Maybe somebody can educate me, but I really don't understand all the complaints about the stupid AI. Not that the game isn't "stupid", because it is. But RTW is a GAME, a computer program! It wasn't until very recently that a computer program was written that could beat a really good human player at chess. CHESS!! And chess has only a tiny fraction of the variables of an epic-scale strategic and tactical game like RTW. Computer programs work on logic alone, no intuition or creativity, and warfare - even simulated warfare - is as much art/creativity as it is science/logic. Hence, the human player has a distinct advantage.

One way that game designers in general compensate for AI "stupidity" is to allow the AI to cheat. If they do that, you have gamers crying "foul" to the heavens, so it's a lose-lose situation. Until computer programming becomes sufficiently complex as to approach sentience (an idea that frightens me, because I've seen ALL those movies), we have to face it: a human player who knows what he/she is doing will beat a non-cheating computer program almost every time, assuming parity of position.

Now I'm not talking about bugs here. Armies running into rivers, boats being stuck on the shore, unit icons that don't match up, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum. These are all legitimate complaints that probably can be addressed. But I, for one, expect to win when when I play a game against a machine on equal terms. My suggestion: give the computer a leg up by playing one of the harder factions. Armenia, Spain, Thrace, and (somewhat) Parthia, for example. If you can turn Armenia into a powerhouse on VH/H, you've mastered the game.