The AI cheats SO MUCH.

[Sverd]

I play on normal, and like... Look, it's okay that the AI is a little stupider than me and I can usually beat it in a fair fight.

That is REALLY not a fair reason to give them magic wands. Magic wands that they can wave around that spawn a free recruitable unit every turn in castles that are under siege. Magic wands that, three turns after losing 40 units, 6 heroes and their ruler, let them magically spawn in their ruler almost immediately back again alongside five new level three heroes and a full six-stack of units with their capital city having been under siege that whole time.

Like, come the f**k on. I can still beat them, this s**t just sucks. When I play a game on "NORMAL", I don't expect the AI to BLATANTLY CHEAT IN MY FACE!

[Táiyō.]

Skill issue

[Stormsong]

Originally posted by Sverd:

I play on normal, and like... Look, it's okay that the AI is a little stupider than me and I can usually beat it in a fair fight.

That is REALLY not a fair reason to give them magic wands. Magic wands that they can wave around that spawn a free recruitable unit every turn in castles that are under siege. Magic wands that, three turns after losing 40 units, 6 heroes and their ruler, let them magically spawn in their ruler almost immediately back again alongside five new level three heroes and a full six-stack of units with their capital city having been under siege that whole time.

Like, come the f**k on. I can still beat them, this s**t just sucks. When I play a game on "NORMAL", I don't expect the AI to BLATANTLY CHEAT IN MY FACE!

Everything you just described is explained by upgraded throne city infrastructure and the Rally of Lieges mechanic. I point this out to say you could be doing the exact same thing.

AI gets economy bonuses, yes.

However, AI does not just get free units. That's just you completely ignoring at least 2 (probably closer to 3 or 4) game mechanics.

Also, later into the game heroes come with levels off the rip. Levels that you can freely redistribute with the reset button. So again, this is something you could be doing too.

Refilling a Ruler, some low level heroes and a single mob stack 3 turns after a loss is not just possible, it's easy after a certain point. Especially if you're attacking something as vital as a city. Yeah, the priority is going to be on fast deployment methods to give you the boot, as it should be.

[Sverd]

"I'm ignoring critical mechanics", he says, while completely ignoring my post offhandedly mentioning that the AI gets massive resource cheats on normal. Yes, that is my point, congratulations! The AI shouldn't get huge money cheats on normal to ♥♥♥♥ out rally every single turn and hire max heroes no matter how fast they're killed. It makes killing them more annoying than it should be!

[Imperium]

Originally posted by Stormsong the Fallen:

Also, later into the game heroes come with levels off the rip. Levels that you can freely redistribute with the reset button. So again, this is something you could be doing too.

Refilling a Ruler, some low level heroes and a single mob stack 3 turns after a loss is not just possible, it's easy after a certain point. Especially if you're attacking something as vital as a city. Yeah, the priority is going to be on fast deployment methods to give you the boot, as it should be.

I will disagree about AI not getting free units as I have tested, granted not after the recent patch.

At some point I wanted to test what ascension perks I can get by maxing my techs, so I surrounded enemy city, used rebellion spell to completely remove all the population and territory of that city, surrounded it with my own city influence so enemy AI could not grow. AND Sieged him permanently. Killing off his 3 armies every 4 turns. Result is as follows.

1) His city recovered ALL 30 of its population, with an average of 1 pop a turn with no lands connected to it.

2) every turn he recruited 5 heroes filled with random equipment up to 4 stacks, 3 filled with heroes and 1 filled with hero and random tier 4 units.

3) Keeping his hero did nothing, as by the end of the test i had over a 100 heroes in crypt and like 50 captured, he continued spawning them every turn.

This proofs that AI has a set large income not linked to capital city and it can spawn heroes indeffenately and for free. It also has enough gold to buy units outright. Now this was tested on a small 1 v 1 map on hardest available difficulty.

[zero13d]

Except they do get FREE STACKS...Just got down playing a couple rounds in the new story map...

Evil Elf spawned in several stacks at the eldritch map level as soon as war was declared while he was sitting on the Sanctuary tile and spawned in 3 stacks next to my City...

Fighting the evil bug guy north of me..
I killed -4 heroes in their 3 stack of 6 guys and literally the next turn they come running down the road as I move closer to their capital with another 3 STACKS with several heroes in their stacks... ( This is on MEGACITY story map...)

I use clever tactics and was able to get close to the city with no red blimps on the map and literally the next turn 3 MORE STACKS instantly summon on the map...

This is really bad and anyone defending this is either a troll or paid troll..

[Dasty-Fox]

My chaos Goblins crush you face )))

[Astasia]

The campaign maps have special rules that absolutely include some AIs getting extra bonuses or free units. This should be expected in campaign maps and really isn't worth mentioning here as it's not what people are generally discussing.

On normal maps you can pick realm traits that include powerful rulers that have special bonuses. I believe they start with extra units, but I don't think they get any more afterwards.

For non-special AIs in non-special maps there are no free units and I haven't seen any evidence of the AI getting resource bonuses on normal/medium difficulty. On higher difficulty obviously there's bonus resources, that's what you are asking for by ramping up the difficulty.

[zero13d]

I know the AI cheats because you can use the cheat code to expose the whole map and then WATCH the ai go from 4 troops to all of a sudden 3 stacks in 1 TURN...both story and random maps...

Simple to prove and show, just use the map cheat and watch it play out in 1 turn...
This is with Megacities on the new story map, bug guy up north and he went from a stack with 4 guys in it to all of a sudden 3 stacks plus full of heroes in 1 turn...

And that is on easy by the way

[Astasia]

Originally posted by zero13d:

This is with Megacities on the new story map

Those story/campaign maps are scripted. That's not normal gameplay. The AI definitely does not get free units on normal maps. This has been discussed countless times and IIRC confirmed by the devs that it doesn't happen, it's usually just people not understanding the rally of liege or roads mechanics.

[zero13d]

Just hit the turn button again and the next turn it spawned a stack with no summons and leveled partially..

so in 2 turns the AI on the story map spawn in 4 stacks with 6 troops each partially leveled..

I had the AI down to 4 troops in a single stack and in 2 turns it now has 25 new troops... that is not good or fun gameplay and defending it is jacked up

[Astasia]

That sounds like a comparatively easy story mission then. Some of the others are a lot more brutal and spawn stacks of t5 units starting turn 1. Maybe you should spend some time playing normal maps to get the hang of the game before trying again.

[zero13d]

Because playing a game with AI that just spawns stacks of troops over and over again is great and compelling game play, so enjoyable and great immersion..

At least its admitted that the AI spawns stacks instead of you know, playing by it's own rules.

[Darkness]

Originally posted by zero13d:

Because playing a game with AI that just spawns stacks of troops over and over again is great and compelling game play, so enjoyable and great immersion..

At least its admitted that the AI spawns stacks instead of you know, playing by it's own rules.

You sound convinced this game isn't good and you're not enjoying it. Could just stop playing it or looking for mp games. See you in other threads cursing and saying the game sucks so... why are you playing it?

[Stormsong]

Originally posted by Sverd:

"I'm ignoring critical mechanics", he says, while completely ignoring my post offhandedly mentioning that the AI gets massive resource cheats on normal. Yes, that is my point, congratulations! The AI shouldn't get huge money cheats on normal to ♥♥♥♥ out rally every single turn and hire max heroes no matter how fast they're killed. It makes killing them more annoying than it should be!

If your entire point was economy, where is that complaint?

Originally posted by Sverd:

I play on normal, and like... Look, it's okay that the AI is a little stupider than me and I can usually beat it in a fair fight.

That is REALLY not a fair reason to give them magic wands. Magic wands that they can wave around that spawn a free recruitable unit every turn in castles that are under siege. Magic wands that, three turns after losing 40 units, 6 heroes and their ruler, let them magically spawn in their ruler almost immediately back again alongside five new level three heroes and a full six-stack of units with their capital city having been under siege that whole time.

Like, come the f**k on. I can still beat them, this s**t just sucks. When I play a game on "NORMAL", I don't expect the AI to BLATANTLY CHEAT IN MY FACE!

You don't mention the game economy, gold, crystals or any other marker of an economy once. Anywhere. You complained about "magic wands" spawning units on normal. That doesn't happen.

Well, in my last reply, I tried to be more explanatory in hopes you'd investigate more of the tools available to you. Instead, you've chosen to be sarcastic. So be it. This is a skill issue and there's really nothing that can be done for you until you either get better or quit.

Sucks to suck

[Astasia]

Originally posted by zero13d:

Because playing a game with AI that just spawns stacks of troops over and over again is great and compelling game play, so enjoyable and great immersion..

At least its admitted that the AI spawns stacks instead of you know, playing by it's own rules.

Generally yes, it's explained by the story in those missions why the enemy is more powerful and has an advantage, and the gameplay is fun and immersive given the situation you are presented with. That's the point of the campaign. If you just want a fair brawl you shouldn't be in the story driven campaign missions.

Go play the Starcraft campaign or whatever and see if every stage is just a fair 1v1, that's not how campaigns work. This should be common sense.