Does the AI cheat when it creates military leaders?

[controlvoice]

Every time I go to war I have either equal or superior technology as my enemy. When I attack I always make sure to attack in favorable terrain and to have numerical superiority. Yet time and again the AI deploys leaders who could give Alexander the Great or Napoleon a run for their money while my armies are lead by men who have to have help buttoning their trousers. Because of the gross disparity in leadership I am always forced to lose a dozen or so battles to whittle down an enemy army before I can finally get rid of it.

How does the AI get such good leaders? How can I get better leaders when my army tradition seems to always hover around the single digits?

 

[Autoclave]

1. You are probably fighting a lucky nation. They get +1 shock +1 fire for every general they roll.
2. You are probably fighting a nation with militaristic ideas or national ideas that either grant +1 shock / +1 fire or they give some bonuses to army tradition (which also gives better general stats).

Lucky nations: France, Ottomans, Brandenburg, Austria, Russia, Castille, Portugal, England.
You can turn off lucky nations when you start the game, but only for non-ironman games.

I recommend all the new players to turn off lucky nations as that is just a flat AI buff.

 

[hauptman]

You dont get better leaders when your Miltrad hovers in single digit... that's what the stat does.

Increase miltrad... Defensive will make it always hover around 20 even with zero fighting. Innovative on top of that and you should never go below ~50. Play prussia, and build a war colledge, and never go below 100.

The ai tends to always pick offensive. That's +1 shock and fire. Add in lucky, and that's another +1 shock/fire. Coupled with high miltrad, they are going to always get good leaders.

If you are ignoring miltrad then it's your own fault. The events like choose -1 stab and -20 miltrad, you shouldnt ignore. Take the stab hit every time.

 

[Redwallzyl]

they might be lucky nations. lucky nations get bonus pips.

 

[bbqftw]

How does the AI get such good leaders? How can I get better leaders when my army tradition seems to always hover around the single digits?

fight (with vassals and allies with lower force limit than you), siege a lot

also a lucky nation that takes offensive ideas (I'm looking at you France / Portugal / Sweden) get +2 +2 fire shock on top of their general roll.

 

[User4035]

The AI does get good leaders. We've all seen it.
Most of the time its from some small vassal.

So how do you combat this? Use those 4 diplo slots for some vassals isntead of just annexing everything.

 

[marat271]

The AI has +1 leaders without upkeep at normal settings. But beside that the leader generation should be the same.

 

[RELee]

Direct from Wiz. AI Cheats vs. Human Cheats.