Independents = 9 is the most sensible learning advice available. It is the only game that will reliably hamper the AI more than you.
I found the game easier to learn with Production-3 in my scales. The reason being, until you have the knowledge of what units are best, and what to build when - you need the capacity to meet a horde with a horde, if nothing else.
Also, I struggled to really get a good grip on the game, until I made a nice random map with 61 provinces, and no water. I generated a few until I got one I liked, and I marked ALL territories as "no start", except one near each corner.
A map like this, with 3 opponents, reduces the chances of you getting swamped, and makes turns resolve REALLY fast, so you aren't staring at the screen praying you're still in the game.
Then I beat my head against those maps for a couple of weeks until I started reliably winning with just about every nation that I tried.
Then I bumped up the difficulty 1 notch, and cried again.
I <3 Dominions.
Re: is the AI cheating
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