The A.I.’s incompetence – which I think is certainly no worse than most strategy games (hardly an endorsement but why single out this mod’s AI and not every other game’s AI mentioned on this site?) – is hard to see: you’ll find mobs of Beastmasters, dwarven axemen, Elvish archers, dragons, zombies, mages, assassins, giants, etc. These armies will have the promotions and spell protections you’d cast yourself too. You’ll see the AI logically expand and research; if you’re facing an Elven nation, you can be certain they’ll found their signature forest religion unless their hated cousins do it first.

However, what I don’t see is a combined-arms use: no mage fireballs to soften up an enemy garrison, no entanglement spells to stop your stack o’ doom, no summoned tigers for a last minute attack. I’ve seen that in multiplayer but not by the AI.. It’s as if they have a whole toolkit of clever weapons, but choose only the hammer.

Anyways, if you don’t think it’s challenging, I could use some hints.

Its general military AI is certainly as good as the vanilla Civ. But with magic and heroes and all…not so good.

I suspect if the AI really were up to creative use of all the magic and civics and strategies available then the dramatic difference between how it plays now and how it could play would be enormous.

However, coming from a gamer who’s played all the Civs and Fall From Heaven 2 for years, I can say this mod can be enjoyed single – player without a problem. I’ve had challenging and entertaining campaigns against a myriad of AI opponents. I’m not an apologist or dread fanboy of FFH2; it definitely could use the magic more effectively and better employ its huge armies. However, I’ve not seen it dramatically worse than any of the many strategy games I’ve played over the years.