Is it just me or does the AI really not compete all that well with the DLC? I went achievement hunting while doing the challenges, which should actually be another layer of difficulty, but I often won the games by a wide margin and had 3 or 4 alliances on the first try.

I noticed that the AI does not play the shipping track particularily well. I cannot even remember seeing them go beyond the first step. They seem to be a lot more agressive in combat, though. This means that they mostly fight each other while the influence tracks are an afterthough for them once Spacing Guild 2 is unlocked.

I liked the challenges in general, but it was kind of weird to see the same strategy work on basically all of them except those where the player cannot get alliances.