Re: Does the AI cheat?
The AI gets gold and production bonuses at higher difficulty levels. So it will gather larger armies and come at you with huge hordes, but it doesn't do things the player couldn't do. It does suffer a bit from the common strategy game issue of "AI sees all and knows all", so having low PD in the rear is an invitation to get rained on by Call of the Winds, Arouse Hunger and Call of the Wild, but that's a minor problem anyway.
Don't worry about SP screwing up your MP, MP is a whole different beast anyway, so you're going to have to essentially relearn the game for MP. These forums are a great help for speeding that process up.
Edi
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