I have done playtesting with setting handicaps (including even tweaking the "handicapinfo" file) and working on individual handicaps per AI player, and have come to the conclusion that no matter what you chose above "settler" for the AI, the human player is always going to be at an advantage.

I was originally going to set each civ at the highest positive Gold setting for handicap (I started each civ individually to determine these levels), but that still caused the AI to "disband" their forces (why ?!?!?). Even with my tweaked "settler" handicap with 300 "free units", it still disbands them (why ?!?!). Not sure if it is related to increased maintenance costs (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=337307), however, even with it set all the civs are in "positive" gold income levels at the start. A look at the "Power" graph, show this disbanding.

So I have decided the best I can do is set all AI players as "Settler", but if you are playing one of the civs, you set a higher difficulty level (e.g. Prince, Monarch, etc.)

If you used "<iExtraCost>" to boost maintenance the problem is quite obvious. Those extra costs are not influenced by difficulty levels but are fixed. "Free units" through handicap have no impact.

"<iExtraCost>" is only used for higher level units, that do not exist on the initial map. They need to be built later in the game.

Hm than it is really weird :hmm: and make no sense at all

I wish there was some way I could see how the AI is caluclating its finances.