[The Panther]

I think the main reason the AI opponents cannot handle Ermor is because of the simplistic way in which the game measures army size:
One troop of ANY kind = 1 army in the graph.

This is clearly bogus. I mean, 1 hydra = 1 militia? Not hardly.

So, the AI sees Ermor growing huge and is afraid to attack it. The human player knows that Ermor needs 2-3 times the army size just to be close to even. The AI has no clue on this. The AI then picks on Ulm, seeing the small army in the graph. The AI refuses to declare war on Ermor, thinking it has the baddest army, even though it is mostly paper thin. Eventually, since ermor is left alone, it DOES get the baddest army.

Also, the simplistic way in which the game keeps track of armies really warps the army size graph. Ermor is so much higher on the graph that the other races tend to squish down into the bottom of the graph, making it hard to see who is really doing well.

All they need to fix this is to modify the army size to make a troop approximately worth its true value. Something like 1*gold + 2*resources + Bonus (like for sacred) for each troop. A lot of programing perhaps, but far more realistic than what it does now.