I was a inter DM player in AOC.
I have the beta for 1 week now.
I can beat the AI on hard easily(18 mins max) 9/10 times.
Also i can beat it on titan 2/10 times under 25 mins.
If i am alive after 30 mins i beat it after 2 hours.
The key is not let the AI expand to heroic cause it will create clusters of Castles and its very hard from there.
In Titan diff the AI builds,gathers,advances,creates units in half of the normal time.
I am very pleased with the AI.
The only thing is that it must create more siege units and not walking blindly in a cluster of castles and get slaghtered.
If the AI in norse try to constantly harrass his starting ulfsark while he tries to build the temple (but not kill him ).