Brad wanted to hear our opinions on how to play the AI better. So here are my opinions:

Monster AI:

 In general, most of the monsters should be extremely aggressive with a short leash distance. In my last game there has been a forest drake traipsing back and forth through Ironeer and Kraxis territory willy-nilly just walking by my outpost, their outpost and a Kraxis city and I've never seen him do anything. There are other monsters that are similar. Anything with a lair should never be more than 2 turns move away from it in my opinion. That should be their world. The rest should stay close to their "home" and only spread out slowly and pushing into territory only when they are cornered. When they're in territory they should be vicious and go after anything that appears weak enough. Right now the monsters seem less like monsters and more like a stupid 5th column for the other factions.

General AI:

• The AI seems to regard the "power rating" points wise in the game as a good indicator of how powerful it is... and it is wrong. What is wrong is the way it is calculated. The AI will pioneer spam every last place and acquire points with each city... even though it has few defenders, no good stack and its tech is weak. In general cities need to be ranked lower and technology and defenders ranked higher.
• Pioneer spamming into known hostile territory is stupid. Thanks for the easy cities and outposts!
• The AI needs to equip its sovereigns appropriately. What is with the mass stockpiles of arm guards? Also, it equips mage sovs like warriors and it shouldn't. It needs to understand the appropriate equipment strategy for each champion/sovereign type.
• Diplomacy engine needs a lot of work. It should seek out favorable trade treaties and situations. Not try to hold you over a barrel for it. It should not surrender so easily. They should be much more willing to make peace treaties, especially when they are losing the war and have little hope of recovering.
• Target resource rushes, don't grab everything. The AI needs to understand that grabbing every single resource on the map with an outpost is not a good strategy. Does it really need more crystal so much it is worth defending? What about that shard type you don't use? Cities are okay, but outposts don't produce and need to be defended. This makes the AI stretch itself too thin.

Civilization specific:

Magnar:

• Magnar is a good sovereign with a good civilization just played horribly by the AI.
• He should never pioneer spam. It stretches him too thin because his growth is different.
• He should maintain more slave raiders, err standing army than other factions.
• Magnar is a fire mage primarily. Grab every fire shard you can see. If someone else grabs it, consider going to war for it ASAP.
• If you see bandits, wildings, or other humanoid mobs you can beat do so ASAP. More slaves for the empire!
• Equipping Magnar he should go for tactical gear first, armor and weapons second. But he should go for them. At higher levels the Fire Mantle, Candle Cloak, and Flaming weapons can make him a beast in melee. But while he has magic he wants to burninate his enemies from afar.
• Diversify my early game tech research. Magic to power my spells, particularly mana generation. Weapons for my slaves and soldiers, and you can't neglect long term growth in the civics.
• My strategy/ build order is this:

1. Build pioneer
2. militia
3. militia
4. Send Magnar & Champion out in two groups and attack any humanoids we can find first. Second explore and find more humanoids. Beasts, elementals I clear out if it is convenient but I make a direcd line for humanoids.
5. Second city should be near a fire shard if possible. Otherwise looking for production in the form of materials, forests, and iron.
6. Pioneer spam and resource rush any fire shards. Usually grabbing death shards as well.

Profit!