My thanks to Master Belisarius for running the AI Deathmatches. Based on the Round 1 & 2 reports I started a solitaire game (my third SEIVg in history) including my Terrans and the TDM-ModPack Aquilaeians, Fazrah, Narn, Tessellate, and United Flora. After seeing the recent quarterfinal results I would probably substitute the Verdurans or Pyrochette for the Fazrah, but there's always next game.
The Terrans encountered the Fazrah first, after 30-odd turns. I was surprised and pleased to see the Fazrah using mines on the common border soon after war began. Unfortunately they never used mines or sweepers in sufficient numbers, and finally surrendered. Although definitely improved over the standard AIs, the Fazrah were still slow to expand and research compared to the human player. They also neglected to launch stored satellites on several planets. On the bright side, they did seem pretty good at building facilities to match planet values, e.g. building mines mostly on mineral-rich worlds, and so on.
The Aquilaeians and Tessellate seem to have similar shortcomings; the Terrans had brief trade alliances with both before they declared war, and on the comparison chart they were each at about half the Terran level in Research, Resources, and Planets. The Aquilaeians seem to have developed some Counter-Intelligence capability; my second Ship Bomb project failed. The Tessellate, despite their lagging research, have fielded a Cruiser against the mostly LC Terran fleet. Nevertheless, as of Turn 79 the Terrans definitely have the upper hand. Unless the so-far-unseen Narn and/or UF have built a formidable empire, the Terrans seem to have a lock on this game. Perhaps next time I should try the team play option (5 AI vs human).
I look forward to the rest of AI Deathmatch 3.
Human vs Top AIs
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