not everything below count will suicide.
I regularly play against Butler and Knight and after the initial rounds death by indies are rare.

Higher difficulties will just give the AI more money to hire troops and commanders, which will indeed make them more resistant to dying, but also more difficult to fight for yourself, something I would be careful with if you just started playing the game.

During tests I have set AI's to jesters and even boys and those also do not all die off.

How exactly do you set up your games? If you make a 1 vs 1 I can see the scenario you described happening quite often. Checking "wilder" in the options would also exacerbate the issue.

I am usually playing with Baron or Knight enemies and while it's common for one or two to die, the rest usually die to me or other AI's.

Lastly, you could try adding AI's that do not get eliminated easily. The Dryad Queen and Dwarf Queen usually leave a commander at home and will usually not die to independents. Same for the Enchanter.

[I>U]

The thing is, I've never seen Count or better suiciding after AI got patched (Necro\Markgraff dying on melting lakes, Senator randomly ussing teleportation scrolls and so on).

Normal RNG can equally kill you or AI with things like greater horror suddenly walking out of the Pyramid that just happen to spawn near your capital. When I played 1v1, it was considered a rule to remake such generations within first 7 turns.

Buuuuut, of course, you need to know those bad setups to veto them. And, naturally, normal RNG works smoother the bigger the map is and the more players there are. I just don't think AI can be a good compatriot

And since it came to this, we have to mention that different classes have different AI patterns. There is no universal ruleset. So, OP, the same Count can perform differently depending on the faction you've choosen. Senator and Witch are the most powerful ones, in my opinion, so you may want to avoid them for the time being.

[Gilmoy]

Medium 6 Count
Huge 7 Count

0-1 will die off from leaving their sole citadel undefended. It's an AI blind spot.
The simplest solution is to play vs. 5-6 AIs at the same time. Some shall survive.

Later, the #1 AI will kill off 0-3 other AIs, sometimes before you even see any of them.
Focus on learning your own economy and combat, and gradually go kill an AI yourself.

[Alpharius]

Bystander Mod.

[InaneDugong]

Originally posted by Warsmith:

Bystander Mod.

Gonna look that one up, tyty

Originally posted by Draken:

First of, add more AI.
How exactly do you set up your games? If you make a 1 vs 1 I can see the scenario you described happening quite often. Checking "wilder" in the options would also exacerbate the issue.

I am usually playing with Baron or Knight enemies and while it's common for one or two to die, the rest usually die to me or other AI's.

Lastly, you could try adding AI's that do not get eliminated easily. The Dryad Queen and Dwarf Queen... Same for the Enchanter.

Ahh okay, I might throw those factions on if I get a few null games in a row.
I've just been/'was' going with the default settings: Medium, 4 AI, Jester. About 3 games in a row all the AI died on turn 1. Since I've turned the AI up to Count, it's stopped happening--though it was still a bit of an anomaly. Idk if this game has a replay function for checking out exactly what happened, but yeah that was my experience in 50% of my first 8 attempts of playing this game, aha.

Originally posted by Gilmoy:

Medium 6 Count
Huge 7 Count

I'll try playing like this, see how much of a difference it makes. NFI how the spawn-rates of neutrals works, but perhaps it'll give a bit more space between them and AIs... well, not that I have any fkin clue how they ALL died in a single turn multiple games in a row, lmao.

Originally posted by I>U:

The thing is, I've never seen Count or better suiciding after AI got patched

That seems to be working; even if I'm getting my butt kicked, at least the game lasts long enough for me to get my head around how to play lel. Cheers to whomever gave this advice--I'll also try the above ideas in case it allows me to reduce the difficulty.

Ty all for the help!

[Draken]

Originally posted by InaneDugong:

Originally posted by Warsmith:

Bystander Mod.

Gonna look that one up, tyty

Bystandar mod just adds a dummy player that doesn't attack but also will not die. So it's more useful if you want to keep playing after defeating all the normal AI opponents. It does not help those to survive long.

There are a few other mods that add starting defenses to all players, like this one:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2578568791

That should be more what you are looking for.

Originally posted by InaneDugong:

Ahh okay, I might throw those factions on if I get a few null games in a row.
I've just been/'was' going with the default settings: Medium, 4 AI, Jester. About 3 games in a row all the AI died on turn 1. Since I've turned the AI up to Count, it's stopped happening--though it was still a bit of an anomaly. Idk if this game has a replay function for checking out exactly what happened, but yeah that was my experience in 50% of my first 8 attempts of playing this game, aha.

Ok, that does sound as if you just were incredible unlucky. I never had all the AI die in the first 5 turns. Never mind it happening multiple times in a row. Not even with jesters or boys as opponents.

[InaneDugong]

Originally posted by Draken:

Bystandar mod just adds a dummy player that doesn't attack but also will not die. So it's more useful if you want to keep playing after defeating all the normal AI opponents. It does not help those to survive long.

Ahh, that does sound useful but independent of this issue. I'll check that out anyways I think, so I can finally check out the other planes, aha.

Originally posted by Draken:

There are a few other mods that add starting defenses to all players, like this one:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2578568791

That should be more what you are looking for.

Oh! Cheers, that's perfect, thank you! :D Easy decision here.

Originally posted by Draken:

Ok, that does sound as if you just were incredible unlucky. I never had all the AI die in the first 5 turns. Never mind it happening multiple times in a row. Not even with jesters or boys as opponents.

lmao, thought it was weird I didn't see the whole forums going on about it from new players. Yeah, legit was the moment I hit the End Turn 1 button, a few games in a row. Irrespective, cheers for this mod, I can go back to learning to play now. Thx <3

[HippieJesus]

That is an incredible streak of apocalyptic turn 1s. I usually see 1-2 die in the first few turns, but never ALL of them.

Did you start covid?