[RonD]

There isn't anything magic about Tratorix setting Pythium AI. Maybe a pm to shatner and he would be willing to do it, or just any random Joe off the street. If no one is around, though, I would rather have Pythium stale until someone comes along than put the game on hold waiting on a 3-province nation. An AI Pythium would have some affect on the course of the game, but not very much - so I don't think there is a very big difference between stale/AI, except for stale keeping the game moving.