I just bought GC2 Ultimate off of Steam yesterday and am about to sit down and start my first game but I'd like to ask a couple of questions that may hopefully get answered before I finish my first session later this afternoon.

First, I can't find any manuals anywhere. I looked in the Steam folder but there's nothing there. Do we get these? I really like to read the manuals to get a feel for what the game is designed to do.

Second, while waiting for the game to download, I read that there are some problems with the AI researching tech. There seem to be a couple of mods, at least, that can fix these. Which one is the best to use, fixes the most to give me a good game?

Right, that's it for now. No doubt there will be more questions after my first sesh...