The things you've described are not exploits, they are core game mechanics. They are not exploits unavailable to the AI. The reason the AI is beating you is because it is playing the game the way it's supposed to be played and you're purposefully handicapping yourself.

When strategy game fans play, they want the intellectual stimulation of a complex suite of game mechanics which they try to comprehend then figure out how to maximise output. That's what a strategy is, and they want to try this strategy out against an opponent who will test it. You can't play a strategy game if you have to give up half the game's mechanics because the AI is not good enough to provide a challenge.

What you're suggesting is akin to telling an avid chess player "Well I know the AI of this software isn't very good, but if you play without your Queen and Rooks, avoid the Scholars Mate opening and don't try any gambits, it isn't too bad". It defeats the whole reason "strategy" gamers play these games.

The point of a strategy game is to use strategy.  Strategy is finding the most cost effective method of maximizing your chances of winning.  If you argument is that the proper way to play a strategy game is to -avoid- using cost effective methods or simply avoid cost-benefit analysis altogether, then you are arguing for an entirely different kind of game.  Most strategy games do not require you to purposefully avoid good strategy in order for a game to be playable.

You can easily get a really bad start position on a randommap, this surely provides a more than competitive game seeing as 1 or 2 +6 research resources dramatically changes your early game, be it for magic or tech research. In fact, not getting any of those most surely spells your doom, even against an AI, 'cause there are no ways, AFAIK, to alleviate a clear inferiority in research ressources, as most city research buildings are +XX % modifiers.

This is one of the bigget flaw I noticed in gameplay as of now. It's like if you needed a special resource near your startpos to start researching in Civ ! But no wait, you'll need two set of those!

EDIT : Well, the 'no copper, no iron, no horse' syndrom is not that rare on Civ random maps ! Copping with it is a sure PITA ! I always thought resources should be a boon (+ % on production ?), and not just strictly mandatory. Given the know how, all tribes of earth used iron weapons, or cavalry. TW has a very nice approach on resources.

How do you fix the outpost spam early on?  easy.  have the troll city rush units take out these outpost on a regular basis early on in th egame when the player isn't powerful enough to defend them, or the A.I. for that matter.

Whatever happened to the spawned mosters attacking your cities?

You're already dumber by thinking the ai should be smarter. You must play against an ai like it was your little brother just learning how to play chess. He isn't going to get better by you using exploits he doesn't know about or would never use on you. When you game the game it's your loss and you'll never find any challenge or happiness if you continue to do so. It's very easy to make house rules and I've even made them and had them made in MULTIPLAYER human vs humans so it's not like it's dumbing anything down. It's making things fair and challenging. So stop cheating because you're only ruining the game for yourself not others.

Wrong you don't know what you're talking about. A strategy PC game is different from a strategy board game you MUST play against a human. Therefore the rules are different and one must adapt to THOSE NEW RULES of strategy not try to impose the old ones. If the ai doesn't spam cities then the human player shouldn't spam cities. Everyone obviously eventually figures out what the ai does and doesn't do and should play the game from that standpoint not the standpoint of a board game strategy.

If you have to use facepalm pics it shows what a child you are. Growup!

You shouldn't even be playing strategy games. Strategy players get satisfaction by the amount of brainpower they have to use to win. When you're playing chess with your little brother you aren't trying to get satisfaction by beating him, you're trying to teach him to play. The game is for his benefit, not yours. The AI isn't your little brother, it's not learning and it doesn't care. There is no satisfaction to be gained by pulling punches - nothing is going to happen aside from the AI sitting there longer for you to kill it.

No one expects the AI to evolve sentience and start inventing strategy. The player must still be able to win. But how much satisfaction you gain from it depends on how difficult it was while using all the resources available to you. You certainly shouldn't use exploits and bugs, things that will be fixed in patches, but saying "don't build more than 5 cities because then you become stronger than the AI" is just... silly.

You're talking about a simulation game, like SimCity, where you build something and watch it grow. This is a strategy game and the point of strategy games is to win.

There are several difficulty setting because everyone should be able to play at his level, the problem is that for the most expert gamers the ridiculous setting is just too dumb. The AI does nothing other than building cities and put their sovreign in danger for no reason. If you never played this kind of games, of course you may have to figure out the basics first but believe me try playing masters of orion II at the hardest setting, the AI kicks your butt even if you are an expert.

The AI should definitely be revamped for the hardest settings, people who are learning should play at the easy setting, no shame in that.

double post

it seems you have never played any other tbs game before. Play some other games then maybe you will be in a better position to judge how the AI should be. This AI is surely much easier than most other games.

and calm down, you act like an ignorant parent in denial about its child flaws, this game has problems and everytime someones points it out, you call that person out as a troll.

Two cities?  Explore more aggressively to find resources and build cities near them.  If you have two cities while the AI is sending stacks against you, you're not expanding fast enough.

Not imbue them all.  Get just a few channelers up and running, because as noted, you need to keep some essence yourself for your own casting.  Pick the ones with high(er) intelligence, or the ones who have talents.  Further, the idea behind this strategy is to get a bunch of summoners going, and you need 16 mana to summon the Fire Giant, so in most cases you'll need to level them to level 5 (or higher, depending on when you got them.)

Now, I admire your determination not to take advantage, but I do believe you are, as they say, "Not doin' it right."  There's a difference between not gaming the system, and (un)intentionally hobbling yourself.