I've played through all the challenge levels in the open beta.  The one thing that really stands out is how poor the friendly AI is.    In the harder levels the other teams have more ships than you, but do you also get a **** on your team?

The biggest issues are that they often don't pick up crates or curses 1 hex away.  They rarely attack nearby neutral boats or villages that are close and already damaged.  They can't prioritize which resources your team needs.  They are unable to finish anyone off (so the hostile AI just runs back to it's base and full heals).  They don't seem to understand when they can win a battle (both against other boats or cities).  I have also seen them rush to "defend" a perfectly safe town that I just upgraded (after the upgrade they think it's damaged).

The hard levels are only hard because your team sucks.

YesI do agree, the AI is pretty weak.

it would be nice to have some control over the ai...not like selecting and controling them...but rather change the "rules of engagement" in a way...like tell them to be in like attack/default (how it is now)/defense mode...it kind of sucks to have 30 seconds left and you need 1 more town and they start attacking random ships instead...plus they sometimes just go into battles where they are clearly outgunned and get destroyed...