The AI is pretty easy on easy mode IMO - I've played 2 games and the pirates have caused more of a challenge than any of my opponents.

At first I actually found easy to even be a little tough mainly because I hadn't read the manual first or get enough out of the tutorials and felt a little overwhelmed. Back then it was the pirates that gave me the most trouble so I made it even a little easier by edited a map (Galaxy Forge) to not include pirates so I could get more familiar with the game without suffering the consequences too much.

You have to play around a bit to find out what works for you, AI setting, game speed, game size, etc. because I've seen a plethora of different opinions and playstyles just in these forums. Give yourself the advantage early, start small on modded maps or create a scenario in your favor. Then when you've had some practice take on a normal map with more enemies or pirates included and even up the AI setting if your ready - I'm still learning things after 10 or so playthroughs (all small and easy still ).

Most importantly - enjoy!

Later,
~JO

To be honest Ive found even the 'normal' AI to be a total pushover. I played a few games with custom maps that happened to have no pirates and after a few hours it became very obvious that I was going to win easily (with 8 AI enemy) that it became pointless to play on.

I then went back and added pirates to the maps just to add a little bit of challenge.

Guess I'll try bumping up to hard AI mode to see if its any better for my next game.

Maybe I just got used to GalCiv2 and Sword of Stars where, especialy when just starting out and learning the game, the AI has a pretty good chance of kicking some butt

D