Sharper Endgames Across the Board
Winning a game and finishing one turned out to be two very different things — and this update is about closing that gap.
Until now, an AI opponent (in Council and Thronoi) that built up a commanding lead didn't always know what to do with it. Instead of pressing the advantage, it could drift — shuffling pieces around a won position without ever going in for the kill. This update reworks how the AI thinks about winning endgames. When an opponent has you on the ropes, it will now actively hunt your exposed king, herd it toward the edge, and convert the advantage into a finish instead of letting the game wander.
We also tracked down a long-standing case of the AI being too cautious. In the fog, it could keep worrying about pieces that were no longer on the board. Phantom threats from pieces you'd already captured or that had long since moved on. The result was an opponent that sometimes played scared even while it was well ahead. It now has a clearer sense of what you actually have left to fight with, so its confidence better matches the real state of the board.
These changes apply across every difficulty, from Peasant to Emperor, and to both Circular and Hex modes.
This is a first pass, and the AI's instincts will keep getting sharper as more of you play. If an opponent ever does something strange in the endgame — gives up a won position, or plays a line that makes no sense — that's exactly the kind of thing we want to hear about. Your games are what make the next round of improvements possible.