Point was to see how bad the AI is. May as well up the ante, and see how quickly one can conquer the entire map (minus Terhazza of course) if one exploits everything to the max. Different game all together. The fun then is not in role playing, but in achieving WC by a certain date.
Note: this is not meant as a criticism of the EB team. I really feel they have done the best job they could do with what they had available to them.
I feel that one has to come up with a list of house rules, to make play more enjoyable. I tried many, but none had results to my liking. You need dozens of in battle rules as well, since the battle AI in is not the best. To the point that you really wonder how much fun it is to actually engage in these battles as well.
I am seriously tempted to only run auto-calc campaigns. The few I have done have been much more fun than regular campaigns. They certainly take care of any chance of blitzing. That way the AI retains a slight edge, due to free command stars, and its sheer stupidity in battle is not a constant source of annoyance. You may have some surprising wins and losses. A bit more historical in a sense, since the outcome of military engagements sometimes yielded surprising results as well.
As much as I admire your playing style QS (as evidenced in this thread), you have to lose intentionally to get into the positions where you are. I feel that if one has to do badly intentionally to experience difficulties and serious problems, it takes the fun out of whatever challenge one sets.
Bookmarks