You may laugh at this question. But look at the follwing two games:

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1438869

Focus on a guy tarrasboulba in Hungary. He was autobooted at game start and instantly became an AI. By scrolling through history you see how a typical AI behaves: it tries to get territory no matter if an opponent is close by. Sure, in such a situation a human player would keep his troop together and defend. But the AI is too stupid to know.

Now take a look at this game:

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1137592

Focus on Cambodia. Both, a guy calling himself earthling and unlucky me placed troops there. In difference to me earthling did not do his moves, maybe he was too annoyed by this situation, and was booted and instantly became an AI. Again, scroll through history focusing on Cambodia. BUT HOW DIFFERNTLY THIS AI BEHAVED. I could not feel any difference between a human opponent, this AI was real nasty.

Now my question: Do AI s have different capabilities? As everyone can see, it looks like it *is* possible.

Almost looked like it was more concerned with running south...taking Spratly Islands has little no point there, and not a single attack was northward.

the AI's only personality is blunt aggression..

it tends to prefer neutrals, but not always..
It always attacks as though you won't put armies where they are attacking
they will generally only place armies in a few spots and attack from them
they will often send out sets of small armies with a large burst in a single direction
they will often overkill neutrals that are of noticable size \*wastelands/abandons*

You were unlucky in that it decided to head into you, as opposed to heading into the neutrals on either the first or second turn..

personally I think he had the greatest chance of survival by heading towards HaiNan

Perrin ... i dont know if you took a look at the first of the two links i posted. The first link describes the typical AI behaviour as i and most certainly many other players experienced it in many games: if there is a neutral to take then it does this first before doing anything else like attacking. I can show you tons of games i played where exactly this happened: the AI replacing a player gives a damn on already builtup defense lines but moves those troops to other spots where there is some neutrals to take or following other rules unknown to me. It often takes only 2 or 3 moves then to debonus the AI even when it replaced a player with high bonus.

The second game for me was a flabbergasting exception.

I think you explained yourself where the difference lies:

"I can show you tons of games i played where exactly this happened: the AI replacing a player gives a damn on **already builtup defense lines** but moves those troops to other spots where there is some neutrals to take or following other rules unknown to me."

The AI tends to prefer neutral territories over player controlled territories, but it mostly prefers to attack the WEAKEST territories. All those neutrals in the 2nd game you linked had 2 armies on them. Your territories mostly had 1 army.

The AI also tends to favor getting bonuses, and breaking enemy bonuses higher than making random other attacks. Finally, I'm pretty sure Fizzer made the AI somewhat random in that it doesn't always make what it considers the "best" move and will sometimes make other moves so that it isn't 100% predictable.

Impaller: its just not true what you say!

As you can see i built up a rather strong frontline of troops. At beginning we all had 5 troops. If it would be true what you say, an AI attacking the weakest spot, then the AI should have attacked the neutrals in Vietnam. But it did not do that at all. What you are talking about is turn 4. But this really looked to me like an opponent forming a strong troop to keep me last moment from taking a bonus. And this is everything but not an AI behaviour.

The AI values keeping people off of bonuses more than expanding from what I've experienced.

Impaller, what you say contradicts my experience. And also the first link in my first post. There i cannot see breaking the AI any bonus but instead it is spreading out and tries to get own bonus. I have plenty of games in my archive showing exactly the same AI behavior.

So give me some links please that give me proof of what you say, that the AI values keeping people off bonuses more than expanding. I will answer you with links showing the opposite behavior. Moreover, your last comment does not answer my question why there obviously are different types of AI s. I think only the Game Creator can give an answer to this question.

I've seen the AI build to 1400 to try and break a 270 abandon..

stop trying to act like it's logical ;)

If asking a question is to "act" then i wont stop to "act" :D. And i hope you agree the AI is a program and thus, hopefully, very logical.

Maybe answer is very simple? Relax, it's just Skynet seed.