Have only played it once since updating, against 4 hard ai, and it seemed easier to me, Especially the End Game, through whole game only got attacked three times by one Ai with large incursion, which was not hard to counter with equal retalliation, Would like to see more random actions in Ai and also, the  "Our Home world is being attacked, All forces retreat from attack and defend home planet" instead of "Oh Well, we travelled across five different planets and we are here now so lets forget about our home planets totally unprotected from larger forces and lets get slaughtered.

yah, i find the Hard AI in Entrenchment to be a pretty fun opponent. they'll put up a decent fight for sure. they still make some pretty silly mistakes and seem unaware of certain important facts. for example, i've seen them camp out with fleets full of carriers in a Plasma Storm (can't launch squadrons in Plasma Storm). they also seem to be unaware of certain of the more powerful cap ship and starbase abilities in the game.

other than those minor flaws the Entrenchment AI builds pretty good fleets and plays aggressively enough to keep you on your toes. its fun.

       Builds way too many scouts. In all my games since I got Entrenchment, one or more AI's build like 70+ scouts thats 210 supply wasted big disadvantage there , and all because I laid like 10-20 mines.

            I'm not a big fan of mines BTW. I always play Vasari so I can't comment on the others. The mines in entrenchment from my experience take to much micro for my liking. Ya I know I can shift click a few spots but they take forever to lay. By then I'm already assaulting the next planet. I only lay mines at where the pirates usually raid my planets and even then they are not that effective, althou some players responded to another one of my posts and gave me new tactical ways to lay mines, and I thank you.

  The best way I use my Vasari mine layer is when I attack. I now dash for his guardians and healers and lay a few patches in battle seems to work good as the AI does not seem to think the mine layer a big threat and rarely gets destroyed in a major fleet engagement. (BTW not my tactic got it from another poster).

Overall Sins + Entrenchment is a game type I have been wanting ever since I played Moo3 (masters of orien 3)Great game, great graphics great sound and fun gaming experience. I haven't played multi player yet so I cant comment on entrenchment in that.

 AI attacks with big fleets, 4 hard AI's on a huge map is hair pulling at times but doable if you get enough planets fast enough.

I have fended off 14 caps in one battle with only 6 caps but a real nice supporting fleet of subverters and overseerers and HC's and 8 of those caps were carriers, AI seems to favor carriers as excess caps. ( I play with max fleet supply)That just goes to show you the power of focus fire and fighting in your own culture , granted all my caps were level 8 - 10.

I enjoyed it hope you will to .

in regular sins i had noticed a lot of cases where if the AI was even slightly outmatched it would automatically retreat. this usually led to me sending my fleet through all their planets undefended untill the last one, at which point i had whittled their forces to nil. have not noticed this as much in entrenchment though. While it does make sense to run away from a fight where you are outmatched, it makes more sense to send in reenforcements.

Have played a couple more games now in Entrenchment, and yes i do feel they are sending in more re-inforcements now in battles, they do seem to be staying longer in battles where they are outnumbered by a small margin, Research is a key part to numbers as well, If you have 20% more firepower  but 10 % less ships you are still stronger through research.

I love the mines and the micromanagement of the mines with the Vasari Empire, It can be tactically layed where you want and its the first time other than defensive turrets that it feels like it auctually makes a difference where my structures are built against the AI.

Managed to beat unfair AI on Melting Point and key to this was the Star chokepoint Taken early on defended by two Starbases and three auto mine layers, worked a treat as well as using mines to halve pirate raids before they were through the mines being taken care of by turrets and strike craft.

I guess this really plays into the defensive type of game that i like to play, Am looking forward to trying out the TEC today and will add comment on how I found their changes in Entrenchment

You don't, though. You can queue the lay mine ability use. Click the ability, hold down shift, and start laying down your minefield. The ship will fly to each waypoint and use the ability.

O well, then I have to wait until a new update solves this problem... I only play advent - because i dislike the militaristic voice sets of tec and vasari - and because I like the big illuminator light show

Sorry I took so long to respond. Saw... its just using the mine layer in battle , thats all he really said and it works pretty good (In single player mode...I havent done it in multi yet) The AI leaves it alone for the most part , it does take hits but I think its from AoE's or secondary fire. If you have 3-4 mine layers in a group you bum rush his healers and support craft which seem to take lots of damage from mines. Then start crapping out mines as fast as the cool downs return and you can do quite a bit of damage. So it adds a little extra to my game now whereas I thought them to be quite usless.

You see the power of the forums is awesome , great people , great idea's and tactics!

If it wasen't for the forums I'd probably still be going thou the game's learning curve

Thanks guys !

I'm to much of a pussy

I can barely beat the AI , how the heck can I beat you animals.

I find playing human opponents forces me to play a different way other than I like.

Maybe if they had a timer where you cant attack till 10-20 mins giving you time to research and build a sizable force,but I realize that rushing is part of the game and I'll just deal with it.