Brad stopped by in the last dev stream. I believe he answered the question, but I don't remember what he said.

He came in the last 10 minutes.

Has Brad read Sun Tzu's "The Art of War"???

You can't program realistic military actions without reading the most important (and shortest) generals guide ever!?

 he said he wanted square maps. But was quickly overturned by the twitch stream

Just watch those last 10+ min. you'll get a much better feel for it than someone else's interpretation of what they saw. I was like you, for some reason I didn't get to finish this stream and forgot to go back and watch it. Seeing this thread reminded me to do so. Was worth it just to see Brad stuff.

In the stream he said for the over all map he preferred a Circle or a square  but not a hex. 

For the map itself to be hexes as he liked them for space games.

Fail! This topic is about AI, not map shape.

In the stream on YouTube at 1:02:45 Brad answered a question saying he is "starting up on the AI, right now I'm waiting to start up on some of the algorithms for my pacing complaints." That's all he said on the topic, but it does answer the question whether Brad is working on GC3 AI.

The OP specifically mentioned Combat AI, though. Maybe that specific question is still unanswered.

Paul's chat comments were that Brad would supervise a team of devs who actually do the GC3 AI implementation.  They'd bring him reports of the AI's emergent behavior, and he'd steer it one way or another.  This applies to the overall GC3 AI; I don't know what you mean by a "Combat AI" specifically (or if there is even such a thing).

Brad would not actually code the GC3 AI himself, as his coding cortex is already busy with the other game

Thanks (IslandDog) for directly answering me on this question. My fear is the genius that Brad imparts would be lost if he did not do it himself. The answer that was given in today's steam once again put my fears to rest!

Well, I'm sure if the AI doesn't turn out as good as Galcivs AI we will notice... and we will also know where to place the blame at.

I do find it odd, and sometimes think that Stardock has its priorities fuddled up when its flagship title doesn't receive all the love it should be getting.

OK doogie