Going for my first game of AI War. Should I use the expansions?

[TechSY730]

Yea, the base game already has so many options, that adding the expansions would probably just make things more confusing to someone learning the game.

However, it should be safe to turn on the Zenith Reminant stuff. It is much more polished and balanced than the others (understandably so, it is the oldest expansion after all), and adds a bunch of stuff that is very, very useful that has sort of settled into the "metagame" almost for granted.
And possibly most importantly for a new player, the things it adds aren't really all that "different" compared to the base game, it doesn't really add a huge new aspect (other than the optional Golems) to learn. The other expansions add new, somewhat tricky mechanics to learn. Plus, the ZR expansion gives more "boons" for the humans than it does the AI on average. (Golems, Z ship caches, distribution nodes too I think).

[Hearteater]

Children of the Neinzul is generally safe to enable, especially if you want to play one of its map types (Concentric Circles or X).  It doesn't really add much to the AI or player unless you explicitly turn stuff on.  As I mentioned earlier, the Spire expansion has a lot of AI gravity stuff, so that one and Ancient Shadows I'd leave off for the first game.

[Ragnarok]

The biggest issue with Ancient Shadows will be the selection of Brutal Guard Posts on AI Homeworlds.  At your difficulty level there should be only one so you won't get the problems that 2-3 brutal picks can cause, but they can still be pretty daunting to a first timer.  This means you'd wouldn't have the option of a champion, but honestly I'd skip having a champion in your first game.

I'm not necesarrly advising to disable AS because of the champion or brutal picks. Its more like a huge general unbalance. I dont know if the nebulas are static, i.e. you always have the same nebula reward in a row, but my homeworld gave me 13 dyson gatlings which are largely overpowered. When the early game was a "struggle" without AS, it became VERY easy to both raid, full attack and defend versus waves alone on the fact of a douzen dyson gatlings. They have huge range, huge alpha and a very good rate of fire. They definitly break the balance at AI progress <60.

[CamKrist]

I sent you in pm