[Mobhack]

Yes - your expensive, now veteran troops are worth a bit more than newbies.

The only time the human players points preference is used is in the initial core buy. Once the core is bought, the AI buys according to your core value plus any support points you decide to spend for the battle. Any support points you elect not to spend are "dropped on the floor". Player 2 then will get less as you elected not to spend them.

The only time you must use all the points you are given is if you are player number 2 in a PBEM game. That is because the points you are given as player 2 reflect what your opponent has already spent and therefore not spending the allocation is handicapping yourself.