Least Effective Race for AI

[JustOneMoreTurn]

What do you feel is the least effective race for the AIs?  I think it's Barbarians; they build some Berserkers but never seem to do much with them.  Maybe they're not aggressive enough for early-game races.  I haven't seen Halflings around enough to get a feel for how they do.

[tarkalak]

Life wizards with Klakons seem like a good contender. They have absolutely no ranged options and can't hit flyers until they get the Stag Beetle. But I haven't played much yet.

[Rainor]

For Master difficulty, start to midgame

Good AI races: orcs, high elves, high men, nomads
Ok: gnoll (no ranged is usually compensated with summons), barbarian (absolute menace, but have workarounds), halflings (slingers are beasts, but rare; AI suffers from attack malus while not getting much from +research)

Lizardmen seem like a disadvantage to AI - they populate so wide they can't defend their territories and use mediocre units. Javelins are great (horrifying with Focus Magic), but the big stack is only used at Fortress defense

Klackon are both solid and kinda not? They play well if AI Wizard has army enhancements (Guardian+Life Magic = very, very tough cities) and spread fast, but start to fall short to midgame units

Did not experience Myrran yet (playing with Race to the Unknown)

[Rainor]

A bit of revision after playing more at max difficulty:

Best: dwarves, high men, dark elves, draconians
Good/Great: high elves, orcs, nomads, beastmen
Okayish: barbarians, klackon, troll, gnoll
Meh: lizardmen

It does heavily depend on synergies between race and wizard, but lizardmen get such bonus it is actually an active malus to them. They are expansionists who can’t defend their new cities until rare summons come into play

Okayish tier has races that have great side beset with glaring problems. Gnoll speed, troll regen, klackon numbers, barbarian throw. They are “rush” type and on big maps I play they remain strong on offense and weak on defense / reverse.

High elves are solid but slow-growing due to AI tendency to create many outposts. They can grow into significant threat, but are good conquests. Others are variations upon generic good stuff and depend on synergies with wizard

High men are generic good+. They also make annoyingly great neutral “crusaders” with Rampaging Beasts
Dwarves & dark elves are _horrible_ as they stuff their keeps with loads of great ranged units or even better summons later on, while having great economies
Draconians I did not play against yet, but from overall feel, they would be supremely annoying with many good flying units