While carli was looking at the AI I also set a game of AIs against each other and saw that three of them had no toolsmithy which had prevented further expansion - it was most pronounced with the Empire. I'm not sure about others but I always build a toolsmithy early on and thought this would solve the problem. If it's better fixed in the AI logic then so be it. Thanks for the feedback.
While carli was looking at the AI I also set a game of AIs against each other and saw that three of them had no toolsmithy which had prevented further expansion - it was most pronounced with the Empire. I'm not sure about others but I always build a toolsmithy early on and thought this would solve the problem. If it's better fixed in the AI logic then so be it. Thanks for the feedback.