Quote Originally Posted by Tony Furze
However, why does the AI shy away from making ships? And how does it get so big (eg as the French) without trade?
The French (and Egyptian) AI is probably the worst. Their homelands are so fertile than they can easily build up rather big stacks without upgrading anything. And they don't just do that, they recruit cheap troops (FS, MS, Handgunners etc) in huuuge quantities. When their over-sized crap armies march into the lands of other AI faction, the AI withdraws as it is outnumbered. This makes the French almost unbeatable by the AI (untill they get too big, get excommunicated and fall into civil war and mass re-emergances), but very easy to beat as the player (lots of crap troops dying at your hands give you great generals and high-valour troops).