Militaristic A.I.s weak?

[Pius Popprasch]

In my games - Emperor and Standard Setup - the militaristic A.I.s usually suck. Do you have the same experience?

Militaristic:
Aztecs
Romans
Japanese
Chinese
Germans
Zulus

[Arrian]

Yeah, they do seem weaker

Each game is different, but all things being equal, militaristic AI's do seem to be weaker. Well, I've seen the Aztecs, Japanese and Germans do pretty well. In the case of the Aztecs and Japanese, they have the best trait in the game (religious) to go along with their militarism. So they do fine. Germany usually doesn't in my games, but I have seen them get really big once or twice. Rome is weak, every time. Same with the Zulu. China is generally in the middle.

I'd be willing to bet that others have had totally different experiences, though.

-Arrian

[Rotten999]

The situation means so much. In my last game I shared a smallish continent with the Germans. I only had four cities built when they declared war, and it completely threw a wrench in my game plans. The territory I controlled had no iron, and I didn't have enough cities/production to nickel and dime them. The result was a 100 turn+ stalemate war that effectively destroyed any chance of me winning. Ouch. So, yes, they are trouble sometimes. Fun trouble, I think.

[Worthingtons]

I think there is a tendancy for some Militaristic Civ's to be weak because they dont build improvements enough, but instead build units. If played by the human the Militaristic Civ's can be a Gem.

Also Arrian, Remember Religous isnt that GOOD a trait on the higher levels as the AI has a max govt transition time anyway.

[Da_cOmRaDe_MiKe]

im in the middle of game and ive taken the americas continents...

14 other civs in rest of world.
THEY R ALL AGAINST ME!! I ATTACKED 1 AND BANG THEY ALL HAD MILITARY ALLIANCES WITH EACH OTHER AND NOW IM HAVING A HARD TIME COS I LET THEM ALL CATCH UP WITH TECH...

A.I IS GOOD WHEN IT WANTS TO BE

[nato]

I always want to play a militaristic civ for better chances at getting leaders. However sometimes I still don't get many leaders, which really devalues the militaristic trait.

Now that you mention it, those AI civs usually are pretty weak in my games ... hmmm

Ok maybe I got it:

Maybe the AI just can't take advantage of the bonus as well as it can an automatic one. What I mean is, no matter what the AI does, it will get the lower corruption of commercial or the faster workers of industrious. But to get the big bonus of militaristic (faster upgrading units and more leaders) you have to do something and fight well. So maybe the benefit is lost to the AI compared to the automatic benefits of other traits.