Yes, they barely do much. It's the best option if you need Empire do contest territory without messing up the rest of the map content.

I did notice with the Pathetic setting, on my map, the Empire workers were claiming tiles, though, since I have most room building turned off on the map, they didn't seem to be doing anything else.

Anything beyond Pathetic will result into some kind of AI activity. Easy AI will start invading and building rooms. It may also use some rally flags around. Any other difficulty will pretty much do what they can, just a bit earlier than Easy AI.

Thanks, I knew that. I turned off the Fog of War, and activated God Mode, to playtest.(but didn't need any of the options) Your latest change--version 4 plays much better. I got my dungeon built up, and claimed much of the other underlords' territory before saving it. Will finish it off later. Thanks.
I went into a map I've been working on, and added an Empire Core, as you mentioned, and replayed the level. I found that once I destroyed the Empire Core, all the Empire minions migrated to the remaining Inhibitors--thought that was interesting. Can any of the other difficulty settings work--or is there not much difference to the others?

Just so you know, you shouldn't need God mode for FoW deactivation. It should be disabled via mutators ( only default grey FoW, not the black one from Inhibitors ).

ncevermid, just got a steam update for your comments. I'm gonna try it again!

Thanks, I didn't think that option was active. On your map, what's been changed with the latest version? I played again before you updated, with God Mode enabled.(no Fog) I blocked off the far west and east paths, which gave me some time, but noticed that the Red underlord snaked down on his side of the center, still basically ignoring all the Empire troops. I also noticed that both opponents took a great deal of time to even claim the Siege Shrines.

Set Empire AI difficulty to Pathetic. It won't use rally flag for very very long time, as well as won't expand itself. It may still occasionally heal, pick up or recall it's units.

I've noticed in this series that the Empire's troops pretty much keep to their assigned areas. If you don't mind divulging a secret, how are you keeping the Empire Core from recalling all its minions into one giant, unbeatable mob?

My comments were too long, so I posted in discussions!