I'm currently in a phase of planning a game. It's going to be a simple military simulation slash strategy.Since I'm not doing any complicated graphics I decided to program it in Visual Basic. Now, the heart of the game is going to be the AI Engine.You will get a map of a country and then you'll have to place your forces (presented by international symbols) and do...war. The thing is I've never done anything like this in Visual Basic since I, almoast, always do C++ but this task is a lot easier to solve using VB.My question is, what kind of AI libraries for VB should I use? Should I write my own 'AI brain' or are there any pre-made libraries for this? Perhaps not a library, maybe a certain algorithm? Can you direct me please? Any help is appreciated.

There are very, very few AI librairies available, probably none for Visual Basic.

As for algorithms, it depend on what you want to do, and the complexity of your game. Since you describe it as a simple military game, and guessing it is turn-based, maybe something like alpha-beta would do the trick.

Well i think that you should use a .txt as output.
But the AI you will need is basic. I am asuming all you need is to keep track of deplomacy and who you are at war with and what forces your are controling. I have programed AI for 2 years and I am only 13. But I stoped using VB and started using other languages. But PM me and ask for what codes you need and i will suply them to you. :)