[Gandalf Parker]

Every 10th by count? No matter what the cost of their castle is? So if a home province is surrounded by 5 provinces then they would build a lab on one hoping to hit a site that makes it worthwhile, then on the next circle build a fortress or a city.

Hmm I guess that would work. Im not sure if it would make the AI harder or easier to beat but someone could at least test it. Play a game with Ulm doing absolutely nothing but playing by the AI rules, then try it again as Ermor, and again as Pangaea, etc etc. On a small and a large map. And in a game with many players and with few players.

Personally Ive played games where Ive given multiple castles to the AI at the start of the game and it has made the harder to take out but Im not sure if having them build a castle every 10 provinces they take would be harder. It would make the game longer, but not really harder.

A slightly more involved formula might be used as long as it still amounts to basically one line of code. Such as including how many provinces are on the map vs how many players. Would this be the same formula for an easy ai setting vs a hard one? For a low-gold game and a high-gold game? It still could be one line but if it gets too algebraic then I cant test it (my math is horrible).