It's good enough to be a problem. It's also customizable to give it bonuses.
In general, one of the best AIs out there for 4x games.
That said, ofc you can cheese the game if you want to. Simply don't and that's it.

I just posted about how the AI seems improved. It seems to be much better with the Griffin update, plus all the potential customization you can do.

You can set the faction(s) to 'Challenging', which may be a replacement for the previous 'Very Hard' or 'Brutal' difficulty. There is also a setting of 'Challenging+' for each faction. I don't know the differences, but Challenging+ does seem to be much better as far as tactical Combat goes.

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Since multiplayer isn't a thing: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/1669000/discussions/0/800065864493720507/

I was wondering how the AI is? Nobody talks about it in their reviews - I'm assuming it's OK?

It's alright. Probably better than similar games yeah.

i think the AI in aow4 is... decent to above average in the 4x genre.

i do recommend giving the AI a "minimal combat advantage." while the AI is okay at building armies/pushing aggressively and having varied armies, it really lacks in stacking impactful enchantments/racial transformations. so you'll find in the late game that the AI without that combat advantage really lacks a punch to deal with your own juiced up units.

i do also think for a challenging experience, you should personally customize factions for the AI to play and make sure to set their AI personality to one that you prefer. a really optimized start for the AI can make them much more threatening than a random AI selected from the presets.

also, as for multiplayer, the desyncs are minimal IMO. i have played two 8 player campaigns within the past 6 months and there was probably 20 desyncs between those two campaigns, over 180 turns total. and while 20 might sound like a high number, it only takes 10-15 seconds for a desync to sort itself out in AoW4. so not really a big deal.

and if you're playing with less people, the desyncs are even more rare. when i play vs the AI with a friend we maybe have like 3-4 desyncs in 100 turns.

I will be different and say that I do not like the AI. It isn't bad, especially if compared to other games, but lacking. It can be a challenge for quick games and early fights, but the longer the game goes on the weaker the AI gets.

And as for multiplayer, as the guy before me said, I got few desyncs until I played with a very distant friend and we think different game languages -might- be the cause. But we have not tested it yet.



Ai
On default settings.
*The upcoming griffon update may change this.


The problem with the AI is that it doesn't know how to build an army, and is shackled down to a pretty steep restriction of never having more than 2x your army size.

So it builds 2x your army size. But it recruits a ton of random, mishmashed units from rally and even with the units it builds, it doesn't make a good army. I have seen an AI rush in with an army stack that was just all mages. And sure, the mage was their best unit. But with no frontline that is useless. The AI doesn't seem to understand that a front line and a back line is kinda important. It tends to just throw high tier units together. And a bad army stack counts against them for their 2x limit. So if they have a useless stack of units that isn't set up well, their actual military power is even weaker.

And the default tome paths for the default AI suck.

Early on the AI will be tough. And default AI can still give me a hard time in special circumstances. (Like one game where I unfortunately spawned with the sea to my back and three brutal AI close enough to compete with my capital for land. Got kicked pretty hard there because I couldn't expand. And was quickly at war with them all. None of them wanted to be friends and my early outpost grabs to try and force space for me to expand were not appreciated.

So the default AI isn't terrible, especially early game. But if you like really long games you will eventually hit a point where the AI just can't keep up.

I have lost to default difficulty AI twice. One of which is a mildly funny story if interested. Death by politics/karma.


However, as someone who mostly plays against AI. I fixed it. (Sorta)

Made a lot of custom factions that have good tome paths and builds, ascended them so those leaders start out strong. And then I give those to the AI to play. Now the AI has a buffed up leader (keeps transformations from previous game) and a tome path that is actually good.

That's probably enough for most people.

For additional difficulty, I opened up the modding tools (which are so simple to use anyone can) and removed the 2x military limit. So as long as the Ai can afford more it will have more. (Warning, this did result in one AI attacking me with 30+ stacks... Probably shouldn't have left a necromancer sealed in the caves under me for 100+ turns.) And I gave the AI a ton of economy buffs. Off memory (posting from work so can't check) I think I gave them a 2x for most resources and a 1.5x for imperium, and a 3x for draft.

Since they can't make good armies, they at least can make bigger armies faster. That was the logic.


Then, a step farther. I also modded in some boss AI that have many extra society traits. But those are meant to be special bosses like the librarian in the default leaders. You really don't need this step unless you really want to suffer.

Typical game at hard setting after 500 hours gameplay. First 20 turns barely notice them, busy slaying resource nodes and infestation. Turn 20-40, one of the AI declare war to you, sent a large army of low tier units at you, what an awesome battle you say to yourself as you conquered his last remaining city. Turn 40-60, you grabbed his land and using this advantage and took out another player or two, not as challenging but still fun. Turn 60 and beyond, no one can stop you anymore, you steam rolled the map, quite boring but you played though it just for the sake of it.

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Since multiplayer isn't a thing:

What.

Even in the thread you linked to, most people said that de-syncs are much less frequent than they used to be, and that they re-connect quickly enough for it to be a minor inconvenience.

Its always apparent you're playing against an AI, from how robotic or unnatural they often behave in combat to how they seem clairvoyant on the world map as to where your armies are (and aren't). A great AI should make you forget its not a player you're against.
But for someone like me they do give a good challenge though without being too eyebrow raising.

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Since multiplayer isn't a thing:

What.

Even in the thread you linked to, most people said that de-syncs are much less frequent than they used to be, and that they re-connect quickly enough for it to be a minor inconvenience.

This game has 82% positive. Most of the negative reviews complain about de-syncs.

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Most of the negative reviews complain about de-syncs.

Er, ok. Many of the reviews complaining about de-syncs are years old, and many positive reviews speak highly about multiplayer, so I'm not sure how you leapt to the conclusion that "Multiplayer doesn't exist".

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Most of the negative reviews complain about de-syncs.

Er, ok. Many of the reviews complaining about de-syncs are years old, and many positive reviews speak highly about multiplayer, so I'm not sure how you leapt to the conclusion that "Multiplayer doesn't exist".

You can filter reviews by recent. I suggest that you take the time, to familiarise yourself with Steam's basic functionality, before jumping to conclusions.