[trebuchet]

Can't answer the first question... with regard to the second question, the AI isn't competetive in the early game. This means that even if it were very good at endgame tactics, it would tend to arrive at the endgame with a significant disadvantage.

In some ways the AI is improved over Dom I. However some of these improvements seem to have been passed by as far as changes to the game. Independent archers, for example, more intelligently target the back ranks where leaders and mages are to be found; on the other hand, missile precision seems to have been downgraded between Dom I and II to where you can no longer hit at the same range.