triock: From this thread - http://www.gog.com/forum/deadlock_series/questions_before_buying/post15

"the AI will only attack if it knows it can win."

sneakcity: I don't see any settings mentioned in the original post. I think people with different game options might be seeing different AI behavior.

For example, I play with a large map and 4 players (3 AI). I pick "super-charged" for AI strength, and doubled production. The AI won't have any food difficulties, will start ahead in tech and military, and will probably team up. In those circumstances, I have to research my way from behind, and I typically get surprised by an AI attack at least once.

I used a custom world with less ocean (25%) and less wasteland (5%). All told, I think I'm in easy reach of AI opponents that start with a tech, military and production advantage. You could also make your own difficulty level worse to further tilt things in the AI favor. If they get enough of an advantage, they invade my territory with massed tanks.

UPDATE: I'm playing a game with above parameters (3 super-charged AI, 2x production). In the first 20 turns, I was hit by two AI the same turn in 2 territories, losing one of them. Owing to the extreme imbalance of power, I can't regain lost territory without research. The AI slows my research using a dozen siege cruisers or so, bombing me every turn. Often spies destroy defense or housing, crippling my research further as I make repairs (sometimes with half my population). Without orbital surveillance, it's hard to spot a mass of AAV and supernova spyjets crossing the sea and attacking the same turn. The AI opponents have far more territory and resources, so I've accepted that some turns I'll simply lose a territory picked by the enemy - but I tend to regain it now, and have been slowly growing.

I disagree with the Deadlock scoring that more opponents are harder to defeat. Having just a few opponents allows them to expand rapidly using super-charged bonuses. In my experience slow growth favors the more effective human player, so 2x production eliminates some of that advantage. Not only do the AI grow fast, but super-charged makes them allies - their only enemy is the human player.

mystikmind2000: Interesting post.... but if i am going to go to all the effort of surviving supercharged AI, i am going to want to be rewarded by the time i do become strong..... that reward being an AI which will make my invasions very difficult and counter attacks and all the rest of it,,,, NOT just sitting there waiting for me to finish winning?

sneakcity: For this particular game, the war went through stages. Taking the starting land mass took me forever, and I lost territory as late as turn 100. I realized I could only be secure if I controlled the seas between my land mass and the enemy, since he kept launching sea attacks. Ultimately I had to keep a few fleets in place (very costly!) for defense to get the seas under control. I adapted to certain attacks by letting the AI build small fleets and sailing in to attack them.

Even in this longest game (turn 170), my use of ~12 holocaust canon and 22 assault troopers wasn't enough for a decisive victory against a large enemy force. About 3 tanks and 3 infantry survived. The AI uses mines, so I take losses - if I "avoid mines" the anti-matter defenses hammer on the slow moving forces. The sizable AI armies mean I can't just launch one large force and watch it win. I have to rebuild new units at a fairly strong pace.

Maybe it's too expensive for my opponent? I'm spending thousands of credits every turn on building military, and several more thousand on upkeep (30+ ships, mostly). So it's possible my real victory is leaving the enemy too broke to keep up with my army building. But the AI has definitely kept it interesting. I expect to win now, but I'd say that only became a certainty after I removed enemy forces from half the map. The AI might wipe out my newly weak force, but I don't expect he can out build me any more.