The Automated Player (or AP) uses an unused player’s components and focus bar, with the focus row essentially functioning as a highly simplified version of the code that operates the AI opponents in the Civilization video games, providing a series of instructions for how the AP functions. On the AP’s turn, it will resolve the focus card in the “5” slot of its focus row and reset that card to the “1” slot. To assist with that, the AP has its own set of unique focus cards, designed specifically to remove decisions from the AP’s turn so that you won’t feel like you’re playing for the AP yourself.
And what’s more, the AP isn’t just for solo play. It can also be used in games with up to three human players to provide an additional opponent against which you must compete. Will you coexist peacefully with the AP, manipulating it to your advantage and turning it against your human opponents, or will you team up with the other humans to carve up the AP’s territory for yourselves? The decision is yours.
-description by the publisher