You have probably played GC-II considerably longer then I have, for my personal experience with its AI was that it's very tough. Maybe the fact that dominions doesn't support diplomacy has something to do with the GC-II fans complaints
I agree that it's much harder to write an AI to dom since it's more complex (and less motivation to do so, since it's more MP oriented).
Ahhm, I have to say that I share your sentiment of disappointment, it reminds of when I've tried to tell ppl in the AOW forums how great dom is
