Seriously?... difficulty = AI cheats like crazy?

[Vexov]

They're starting off with a settler, 4 warriors, slinger, probably 1-2 builders. This being on Emperor difficulty.

What am i suppose to do?. Do I restart until i get some sort of crazy production capital?. I Even get 2 civs that attack me.

One i defend thanks to AI being so stupid with forests. Then the next just kills me thanks to a massive headstart. It came down to my 3 warriors vs 4-5 warriors, 2-3 slingers, and whatever else i have yet to see. Basically i would have to SIT ON ONE♥♥♥♥♥♥♥city until i had built me an army... and that owuld just maybe equal thiers, but have no chance after they expanded all over the map to produce units faster.

Honestly, i all did wrong was turn around and went for a settler after a 3rd warrior... my bad!.


This happens after a game that i get cheaped in also. The previous being the Polish and barbs. Polish pretty much rushes 2 cities and a decent army. I manage to defend it cause the AI was super stupid by basically funneling thier ownr troops and ignoring my weakened troops Then barbs come at me immediatly starting with 3-4 warriors and over 2-3 achers... and spawning them like every 2 turns, a camp from the south and east.

I hate how easy games with vs AI tends to be, but this is just cheap. So, instead of getting decent-great AI ...they get just a big handicap?, wow. I don't even wanna see a higher difficulty then Emperor... that would be like Shadows of War on Gravewalker difficulty... except you got nowhere to run or hide.

[Sentient_Toaster]

http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Difficulty_level_(Civ6)

Deity => each AI starts with three settlers, five warriors, two builders; and has +4 combat bonus, +80% production/gold, +32% science/culture/faith, +40% combat xp.

[Synavix]

Yeah, some games are just nearly impossible unless you can afford to be nice to the AI as soon as you meet them. There's just nothing you can do if the Aztecs send an army of 10 eagle warriors at you while you're still sitting on a warrior + slinger. But that's kinda rare, and most times if you send a delegation as soon as you meet a civ they'll be nice for at least long enough to get a second city and use the "Agoge" policy card to build a few extra units. And just as often the AI will be dumb enough to send a settler towards you unprotected and you can suprise war capture it for free.

[Vexov]

I guess you need a good start away from the comps or playing with real players as allies.

[Gonzo_o0]

Originally posted by Vexov:

I guess you need a good start away from the comps or playing with real players as allies.

Or you adapt early to what the game throws at you. You'll fall behind in certain areas but will be OK in certain others. That's opportunity cost for ya. For Emperor and higher, you always play catch up anyways because of the comp players start. A few military units early is almost never a bad thing, especially considering how squishy cities are in Ancient and Classical eras.

[Bouncer]

Settle with King. The AI gets bonusses but not 'starts with 2 settlers and massive boosts in literally everything' levels of nonsense. King is the closed to a balanced match this game has to offer.

Civ is the type of series where higher difficulties are just lazily created ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Similar to how some shooters make the player glass and the enemies bullet sponges and call it a day. Lazy, unbalanced and unfun.

[Exemplar]

This morning, just messing around a run-through, I played Emperor, standard size continent, standard speed, no alteration of number of opponents/city states or map, ancient start, no mods. Didn't break any speed records but finished turn 342ish (1921 standard speed?) tech victory, I captured no cities, only defended when attacked, had a total of 6 cities at the end (1 was late for 2 aluminum). Score was junk, Neville Chamberlain.

So if you ask, "can I win (relatively) peaceful on Emp difficulty?" , yes , "can I win tall?", yes. As an experienced player it was zero challenge for me, more of a slog, really, because I had nothing going on with such a small, non-aggressive empire, just clicking next turn a lot.

How are you supposed to win with the difficulty level handicap bonus to AI? AI doesn't make great decisions and much of the stuff it builds is superfluous or otherwise inefficient. Once you get some practice in, it shouldn't be really hard to be "ahead" on Emp difficulty at or before industrial era, or at least have a good vision of the win condition.

Could I have done it on immortal? I think so, probably. I was messing around some, built wonders like potala palace and christo redentor because I got the g. engineers with + wonder completion and some downtime, then runaway Germany with his 40ish g. enginner points got the 1500 to space project engineer and that annoyed me because it made my game last 9 more turns. My food was a problem with a lot of hills and my science could have been better early on. It just wouldn't be pleasant in the first few eras because of needing to turtle a little, but with the margin I won this the way I did, I'm pretty sure it's doable.

[Vexov]

Probably depends on your start, i assume. Its not that i can't beat them, its just learning and now i know what to expect. Basically i gotta go military for first 50-100 turns.

Getting stuck in a corner with AI you would have had to build nothing but 5-6 units straight for... then play catch up and likely have nowhere to expland?. Could you have won with 1 city on turn 50?. How about 2 Civs, 1 that hits up killing your outside force and another hitting you right after?. Sometimes those AI's attack proper.

I just wasn't expecting this for dificulty. I mean, 2 warriors and a builder for AI, and some bonuses, should have been all they got.

If i fail again, i guess i will play on King for a few games... rather then trying to jump on Emperor from the start.

[cerberusiv]

A lot of the things you do without even realising it are beyond the AI. Examples are having a plan about where you intend to place districts and wonders before you settle a city or simply co-ordinating your units to enable firing at an enemy unit with a ranged unit before attacking with a melee unit. Because the AI can't do these things it needs advantages - "cheats" as you describe them (it would be amusing if the AI's complained to each other about the cheating human co-ordinating the movements of their units to maximise their effectiveness) - and unfortunately those advantages are rather crude, particularly as difficulty increases.

There is also simply luck. I have abandoned games with good capital locations after finding 3 AI civs on my doorstep and persevered wth games with less good capital locations only to discover I have a 6-8 city landmass with plenty of resources all to myself and can develop my empire with only a few barbs to worry about.

[Gonzo_o0]

Originally posted by Vexov:

Probably depends on your start, i assume. Its not that i can't beat them, its just learning and now i know what to expect. Basically i gotta go military for first 50-100 turns.

I wouldn't go that far. Acquiring and slotting the right policies and streamlining your production, you can easily get a very, very sizeable force sub 30 turns. Sub 20, even (depending on a lot of factors)... Enough to defend anyways. Warriors are stronger than they appear to be.

Originally posted by Vexov:

Getting stuck in a corner with AI you would have had to build nothing but 5-6 units straight for... then play catch up and likely have nowhere to expland?. Could you have won with 1 city on turn 50?. How about 2 Civs, 1 that hits up killing your outside force and another hitting you right after?. Sometimes those AI's attack proper..

Yes, sometimes 5-6 units back to back is the solution. It doesn't necessarily mean that you cannot expand. You can get lucky and get very good Tribal Vilages, you can chop out Settlers or units, capture a neighbour's city with your army, etc. Those decisions will come with experience. There's no shame in re-rolling a very bad sub 50 start. Next time will be better (even if it isn't ;P).

I started Civ 6 on Prince to test the waters, beat it, and laddered up whenever I beat the game on the difficulty setting I was. I learned a lot from playing on lower-ish difficulties. Your mistakes are "forgiven" to an extent. I ended up beating Deity on my 3rd attempt at the difficulty with a subpar strategy.

Once you get more experienced, you'll be able to take greater risks in order to get ahead earlier. Practice makes perfect. All the tips provided in this thread will help you beat Emperor in a few games, guaranteed. It actually kinda gets too easy once you know what you're doing. Keep it up!

[SimpleSiren]

Hardest Setting and Winning..... Pick a Costal Civ, Build 8 warriors back to back, Build Recon, Go straight to IronClad....... win game. My See and Say has a better AI then this Game.

[Voodoo in my Blood]

AI cheat like crazy because the AI have not a once of intelligence. So against human intelligence there have no match up. I will prefere a real challenging AI, but it must be so costly in ressources and time to make a good one. Nevertheless, We can still prey than civ developpers steal elon musk's openAI code to have a real challenging game.

[Dyuk]

It was always like that. In every Civ game

[Vexov]

Originally posted by Dyuk:

It was always like that. In every Civ game

I never noticed in Civ 5, even on highest difficulty.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Originally posted by Dyuk:

It was always like that. In every Civ game

Yes, or even more so. IIRC, in at least some iterations, the AIs got more information (like knowing exactly the size of your treasury -- pretty obvious when they were issuing demands for consistent fractions thereof). Also, IIRC, Civ V AIs did not need to disband units due to bankruptcy, ever, while Civ II AIs could freely sail triremes over ocean tiles with zero risk of them sinking.

Last I heard, the system for rating potential city sites cheats by taking into account strategic resources that are still invisible because the relevant techs have not been discovered. The AI takes advantage of that, but players can as well.

I don't know if the Civ VI AI commits any rule violations beyond the extra starting units and numerical bonuses and exploiting the city site rating system, though. If it does, it's probably being a bit more subtle about it.

[jonnin]

dare I suggest that you lower the difficulty a notch if its too harsh?