Those topics have all been touched on in one post or another already. For more details you will have to weed through but here is shrink wrapped version:
We already agreed the AI would have fits and need heavy scripting. Essentially it will need its hand held and the "most effective" unit scripted which in turn would be controlled by the current state the AI is in.
We didn't talk about navigating, really I am addressing that point now. There are many ways to work around this. If it is a problem the buildings can be spread out on the ground. It can be made to prevent armies of certain sizes from moving through cities or allow all armies plenty of room.
I do see what you are saying with the swarm tactic. Once again the problem is that you will not be able to make 200 1 unit stacks. The smallest "unit" has not been set; however, I think the idea of a platoon has been forwarded. Anyway lets say you can build 200 1-unit stacks for the sake of discussion. The 200 1 unit stacks would all be knocked out in one or two rounds. It would not give the 800 unit stack a major advantage. The problem with your example is that the total offensive and defensive power of the 800 unit stack will give it dominance over all other units. Swarming with 200 small stacks may be possible; I will give you that. However, swarm tactics are old school. I can already do swarm tactics with the current space combat. Does it work there? I haven't tried it in SE5 yet. I am trying it with one empire in the SFTC beta and not having any luck. The program is splitting the larger units fire power and smoking the swarm ships. Maybe what you are saying is that I need to build a new swarm ship!
