The first opponent I found was Altar.  He was doing absolutely nothing.  Heavenfall and I have reported this before and as luck would have it, there were two ridiculous AIs that never grew their cities past level 1.  They couldn't remember how to build a hut.  Since Altar was going to be a cakewalk, I decide to find someone else to whoop up on.

Here's the save file so you can look into why the AI is stuck on city level 1.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9317559/Stupid%20AI%20Exhibit%202.EleSav

Recommendations for improving the AI

1.  Don't let the AI forget how to build a hut.

Recommendations for improving the AI

2.  Protect the pioneers ... I used one of my champions to follow this pioneer around just waiting for him to build a settlement so I could take it.  That would have been harder to do had he been protected.  By the way, several of the pioneers I followed in this way, just went around in circles passing up several good locations.  I thought maybe there was some AI written telling it not to plop down a city if it were being followed; however, eventually it would plop down a city for me to takeover.

3.  Have the sovereign get the goodie huts.  The 1.19 patch notes said something about having the AI be more careful/protective with their sovereigns.  As a result, I never saw a single sovereign outside a city this whole game.  That is a mistake.  Aside from the obvious benefits of getting goodie huts (i.e. materials, gildar, etc.), it keeps me from getting them!

So I decided Umber would be my first victim.  Notice I'm also reporting a bug in this video.

Recommendations for improving the AI

4.  The tactical AI should not be targeting a single unit because all I have to do is run that single unit around in circles while the rest of my armies pounce.  In addition, the tactical AI should be ganging up on single units not spreading their attack across multiple units.  Take advantage of the limited number of counterattacks that a defender has.

Next I decided to put Altar out of their misery on my way to Resoln.  Remember their size 1 city?  It hadn't changed.  It's gone now.  At leaset, Resoln had built some troops.  Unfortunately, they were all staff weapon / no armor troops.  Give them an "A" for quantity, but an "F" for quality. 

Capitar would be my next victim.  They have started making troops with a war staff, but I now have an archer in my little band and the Level 4 spell firestorm.

By the time I found Kraxis, they had a bunch of cities and a city with a titan and guardian in it.  They put up a pretty good fight. but I dropped 6 or so firestorms on them to wipe them out.  I'll upload the video in just a bit.

And finally, I found Magmar doing nothing.  Here's my last save before winning if you want to check things out.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9317559/Almost%20the%20End.EleSav