Opening Gambit

[Starbelly Geek]

Originally Posted by Mightypeon

Indeed.
Also, concering the AI, put 10 PD into every province as soon as you conquer it. It really makes them more peacefull. The beeline making happenes when an AI scout sees a Human province with less then 10 PD. The AI thinks "Yay free province" and beelines for it.

Someone (I forget who) determined that the AI's thresholds for deciding how strong your PD is are 6, 11, 16, 21, not the multiples of 5 or 10. If that is true, the AI does not see a difference between a 6 and a 10 province defense.

[Zorfwaddle]

Guys, thank you for the suggestions. I started a new game and am playing using the research first/don't prophetize a heavy-duty mage strategy. I use the starting army to snatch up nearby provinces and as usual, finding one that produces scouts fairly quickly. I'm not fighting the math :-) I just like 6-7 scouts so I can get a feel as to where the AI enemy is.