I'm pretty sure Insane Difficulty with 10 Insane Opponents is impossible without attacking strategy. Maybe Binding and one at a time early strikes on opponents would work though, maybe Tuidjy's combo will do it.

from Elemental Forums

I had Enchanters, Master Scouts, Defensive, Betrayers, and Scholars (and the 4 weaknesses).  Even though I levelled up a number of Henchmen, and my Sov was high 20's level by the end, and I ended up buying 10 powerful units with Silver Tongue and high Spell Mastery, they just kept on attacking my with too many units.  They get so high production bonuses that even with 60% unrest from capturing my towns, their production bonus by itself exceeds the unrest penalty.  My Sov had Inpenetrable Tower Shield and heaps of other stuff, but they just kept attacking me with armies full of huge HP ice shooters.  This was the best Insane 10 AI game I ever had, yet Magnar could just keep spewing out new troops and attack me multiple times each turn.  I had 5 towns and pretty much all the reasonable luck I could get, yet Magnar simply outproduced me (which is not surprising, considering the production bonuses).  If you truly have 10 Insane AIs to go against, I think currently it is impossible to win.  IMO. =)

2,649 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Ahh throwing down the gauntlet.  I like it :-)

So we're allowed any custom faction/sovereign I take it.

What other settings?  Everything average? Tree of Life?

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Hey, I think I have a very reasonable chance of winning in my AAR here.  Magnar was also extremely powerful in my game, but I eliminated him right as he started churning out units armed with Boreal Blades and wearing Champion plate.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

To MiamiBigAl - I said impossible without using an attacking strategy.  If you can win a game against Insane difficulty, 10 Insane AIs such as Tuidjy uses, with Max Settings (Dense Resources, Magic and Monsters, and Fast Pace) WITHOUT attacking another player first, I would consider you a genius, and extremely lucky.  From what I can tell, the only way you can win on these settings is to attack each player one by one, starting with the weakest (or weakest closest), and possibly you need to have Binding for the early armies to get a strong start and take down opponents before they became too strong.

To everyone else (except Tuidjy) read all of my title and all of this post.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I am not playing with Fast Pace, actually.  The AIs have x4 growth and x4 research, so it looks as if they are on Fast Pace.  My research is standard, I am still researching Education, and have nothing in warfare/magic except for horse riding.

If I win Boris's game, which I believe is possible, I will try a game with master scouts, betrayers and natural leader, and try NOT to attack first.  I will try to expand with free heroes and pioneers, make buddies with everyone and go for a quest victory.

I'm not claiming to be a genius, but I THINK that it may be possible to rush to get the quest research, and then just adventure with your sovereign, even if you lose your last city.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Maybe that's the difference then.  Fast pace TIMES 4 TIMES makes an even bigger difference then regular pace TIMES 4 TIMES.  I think the fast pace actually accentuates the super-boosted AI's advantage.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Hey, that's why we're playing the Beta, right?  Fire up that 0.915, and try to see whether no-Fast-Pace makes a difference.  I'm still going to finish Boris's game.  The problem is that I thoroughly enjoy playing for about 10 turns, but then I have to stop and write some fluff, and go through all the screenshots for something to post.