In my Spanish campaign (VH/VH) I have only been successful once in getting a peace deal. France declared war on me on turn 5. But they were to busy fighting the Dutch. After ten turns of no fighting they accepted a peace deal only to declare war within a couple of turns. Since that I have been attacked by all great powers who never accepted a peace offer. So I had to destroy the Dutch, GB, Sweden, Prussia, Austria, etc to get some peace. There is peace in Europe now because I own it.

What I find problematic about the current AI is that makes the game easier. Because you are forced to take the hostile factions out, the human player grows stronger capturing region after region. This is exactly as it was in M2TW. Instead of forming an alliance against the strongest power, the AI is continuing with its suicide DoW's. Even in Civ II and III, the AI factions would form an alliance against the greatest threat, which is usually the human player. I don't think that implementing this kind of diplomacy is that hard. And that kind of diplomacy is exactly as it was in the time frame of ETW.