I wanted to make a post on rival civilization AI.

The AI as far as I've seen only has 1 form of AI and it isn't really well adapted to many civiliations. In this post I'm going to focus on Magnar, but I would also say that it handles Resoln, Capitar, Pariden, Tarth rather poorly. The AI just does expand and melee bruisers.

I've been playing mostly Tarth recently and Magnar has been in all my games. In none of the games has it done well. I won't rule out the faction bonuses being weak at this point, but the AI clearly is not playing the civilization to its advantages.

While most of the other civilizations were coming to me asking for tribute, Magnar actually came to me asking for Trade??? Pariden should have been trading with me, not Magnar.

The way I see the Magnar AI it should always be looking to pick a fight with someone so it can grow by military conquest. At the time I was a weaker Kingdom and should have been his obvious first choice for war not trade. Second, when I fought with Magnar himself... He had gone path of the warrior and was wearing warrior gear and trying to cast spells on me. Magnar needs to capitalize on his spellcasting abilities. He should value the path of the mage and fight for fire shards whenever possible. Magnar should be traveling with slave fodder and using them to screen while he casts spells. Usually I saw him wandering alone escorting pioneers.

Personally in my last game, after trading with him I put his civilization out of its misery. My next game I intend to play as Magnar to see it from the other side.