It matters because it becomes very quickly obvious. And the moment that it becomes obvious that you are not playing against an opponent that tries to use cunnin

It matters because it becomes very quickly obvious. And the moment that it becomes obvious that you are not playing against an opponent that tries to use cunning and strategy, but merely an equation - a puzzle - which you have to solve, the entire house of cards comes down. Puzzle games can be fun, but the very people in this thread are arguing that CIV games are not about being a puzzle, but about roleplaying a civilization. There's a puzzle aspect of course, but a blatantly cheating AI is just a puzzle and nothing else. It matters for the same reason that people don't want to play against a human-like AI, because that AI would be a double crossing bastard who tries to win at all costs. They want to play against a roleplaying AI who tries to appear like Ghenghis Khan or Tutanchamon. But if I see my sworn enemy Attila the Hun spawn in an endless stream of battering rams out of thin air, and yet is so utterly incompetent and dumb that it cannot navigate a simple pass between mountains, that's a worse transgression against my suspension of disbelief than if he was just plain bad at the game.