Before the update on the 1.1 patch I had one of the best campaign experiences I've ever had on any pdx games (easily 10k h between them all).
I was playing as Macedon multiple times testing the patch and I was truly amazed.
The AI was really good with their armies and focused aggression.
Rome was conquering really fast and usually became a power house by the 500AUC. In one of these test runs Rome even conquered Illiria Graeca around 470-480AUC and I had to fight them there and then. Carthage, Egypt, Seleucid Empire and Phrygia too where playing incredibly well in most test if not all.
In my more developed game as Macedon I had to push my economy throughout the years to keep up with the naval game because Carthage, Egypt, Rome and Phrygia all had +200 ships by the year +-520AUC and Phrygia was not shy about declaring war on me. That first war against Phrygia made it clear how important the navy was so I built a powerful fleet during that war just to be able to compete against the AI (120+ ships) an after that I had to take the naval race seriously, not dropping ships or just refuse to have a navy because navy wins wars and major powers like Phrygia will see the opportunity and declare war. Also, that war was intense. Phrygia invaded me a couple times and it will keep doing it if not for my newly built fleet.
At some point lets say around 530AUC I had an alliance with Rome and Egypt had one with Carthage (each nation with +-250 ships). Egypt declared war on me. YES they did and I was at peace, with money and manpower. YES they did. I play without pausing and I had to pause there because I have 300h on this game an this never happened to me. I was amazed that Egypt dare to create this ww scenario and let me tell you the naval war was amazing. Rome supporting my fleet if I engaged with Egypt's and also Carthage coming to help Egypt.. Me supporting a roman interception of the carthaginian fleet and Egypt trying to balanced it for their side and so on... I LOVED IT.
That war finished after crippling their navies followed by an invasion of Carthage and later on Egypt after 15-20 years of war.
Please PLEASE make the AI make meaningful invasions not just like 10% of their army.
Points:
The AI was really good with their armies.
The naval game wan amazing, almost like playing against other players.
The AI was aggressive but not overly aggressive and really really decisive. If the powerful nations saw an opportunity to conquer, they conquered. Major factions didn't loose any wars that they shouldn't loose and they expanded really fast for an AI. I play without pausing the game and at some points I did feel like I was playing against players because the AI was seeking to WIN in land and at sea.
I feel like all of this changed after the patch. I'm not sure how but I played easily 20h before and 20h after (in many test runs with Rome and Macedonia) and I DO feel like everything went to worst (except bug fixing of course). The AI was just afraid of declaring war. I felt like they're only declaring war on you if you are already at war and have no manpower (just like before 1.1). Major powers were losing wars, getting crippled against minors, expanding really slow or even dying out too often too soon.
Also I think the AI navies now die because they sometimes bug out and don't go to port and also the player's too if left on auto (happened to me as Rome on every test run but not sure if it did as Macedon). I believe AI navies sometimes just stand too long at sea and die. I've been at war against Egypt and they had 250k troops sitting on the delta and 0 ships and maybe not 0 but really low numbers for every other major faction. Basically after the patch I did not see any of the naval race I was enjoying so much before the patch.
