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Custom Empires - Grand AI Tournament (Finals - 2022)

This mod expands the selection stock of pre-scripted empires with the final best 16 community made AI empires – from 80 participants – of the Grand AI Tournament (Masters of the Universe – 2022-04-19 – Meet the BEST OF THE BEST).

When starting a new game, Stellaris will randomly choose empires from the roster to seed throughout the galaxy.

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(Order by winning points)

1. Mim Super Special Empire Directorate – (Machine Intelligence with pumped up Pop Production and Maintenance / Unity)
   Robots with increased population production – their only weakness – always perform well. They also have a simplified setup, like the hive minds, they need no or little food and no happiness modifiers which leads to robots always doing well in tech. When they have the population to bolster it with good ship production, they become likely potential winners. (by Gunmim)
   
2. Sathweer Sacred Theocracy – “Slimy Water Dragon Worshippers” Aquatic Egalitarian Xenophobe Spiritualist Here Be Dragons Theocratic Oligarchy
   Shining the spotlight not only on this well balanced and only xenophobe of the final that is very well set up to constantly expand, something xenophobes excel at. But xenophobes are bad at making friends, so their weakness is their defense. When they have a Dragon to protect them early on, they can really do consistently well.. like the Sathweer here.
   
3. Grimer Conglomerate – “Friendly Anglerfish Traders” Aquatic Xenophile Fan. Materialist Corporate Trade League
   It is deceiving: The Grimer were eliminated in round one. But that was mostly due to bad luck after a great start. Corporations mostly get a great start, and if they can convert that to the later game stages, they are set up for a beautiful game.
   
4. The Galactic Stock Market of Worlds – “Corporate Hedonist Ants” Arthropoid Xenophile Militarist Spiritualist Dragon Origin Megacorporation
   Already performing well in a rather peaceful first galaxy, these survived until the end when the Zark took out the whole galaxy. Quite a task, and also good as a Megacorporations. Megacorporations are an incredibly solid choice as we’ve seen in the tournament, especially when bolstered by Xenophile and Militarist traits for the occasional defensive federation. (by HonourableKnight)
   
5. Citizen Compact of Marass – “Friendly Bird Warrior Oligarchs” Avian Xenophile Fan. Militarist Life-Seeded Citizen Stratocracy
   Xenophile, and also partly Militarist, has been a recipe for survival and here it even led the birds to winning the G4L galaxy. Oligarchy seems to hold really well because the Unity bonus helps you especially with leaders and of course the tradition progression is also very helpful.
   
6. Agarthan Dominion – (Clone Army Fanatic Materialist Oligarchic Technocracy)
   Exceptional for a Clone Army AI, here, all seemed to go well. Clone Army is a really strong start and very resilient if it comes to wars. This was, for me, the clear outlier here, as the AI usually fails at using Clone Army early on, for example losing early colonies because it builds the ancient clone vats too late. But if they make it through the early game, and find other people to help the empire, they can do great like here. (by Shandale)
   
7. The Legion – “Rockbreaking Machine Intelligence” Machine Resource Consolidation Gestalt Machine Intelligence Industrial Production Core
   Machines have one thing if they get out of their starting slumps: Consistency. If left alone for long enough and if overcoming their rather slow start due to heavy expansion early on, they can spiral away, like the Legion did here. Early mineral bonuses help and the Resource Consolidation Origin is one of the fewer special “good” Origins for an AI empire. (by RageKage)
   
8. Cometborn Consumers – “Meteorite Menace” Lithoid Calamitous Birth Ravenous Hive (Shattered the Galaxy)
   Designed to win and designed for absolute simplicity, this Ravenous Terravore Hive succeeds by taking the great bonuses of the Ravenous Hive at war, the wonderful start of meteorite-powered colony ships and the war advantage of Lithoids that also need no food to boot. Simple is perfect for the AI, and if you design the Hive well, it will have a high chance of winning any war. If Ravenous Hives get the Crisis perk, when they’ve got around 10% of the galaxy under control they tend to do that, then they become nearly unstoppable. (by Shandale)
   
9. Zark Swarm – War-Geared Alien Menace (Very Strong Ravenous Hive Mind – Shattered the Galaxy)
   A very straightforward warlike Ravenous Hive, designed for war and fulfilling its mission diligently, strongly, relentlessly. (by Koopatin)
   
10. Lernean Swarm – “Molluscoid Abominations” Molluscoid Prosperous Unification Hive Mind Ravenous Hive (Shattered the Galaxy)
    Prosperous Unification seems boring, but for the AI it is probably the strongest start, just a little more of everything. This, and the unrelenting strength of a beautifully designed Ravenous Hive, made the galaxy. (by Malurok)
    
11. Cornarian Interplanetary Combine – Friendly Fox Warriors (Military Dicatorship, Xenophile Militarist Materialist)
    Once again, Militarist Xenophiles make the day. Materialist is also extremely good if the AI can pull off a good start with it, and here it combined to a win with a little help from some friends.
    
12. Kodranite Corporation – (Common Ground Lithoid Fan Spiritualist Death Cult Corporation)
    Common Ground and Hegemony have shown themselves to be really resilient starts. They tend to not go down easily, but also, the strong dependence on positioning usually excludes them from the winning position. The Kodranites were the last survivor of the user-submitted empires and so qualified for the final.

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13. Navin Republic – “Techno Robot Spiders” Mechanist Science Directorate Technocracy (by Koopatin)
    
14. United Ant Territories – “Holy Ants” Arthropoid Authoritarian Pacifist Spiritualist Prosperous Unification Oligarchic Theocratic Oligarchy (by EldrenOfTheMist)
    
15. Divine Polonian Tribunal – “Holy Poles” Humanoid Egalitarian Pacifist Spiritualist Prosperous Unification Oligarchic Holy Tribunal
    
16. Theia’s Equality – “Friendly Democrats” Pacifist Fan. Egalitarian Moral Democracy (by Foxosaur)

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17. PS: United Shantari – / Vrengi Alliance – were also good (but not included)

• Participants overview in detail (with links to each)

Goes to the tournament initiator Immanuel Can ”Thoughtful Gaming LP” and the individual empire creators, see the comments in this thread.[forum.paradoxplaza.com]

Compatible with all DLCs, if a DLC is not present then the Empire in question simply will not appear (e.g. Lithoids Species Pack). All flags and styles are vanilla (initiated for 3.3, fully works for 3.4+). The games checksum should even remain the same, which means this mod works in vanilla multiplayer games and in Ironman mode.

Theoretically only mods that make significant changes to default portraits, traits, ethics, and civics could may somehow break this mod.

• No Default Paradox Species
  
• Smash or Pass
  
• Never Empty L-Cluster

• Old version Grand AI Tournament (Lithoids)