I have been testing each faction to get some ideas about faction differentiation. Now that I have played just about everyone, I can see my unit designs popping up in their armies and pioneers and scouts are not. This alone has made the AI go from a bunch of sissy spammers of maidens, to becoming a nigh unstoppable force. For instance Tarth is now using Novice Bows, which have excellent Initiative and do 25% more damage vs. damaged units. Then they were smart enough to mount these units of their own accord. I am very impressed. 

We should all start posting units for the devs to add to the game when we are close to release. That is a good way to use our play experience so that newb players don't have to go through ten games before the AI wises up.