How's the AI?

[PenderBloodfart]

I'm not too much into PVP but i played the physical tabletop with friends and kind of loved it.

By the way did they ever add a shop refresh? Something the tabletop was desperately needing

[View The Phenom]

AI is fine, it won't be better than a skilled human but it's good enough to provide a challenge and keep you "honest".
Some sub-optimal plays occasionally, but nothing game-breaking. Definitely better than most strategy games I've played.

[spike2071]

It's pretty good. It likes to commit too much to combat, but it's great if you're learning or wanting to try new leaders.

One thing that I enjoyed that's limited to the digital version is the Challenges section. You play against the AI with slightly different rules. You might have different starting cards, or you get double the cards when you pick from the Imperium row, or if you have no troops in combat at the start of combat you must trash a random card, etc. It adds a nice twist that forces you to rethink some of your strategies.

For the shop refresh, I think the Immortality expansion adds the ability to obliterate the Imperium Row and draw new cards. But that's not present in this game, and you will run into the same issue here. They have announced at least one expansion is coming (Ix), so I'd assume they'll eventually add Immortality, as well.

[PenderBloodfart]

Originally posted by spike2071:

It's pretty good. It likes to commit too much to combat, but it's great if you're learning or wanting to try new leaders.

One thing that I enjoyed that's limited to the digital version is the Challenges section. You play against the AI with slightly different rules. You might have different starting cards, or you get double the cards when you pick from the Imperium row, or if you have no troops in combat at the start of combat you must trash a random card, etc. It adds a nice twist that forces you to rethink some of your strategies.

For the shop refresh, I think the Immortality expansion adds the ability to obliterate the Imperium Row and draw new cards. But that's not present in this game, and you will run into the same issue here. They have announced at least one expansion is coming (Ix), so I'd assume they'll eventually add Immortality, as well.

Does the AI do the same tactics or mistakes every time? I'm just weighting the price and how much fun i can get playing offline

[spike2071]

I've seen it make the occasional WTF move, but nothing that is consistent. The strategies seem to be the same in general (swordmaster after a few turns, hit the influence tracks for the freebie VPs, etc.), but I couldn't say if they're doing specific strategies.

I've seen them pull back troops with an Intrigue card when it's a lost combat, and they won't collect bad cards off Imperium row just to spend their points. They'll play Rally Troops and combine it with an intrigue card during the reveal phase to sneak ahead in combat. I'll see one AI getting 2 or 3 Spice Must Flow cards and then they show Corner the Market in the Endgame (nets you more VPs at the end depending on how many Spice Must Flow cards you have). This might all be confirmation bias, but the AI seems solid.

The one consistent is that they seem to overplay the Conflicts, especially when the rewards aren't great. I expect them to drop 8 or more troops for a 2 VP card, but not for 6 solari when they already have their swordmaster. That's the only exploitable thing I've seen, but I'm no master of the game. :)

[Ecthelion2005]

I bought the game this week. Just played 3 games against the AI House Hagal. Lost the 3 of them and finished last so the AI is good.

[noctilucus]

I would agree, it puts up a solid challenge and like @spike2071 after quite a few games I see some typical behaviour but not that predictable that I could tell whether it's following a fixed strategy per leader.

They make good use of the available cards and the intrigue cards they draw. And yes, they tend to overcommit on Conflicts even when there are no 2 VP at stake but at the same time in a lot of games that did put them quite a few points ahead of me before reaching those final rounds and I was struggling to catch up since they managed to replenish their troops as fast as me :-p

[View The Phenom]

I keep seeing people mention the over-commitment on single VP conflicts, but those add up when they've gotten 2 or 3 single VP conflicts in a match. If you're not careful, there may not even be more than one or two double VP conflicts at all.

I agree that they seem to aggressively tackle those wins without a long-term plan, though.

[Vertemouse]

The AI is very good except for two weak spots:
1. Sometimes the AI will dump intrigue cards into combat needlessly.
2. The AI never Reveals early to buy better cards, a popular move when you're playing with humans. Its often seen in tournament play too.

I have over 200 hours and I rarely win.

[FericJaggar]

As ppl said above, AI is really challenging, specially in hard setting. It doesn't do that much mistakes. And it plays like a human opponent, as opposed to House Hagal (same bot as the physical boardgame) that plays really differently, like a bull under steroids.

[Maientau]

Originally posted by Ecthelion2005:

I bought the game this week. Just played 3 games against the AI House Hagal. Lost the 3 of them and finished last so the AI is good.

Hagal is not AI, it's how you play solo or 2 player mode in the boardgame. They just draw cards from the hagal deck and do what the card says. No decisions involved.

[enpi1234]

even on easy mode its easy for a player to loose the game against the AI (like me :))

[Wompus54]

Originally posted by Vertemouse:

The AI is very good except for two weak spots:
1. Sometimes the AI will dump intrigue cards into combat needlessly.
2. The AI never Reveals early to buy better cards, a popular move when you're playing with humans. Its often seen in tournament play too.

I have over 200 hours and I rarely win.

I agree with these criticisms of the AI. It also does not handle BG sister very well when revealing for persuasion, as it will buy something from the row, then push out more persuasion with BG sister and buy a low-cost card. Also, the AI will sometimes add extra troops to a combat it is going to come in 3rd place in, for no reason, as the AI is too far behind to get anything better than 3rd place, and the 4th place player has already revealed and put nothing into combat. It doesn't make any sense. The AI also does not properly consider the value of the yellow infiltrator card (cost=1 persuasion) or the value of BG cards if the AI player already has some BG cards. I suspect that it also does not have a good valuation of the techs's on-buy benefits, such as the faction boost. I think it also is unduly reluctant to trash SMF and Choam directorship cards, as well as cards that have an unload function that will allow the AI to steal/lock up an alliance.

[Oncus]

Base game the AI is decent against an average player. Rise of IX is simply atrocious and consistently does weird things.

[the tim]

doing an ai for board and card games that have alot variables. This being a absolute beast of an example :) is not at all easy (as Iv been told).

I think it does a fair to sometimes really good work. Its not always "stupid" for sure. But if you start playing against real ppl and improve from that the Ai will naturally not stand up to you.

But mostly. You can check it out yourself. You will for sure get a feel for it well under the 2 hour refund limit on Steam.