I have seen no shortage of battle and bloodshed in my campaigns....

In the early stages, I will confess to generally being the instigator, as I try to carve out a little territory. Once established, I concentrate on my economy, and generally find no shortage of other factions lining up to try to reclaim some of my hard fought gains.

Often I put up with their raids for a while, but when they reach a point of real annoyance, I set out to put them to the virtual sword.....then I find my "empire" has grown to the point that lots more AI factions want a piece of me, and so the cycle resumes....