[llama_drama]

The problem with AI 'cheating' is that it often shifts the challenge away from strategy and more toward figuring out how to outpace artificial handicaps. A well-designed AI should create challenge through better decision-making, not arbitrary advantages.

[somenameforme]

Exactly this. I'm not at all complaining about the game being too easy or too hard. I'm complaining that when you create a challenge by taking a horrific AI and then just letting it cheat to the point that it poses a challenge, you create an entirely new game. And that new game is often nowhere near as fun as the game itself "really" is because it all comes down to meta-gaming the horrific AI to overcome what should be an insurmountable handicap if the AI played even remotely decently.