[quantum_mechani]

Well, as long as you are just fighting AIs there is one cheap trick to use if it gets to hard. If as soon as you border an AI you take 11 province defense in that province, and then as you border more AIs always put 11 PD in all border provinces, they will very rarely attack you. Of course, if don't want to use that trick, on a big enough map you can usually outfit several combatants capable of destroying almost unimited AI armies. On a small map it is more difficult, but usually you can hold them off long enough to get your combatant factory going, particularly with a pretender like a VQ.