What difficulty level do you play Deadlock at?

[MaugTheInfirm]

Like hot sauce, I've acclimated to higher Deadlock 1 difficulty levels over time. The only thing I insist on is "10+ territories" to win, since otherwise an enemy can win on the far side of the map regardless of what you do. Years ago I played "only 3 territories built up", and I'd defend a corner of the map until I could take out enemies. For some time I've played "only 1 territory built up", and I scrap an enemy territory upon capturing it (often profitable!).

But I got a refreshing defeat running gog.com's version of Deadlock 1 recently. My Tarth computer opponent, rather than eating his computer chips, seems to have plugged them in. Not only did Tarth research higher military techs, I bore the brunt of a significant holocaust canon attack. I was impressed how aggressive the enemy AI pursued holocaust canon, and attacked me with them.

I'm currently playing as Relu and own the bottom third of a 100% forest map. Fun times.

[sdu754]

I play boosted or supercharge. Usually with fast production (for quicker games) and either 7 or 10 city centers. I have beaten the game with every race at 100% difficulty though.

[TimeDilation]

boff...i didn't find much change in AI's behaviour, especially about correctly spreading on the map, troops movement etc : it's always the same dull.
it goes for every race +/- the same, without exploiting the race advantages, as fast as possible (diff level) to food replicator, cortex scanner and subspace scanner. in the meanwhile, Ai will research random technologies and possibily produce some nasty units, that will be dumbly employed.
by just rationalizing your development you are outsmarting the AI, as it is soooo boring.
To make things more fun, is obvious that AI must be 'supercharged', and you...at least 'hindered'. The fun will come from the fact that you will be at a primitive level when enemy is fairly superior due to SPEED of production and unit strenght. that's it.

multiplayer game is totally different, nothing to do with single player...maybe a human would play like that AI the first time ever he plays multiplayer....

[MaugTheInfirm]

I like augmenting the difficulty by self-limiting my territory. One approach is only allowing 3 territories to be built up, which limits your research and advantages. The supercharged, player-hating opponents come at you from each direction, each in their own way. You fight morale problems, invasions, etc. Any time you take enemy territory, you must scrap all buildings immediately (you can't own more than 3 territories built up).

I recently played a custom Deadlock II map where I created a 1-territory island off by itself with decent bonuses... but it's 1 territory. I allowed myself a buffer of sea squares, but only 1 land territory. The invasions were frequent, and I'm not sure every bit of it was fun, but I eventually swept across the two main continents where the AI had built up. Landing was tough!

So beyond supercharged / computers ally, there's restricting your territories to make Deadlock and Deadlock II more challenging.

[Ubergeneral Grunt]

in the meanwhile, Ai will research random technologies and possibily produce some nasty units, that will be dumbly employed.

I believe the AI (at least in Deadlock 1) actually researches all the technologies in order, starting from Nuclear Fusion (or Advanced Medicine in Deadlock II), completing each tech level in order until all technologies have been completed. This explains why the AI never seems to get Holocaust Cannons until quite late in the game: they will have completed all lower level techs before researching Anti-Matter Beams.