Which AI is the best to play with?

[Talaskur]

I'm a little confused as to which AI is new and which is old and which one is best to play with and against, any tips? Thanks!

[Lilim]

Originally posted by Talaskur:

I'm a little confused as to which AI is new and which is old

"CD AI" is the old AI from the original game (also known as the Conquerors-AI).

"HD AI" is the AI of the HD-version and "AI" is the new AI of the Definitive Edition.

AI difference?

[tuc]

I have not played many single player games yet, so I'm not sure how exactly the new AI differs from older AI. It does not help that the DE does not allow spectator controls in AI vs AI matches.

But let's start from the basics...

- AI is the new Definitive Edition AI
- AI (HD) is the AI which was added in the 2013 version
- AI (CD) is the original AI back from The Conquerors (1999).

The CD AI is a clown and barely does anything even on hardest.

The HD AI almost always defaults to mindless and never ending crossbow+skirmisher spam, mixed with rams, knights and monks depending on what the opponent has. It can beat the new AI on Moderate or Hard, but it is not IMHO very fun to play against.

The new AI is more nuanced and it knows more tactics than other AIs. On the lower difficulties it performs worse than HD AI, but on the harder difficulties it will easily defeat the HD AI on 1vs1.

None of them can barely play against rushing opponent though and all of them can be easily defeated with a feudal rush (=flush). Tower rush and archers are propably the most easiest to pull off. The AI just don't know what to do when a single archer is shooting villagers near woodline.

What is the best to play against? That's for you to decide.