Firstly, let me say I love the game, and I've been playing for a long time.

One of the things that I never seem to see however is the AIs counter-attacking. I can take planet after planet from AI races, and they never seem to try to retake their lost worlds. Oh, they will regularly send some forces to attack (usually one of the starbases I've constructed), but they don't try to retake the planets with a more focused "mass" attack and invasion force.

I usually play on the "tough" level, gigantic map, ten players. Anyone else see this? If I "up" the difficulty, will I get the more logical counter-punch from my computer opponents?