[HoneyBadger]

Gandalf: Stardock gives good AI, but consider that it's AI in GalCiv is operating in a really simple combat environment.

That's always seemed a little suspect to me...

It feels like, once you've got the AI performing well in terms of overall strategy, that it shouldn't be to huge of a step to code in some kind of tactical framework that can go beyond "paper-rock-scissors".

People have been designing competitive chess games for well over a decade, that are able to outperform genius-level human players (1997: Deep Blue vs Kasparov, 1998: Rebel 10 vs Viswanathan Anand etc.), so why successfully create an AI that can perform on a macro-scale, but then not even make the attempt at one that can compete in a deep microgame? It's a letdown, in retrospect.

Another letdown is that the Dreadlords (the big bad Balrog-types) are neither capable of "learning" (they never adapt new weapons or defenses to the tactics of others), nor of fully operating on the grand strategy level (they don't take new planets), so that, to me, is a major failure of the AI towards giving the single player (which this style of AI seems to have been adopted for the benefit of--obviously, human players wouldn't require these kinds of handicaps), the ultimate challenge of trying to overcome an enemy that is not only strong, but in some fashion, smart.

It's a perpetuation of a tired old cliche: that of the supervillain who exists only to wait around for the plucky heroes to knock him off his dark throne. Once again, Tolkien in space. And in this case, there's not even the excuse of a Barad-Dur for the villain to be tied to, or a Cracks of Doom/Ring of Power weakness.

In GalCiv, Sauron has a spaceship.