[krpeters]

A few things I find helpful with SP:

1) Slash gold to 50%. This prevents the AI from recruiting boring armies of militia/archer chaff. It also makes the initial game more interesting -- you have to work harder to balance gold and resources.

2) Set research to easy. With gold at 50%, you'll never get anywhere on spell research otherwise.

3) Stick with maps with < 150 provinces, and play against 6-12 AIs. You'll soon find yourself surrounded, outnumbered, etc. After you whack his pretenders a few times you'll be #1 on everyone's kill list.