Am I insane, or is Crippling much easier than Painful after the early game?
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I've played a lot of games on Painful and it's gotten to where I win about 8/10 games, so I figured I'd make a point of winning a Crippling to see what I thought. Before I've played a handful of Crippling but always lost in the early game phase.
Now, this is obviously based on limited data, but after the harder early game was over, it was much easier than on Painful from that point out because of two factors:
Those AI econ bonuses that made the early game so hard became a huge boon. The diplomatic AI on Crippling does not seem appreciably different from the Painful one, so more AI money in the economy meant I could get more money from tech trading, which meant I could spend more on research, which meant I could get more money from tech trading...
At any rate, I wound up with a much more lucrative economy then I ever see on Painful.
The second factor was the greater aggressiveness of the AI is much easier to work to your favor. It can often be hard to buy your way to get an AI to attack a roughly equal AI on Painful. Not so on Crippling, their higher aggressiveness meant that a few hundred BC tossed their way could initiate almost any war at your command (and then you swooped in on the weakened planets like a vulture to claim them for yourself).
At any rate, was wondering if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon?
Now, this is obviously based on limited data, but after the harder early game was over, it was much easier than on Painful from that point out because of two factors:
Those AI econ bonuses that made the early game so hard became a huge boon. The diplomatic AI on Crippling does not seem appreciably different from the Painful one, so more AI money in the economy meant I could get more money from tech trading, which meant I could spend more on research, which meant I could get more money from tech trading...
At any rate, I wound up with a much more lucrative economy then I ever see on Painful.
The second factor was the greater aggressiveness of the AI is much easier to work to your favor. It can often be hard to buy your way to get an AI to attack a roughly equal AI on Painful. Not so on Crippling, their higher aggressiveness meant that a few hundred BC tossed their way could initiate almost any war at your command (and then you swooped in on the weakened planets like a vulture to claim them for yourself).
At any rate, was wondering if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon?
