Hello again

In the past few weeks i've been designing and creating a text based, turn based war strategy game in VB, and it seems to be going well! However there is one problem I have... Artificial Intelligence.

The game consists of four civilizations, you control one and the computer controls the other three. I could easily make them do random things, but that wouldn't go down too well, for example they might never create military units or civilians, or advance an era. So that's out of the question. I could make them follow a set path, but that would take FAR too long, and after one game you'd know what they do, so that's out of the question too.

What I want them to do is random things, but SENSIBLE, random things. For example, when they have X amount of civilians and X amount of resources, advance an era, when they have X amount of infantry units, launch an attack. You see what i'm getting at?

Obviously coding an entire AI for a game like this would be a hell of a lot of work, but i'm all for work where VB is concerned, I may not be superb at this but i'm always willing to have a bash and will learn all I can.

To make matters worse there are difficulty levels in the game. Four of them ranging from Rookie to Suicidal (In suicidal mode the computer is to get two turns for every one turn you have, I have an idea how I can do this though).

Anyone with any experience with AI please help me. I would be VERY greatful for any help on this. Although this started out as a pass-time activity which I found enjoyable, I really would like to use this for my college project, however doubt I can finish it within 30 weeks without sufficient knowledge If all fails, I do have a sub-project lined up

Once again, ANY help will greatly be appreciated

Cheers,
Rob