Yeah, the small fleet thing seems to be a problem with 20 AI. Right now in one game a Fallen Empire woke up and owns the right half of the map since no one can even put a dent in it. I'm about to take over the L Gate cluster just so I can bounce around the map and take it out or at least fragment it enough for other empires to do something.I only ever play with 10-12 ais on a huge galaxy.
Its never what I would call "hard", as you should have a lot of room to expand, and even if you get into a war you cannot handle, worst case you will lose a few systems on your border. After a while you will outexpand the AI, unless you get boxed in.
One problem I have been noticingis the number of races joining federations. Often one of those will pick a fight with a fallen empire whoch drags the entire federation down.
I was planning on trying a 20 ai game next, but I worry the AIs will be even more ineffective late game against fallen empires and crisis, with even smalle fleets than they can muster now.
But after reading the various replies, I feel that I may just need to up the difficulty to help solve my problem. Even though the AI may bump into each other earlier, if one wins then hopefully with a harder difficulty rating that AI will grow into something more effective. I may also start playing with some AI having advanced starts, I just always worry that the advanced AI will be my neighbor and be a fanatical purifier or determined exterminator lol.
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