ChiefofDs

[Tonto_DaVe]

Hey all.

I've started doing some scripting again very recently thanks to some encouraging words from a couple of guys and I feel like uploading my work to enter it in the AoKH ladder.

ChiefofDs is a few-days-old version of my current AI with a very different strategy to what I'll be releasing with AgeofStoneWalls, also for the ladder. It plays most civs, though 1. Britons, Koreans, Mayans 2. Aztecs 3. Turks are its strongest, probably in that order. Smashes my old No Limits, iirc, but has many more weaknesses versus differing strats.

I decided to upload this specific version since I've been using it as a test versus my current AI, to compare its strengths and weaknesses against differing strategies, and I haven't updated this version in a little while as I say - and most likely will never again.

[IS_NormanDuck]

Very effective, as usual. Those archers are able to pulverize an enemy army in few seconds

[Campeador]

This script is strong, although I find No Limits stronger. I've made 2 tests:
- Turk Chief vs Mayan Crusade: Crusade wins
- Hun Chief vs Briton Crusade: Chief wins.

No Limits can defeat Crusade without problems.

In both games you made a strategy with xbows+UU. It's vulnerable to skirms when the UU is another archer (although it's difficult to counter for silicon opponents), and this could be a reason because No Limits can defeat more strategies, his well combined army is less vulnerable. And also more agressive. IMO (although I recognize that my script is weaker than yours) Chief could be even better with Huns if it trained knights instead of tarkans, because you can build stables sooner than castles. Of course, this is a very arguable sentence because Demon also builds an early castle and it's very difficult to punish. It's also the case of Chief, arriving to build it with a good position in both games.

I was going to suggest you to participate in the Ladder with ChiefofDs- I've seen in this moment that you have joined to it, great idea! The Ladder has become a nightmare with IS-Machine, Phyrexx and SRN, but with your scripts it will be even worse.

[Tonto_DaVe]

yeah, I definitely agree with your comments. Although when making Chief, I designed it so it was strong with weak Arabia civs. And as Koreans and Turks (originally designed it for Turks), there isn't much variation in strat from feudal through to imperial. It could perform very strongly with Huns, but there's enough of those out there.

In my testing of Koreans, Brits and Mayans, I found No Limits to get raped by Chief. And as it turns out, I still cannot get it to be extremely strong as Turks like as the other civs mentioned, even though it was designed originally for Turks.

AgeofStoneWalls is more the designed De'gel beater, though, and I will make sure I release it soon.

[marathon]

I tested it twice with Britons against my current Mayan archers. The basic concept is the same, the advancement plan though is radically different. Strong and pretty well balanced for something that plays several civs.

First game Lade's camp bug in conjunction with unusually remote starting wood for Mayans resulted in a one-sided game. Britons developed pretty fast. Mayans lost 1500-2000 wood because of awful woodchopping. Mayans didn't see it coming lol.

Second game was more like the opposite. For some weird reason, Britons delayed their mining camp. The delay was not terrible, they had it down a few seconds into feudal. Possible reason: exploring. Possible solution: increased gold-drop-distances, irregardless of the presence of a mining camp (it only takes 1 goldminer to uncover the area around gold piles).
The Chief correctly identified the disadvandage and dropped a tower in the middle of the map. Mayans attacked with a vastly superior army of xbows while Britons were still in feudal. Mayans smashed the tower with the assistance of 1 villager (always 1 villager in all my tests against towers lol) but Britons just managed to enter Castle and took xbow and bodkin. The battle lasted a while, Britons got 4 relics and they had 500 stone or so, but Mayans added ESkirms and boomed like crazy back home.

In the 2nd test, TSA fired immediately when into feudal, obviously without an army. A bug?

I won't make any suggestions since (i) you won't work on it anymore, and (ii) 2 tests are not enough, especially since both games had map screws. But I will study it. I am planning similar strategies for about half civs in the game and another point of view is always helpful. I have reasons to believe in Turks. Turks can do the trick with less goldminers early on, but they will need Wheelbarrow/Hand cart and a 2nd goldmine earlier than usual when they have maxed their goldminers later. Free lcav will help, some spears are enough against enemy knights, a couple skirms can get in front of xbows and protect them from buildings with their pierce armor. Later lcav spam, imp, champ flood.

[Tonto_DaVe]

Yeah, I originally went for Turks since, obviously - no one designs for Turks specifically - and their archer rush would be fairly strong. Castle is where I feel they can be OK, but I prefer to skip castle warfare as Turks as no trash (other than lc/hussar) means they need to preserve as much gold as they can. In imperial, I think going massed hand cannons, bombard cannons, and forward BTs is pretty much unstoppable (which is why it also plays Koreans well) as long as you have the age advantage over the enemy, so further reason to boom with turks.

I feel champs take too long to upgrade to be very effective, although my playstyle (and for my AIs), is very different to most. There seems to be a lot of love for champs.

[marathon]

My own playstyle is built around trash. I want to be able to keep pressing with at least some gold units even in deep imperial. That's why my Byz strategy is so strong. Restricting all gold units for short periods of time for strategical reasons is soo effective with Byzantines and a few more civs (Goths, Britons...).
For Turks I cannot figure out their later game. There are no trash to switch to when you want a particular research.
With Mongols I managed to script something that keeps the pressure with Champs and even takes Hussar and EMangudai later. But they at least have pikes...

Even with Byz, gold is essential in early castle age. A weak economy can feed a strong gold army, but trash need a full eco. I believe that going trash in early castle age is suicide, even for Byz. That's why I added xbows/camels to them. I even tried knights.
I can't figure out Turks' castle age...

I slightly changed my Mayan strategy since my last update. Once again it beats Eagles. My approach is a FC, going there at 19:xx - 20:xx, with some archers since feudal, attack at 22-23' with 25 xbows. Weaker to flushes in comparison to your 31-pop feudal.
I think we both need at least 2-5 skirms for screening and because they are produced faster in feudal.

So, let's see your new ai, what strategies will it use. And let me work a little on Japanese and Huns.

[THE RULER]

very promising strategy, DaVe !

the Persian one is amazing - I was gobsmacked,as "it" walked through my base like a shopping walk.

the byz strategy stampered in Lade with easiness - I'll take this over for shure, ( I 'm working on it) but make it more suitable for byz as yours is more all around and first tests show the performance of this procedure.

Thanks for submitting this script.