Oh I know that by building up cities etc the cost of roads and other improvements is negated, however it still annoys me, it just doesn't feel right. I agree about stacks of doom being a poor system, however 1upt is possibly the dumbest system they could of chose to fix the stack of doom. Its a simple fact that no AI today can compete with a reasonably competent person with regards to tactics on this scale. I first bought civ 5 when it first came out, I consistently won after my 5th game, on deity. Hold out till industrial age, build bombers, game over. Play Arabia to make it even easier with the resource bonus. I recently got brave new world because I hoped that they had fixed the game. In many regards they have, it is a much better game now than the trash that was originally released, however the AI is still really failing to win the wars, bomber command lays waste to their small numbers (1upt really restricts total army strength), and the AI has real difficulty brings overwhelming force to any given point. The tradition advantages of the AI have been gutted, namely Muhahaha, 10,000 tanks to your one lousy bazooka. Now the one lousy bazooka can hold the pass and wont simply get swamped. (please note that after sufficient time the bazooka will die from attrition so before anybody starts frothing at the mouth, just don't)