I have been away a little while, & there seem to be a few changes taking place, particularly on these boards. Interesting thread, which I agree with. In nearly every game I play, there is a level where the AI has exactly the same chances as the human player, with no bonuses, cheats or help at all. I normally always play on that level, as I play games just to enjoy, not for a massive challenge. I must admit getting a bit annoyed at times, when playing well & getting in good posiitons the AI seems to still steamrole ahead & find myself going into domination mode to take them down. This is nice, but at heart I am not an aggressive player, & would rather just play a sedate game without the worry of AI having massive advantages against you. I usually play on on Warlord/Prince so am hardly a power player.
I think the vast majority of people on these boards are very good players, who play on really high levels, & like the challenge of the game, so are not really aware of how the low levels works. There are those amongst us though who just want to play an even game against the AI without worrying about them having massive advantage.Even Chieften has lots of advantages for AI. I know you can edit the game files to remove these, but I would rather just have a level set up to play each time that is an equal one for player & AI, which Chieften is ideal for.