Having played for a few days now, it's frustrating to have read about how the game is supposed to have an improved AI, but it appears that it's only smarter because it doesn't have to follow the rules.

Case in point: I have a map where everyone is clustered from mid-map to the north, east, and south corners. There's no one in the western corner at all. My empire started slightly west of center, and I immediately began expanding in that direction. My closest neighbor, who'se maximum range on their colony ships MUST be less then mine, somehow expanded all the way out to that corner, without any way for his ships to get there. Impossible for me, but not for the computer apparently.

Second issue: I've noticed through play that unlike GalCiv 1, you can afford to spend money on items early, so I'm buying colony ships like mad to expand as quickly as possible. Now, the computer is not only buying colony ships, but scouts and constructors as well, leading me to believe that the computer can ignore monetary restrictions when purchase units, or starts with far more funds then the player.

Just my 2 cents, but it's really frustrating when no matter what I do, I can't even begin to keep up with the computer's ability to spend and expand.