What did you do before your first game?

[Tenryu]

Got my butt whomped, and that was when the AIs were really sucky too. The TDM ModPack AIs available now are pretty good. Use them. They are especially nasty when they gang up on you.

Here's some things you can do to even the score:

1. Cheat all the time. Effective but boring.
2. Cheat the first turn only. Use the cntr- money to jack up your research points enough to get an extra colonization tech,( Two is a bit overboard, but up to you.)or a 'bonus' level in some other tech/s you want. Gives you an excellent edge, but you can still get whomped 'good'.
3. Create a 'SUPERMAN' culture and use it. This is a more subtle and Lasting edge.

If you select HARD AIs, give them 5k race points, select Bloodthirsty for your happiness type and attack anyone in sight, never agree to anything better then non-intercourse treaty, the AIs will hate you. It is still very interesting and a challenge.

Of course some of the resident geniuses here will say I suck for suggesting these things( and I only suggest this when playing single player, if you do this in multiplayer you are a piece of ....), but losing all the time is no more fun than winning all the time.

I like to scale my games to see the AIs at their best, HARD, feel I have some edge on wiping them all out, but still have to work hard at it.