Played SE IV long ago, and considering SE V.

[Raapys]

Well, however one puts it the net result is the same; the AI is ill-equipped to handle the game.

Indeed though, Kwok has made some serious progress with the AI. However, I still have yet to lose a single game, and it's not because I play well, which I don't, it's because the AI isn't really capable of coordinating attacks well enough to actually kill someone off. This, along with the long turn processing times and the rather tedious UI, sort of ruins single-player in SEV for me.

Agreed though, the combat part is definitely something that needed a change from SEIV. However, I'm not really happy with the current system either.

Then again, there are not so many 4x games where I'm pleased with the combat system. I had the most fun with Master of Orion 2's combat, but that one was horribly unbalanced even fully patched.