Quote Originally Posted by Kull
Keep in mind that the AI will never associate naval cost with distance from docks. But there may be a plus/minus for each side:

Human: Knows about the cost/distance link, and so makes an effort to keep fleets as close to home ports as possible. This encourages behaviour that mirrors history, which is good. The AI will not be able to do likewise, so advantage Human.
Even with the Human advantage of knowing to keep fleets close to ports, it doesn't matter because the AI has the huge money advantage, so even if they have plenty of fleets all over the place, they won't take too big a hit. So technically, the AI has the overall advantage .