Please advise: I need an AI-challenge

[CptnKuuk]

Alright ... I love the artistic implementation and (theoretical) strategic challenge in this game!
I am not even a Warhammer-fan and still ... faction-uniqueness, balancing, units etc. ... couldn't be better in my opinion.

BUT (saw that coming, didn't you?) ... what's with the AI?
I clocked like 70hours in the last week or so. That's how addictive I find the game.

I played three matches against the AI:

1. Vanilla game / me IMP + 3 AI, free for all / all on "average" (medium map)
result: steamrolled them all by midgame, barely got to build a couple basilisks, they never really got "out of the gate", the Ork-Ai somehow only had 2 units when I met them by turn 60ish, the other two AIs were locked in a "war" (with only like 4 units each) with each other and had nothing to offer

2. Vanilla settings (with Gladius+ mod and rising price of units mod 12.5%) / Team A: me Orks + Imp AI VS Team B: 2 AIs / the 3 AIs on "strong", me on "average" (medium map)
result: I wanted to play with an AI-ally to see what they are doing to be in such a miserable state. Teaming up the other two AIs should avoid a desolate wartorn state and help them help each other. Sure enough my IMP-ally suicided himself over and over again on Enslavers, wildlife-nests etc. As soon as he had a new unit of Guardsmen he would go and try his luck ... again ... he VERY slowly recovered by eventually having enough economy (and some help from me) to take them on.
Overall result was then the same: The enemy AI had barely any map-control. I rode up to the gates of the AI- bases, slugged it out against a handful individual units suicide charging ...

3. Locknots Setup-mod -> no artefacts to spare the AI the embarassment of me getting them all and rolling in with like 70% damage/health bonus, wildlife on very low, wireweed on very low (with Gladius+ mod and rising price of units mod 12.5%)
Team A: me SM "average" + Orks AI "strong+" VS Team B: 3x AI "strong/strong+" (large map)
I chose this setup because I had read that wildlife and wireweeds give the AI trouble, which I surely had seen in the previous round. With only 3 enslavers and as few as possible hounds, vespids and whatnot ... what could possibly go wrong?
I had spectated a couple setups with low wildlife / low artefacts until like turn 30 and they seemed to generally be doing fine in this setup.
result: Same ... by turn 80ish there was a very short slogfest in the middle of the map using basically only infantry against a handful of basic units (guardsmen mostly) and that's it ... the rest was cleanup.
The strong+ Chaos-AI did not even seem to have ANY units except for a couple cultists and one hero. (while having a pop9 city like all the rest of us).

I noticed in all three games that the AI does not keep their house in order AT ALL, I mean:
- special resources very near to the main-base not even claimed, no wonder they are starved for resources
- random wildlife still roaming around in their core territory by turn 100
- puny crap bases being built without useful expansion
(aren't they programmed to explore, expand, exploit, exterminate? ... I mean, shouldn't they at least be grabbing and shooting as much as possible like in any other game ...?)
- Suiciding solo-heros (or units in general) without any backup straight into my frontline
- never retreating/overwatching ... always "going for it", "yoloing" whatever you want to call it.

How do they end up not really having ANYTHING except for their pop 10 city by turn 100?

TL:DR -> Now, since there seem to be a lot of complaints about "late-game-elite-unit-spam". Since there are people reporting their "awesome wins and losses" ...
What is going on here? Please tell me it's just the 12.5% rising price of units mod which somehow horribly breaks the AI past turn 80. (where my allied AIs still seem to be doing quite fine)
Tell me how to get this challenging game going which some people talk about please.

Thank you in advance.

[sulfire]

I have the same issue. The AI is terrible. The only way to have them win is to put them at least 3 steps above me, or to end up sandwiched between two 2 steps above me.

Same issues: ignored resource hexes, troops walking into wire weed and dying, feeding gigantic enslaver armies with cheap infantry. They do 'go for it', and feed those research trees, but normally there is a point about half way in where I meet their main force, walk it into a trap, and annihilate, then its just mopping up.

The AI spoils this game. And i'm off grid mostly, so no internet for human games.

HOWEVER.

It only started this bad when I upgraded from the openGL version (just before the chaos dudes) to alderi. Before that the AI was amazing. I'm seriously considering just downgrading to get a good gameplay experience, and miss out on the new races