Tue Jul 04, 2017 5:31 pm
Thanks for your kind comments and glad you enjoyed the AAR's. I certainly enjoyed writing them. The TYW AI did run out of steam once I defeated the first large Protestant army, c. 1627? To keep the AAR going I started playing both sides and it turned out to be a pretty good game overall. The Swedes are very powerful early on and have lots of money so once they got organized they rolled back the Catholics quite well.
I have the following AGEOD games: TYW, ROP, TEAW, AJE, RUS, WON, CW2, and PON. It seems to me that the current AGE game engine is best suited to smaller, less grand strategic conflicts for two reasons. First the AI's conduct and second the turn processing time. The large the scale and complexity of the game the longer the turn processing time becomes, and the AI's flaws become more apparent. The turn processing time in PON was such that I could not bear to play it, even though I really wanted to! WON is similarly vexed with long turn processing times.
The AI tends to max out requisition/production possibilities, often to the detriment of national morale, and then creates a huge stack of death army which can trounce anything in the field but suffers terribly from attrition and supply problems. Also when and if the stack of death is defeated or suffers heavy casualties it wrecks national morale causing the AI countries to collapse/surrender. In my last game of TEAW the Western Allies created such a million-man army and were able to break through the German defenses repeatedly, but at a terrible cost in casualties. The Allies national morale was in the 40's when they surrendered.
So in my experience the AI does best with games like TYW, ROP, AJE and RUS. RUS also uses some scripting to assist the AI and I have found it very challenging, even playing as the Reds. In ROP I play as the Prussians and usually get a could fight from the AI. In AJE the Caesar vs. Pompey and Marius vs. Sulla scenarios are very good. In RUS I usually play as the Reds since I have had no luck playing as the Whites. In CW2 the AI does OK, but the AI Union suffers from the stack of doom mentality, and the AI South failed to defend Richmond effectively while sending raiders up into the Midwest and West.
All AGEOD games do well in PBEM, the problem being I much prefer single player. Also in single player you can play all sides in a conflict but that kind of defeats the purpose of a computer wargame, I think. My advice to AGEOD as they develop the new AGE game engine is to create a system that enhances AI play, probably by reducing the number of choices available to the AI by using scripting or other parameters that will keep it from trashing its own national morale, and avoiding the stack of doom mentality. It's great to have a beautiful map and a detailed historical OOB, character portraits, etc. but if the AI is weak the game is going to suffer for it.
Good luck and enjoy!