groan...the loadgame bug has NOTHING to do with mods. Despite the best efforts of CA to cast doubt on those reporting and testing for the trouble, this is not "user error." You don't "see it" because you don't test for it and you have always lived with it unawares. (Like the pri/sec bug...) The game looks roughly the same as it always had, with incomprehensible AI moves as one proceeds through a campaign. But those incomprehensible moves now appear to be strongly related to the loadgame bug. So until it was researched, some were blissfully ignorant of the problem. Others of us were unhappy with the effects it was having on the game...but didn't know what the nemesis was. Now we have more insight into what is causing the problems.

This goes a long way toward explaining why the AI puts up a better fight early in the game too. Early in the game most of us can play through many turns without needing to reload. Whereas late game we probably play 2 to 5 turns before needing to leave the game and later reloading to carry on.