ORIGINAL: LeeChard
An AI that would be able to change it's mission when it hits a brick wall would be my first choice.
I've had the AI attempt to take a position that I had strong forces at and it tries over and over while I'm sinking ships like target practice [>:]
Not that much of a problem. Comparison of force in/before a given attack is rather simple. That is one of the downsides of a script AI. It tends to just "execute", no matter how suicidal it will be. Unless there are scripted checks for the situation.
The huge benefit of a script is that you can predefine smart moves, or the pace of conquest. AE does a very fine job with it's scripts.
But there are weak spots.
In AE I once won as japan by just using subs and defending territory from beginning. Did not capture much more than a few oil sources, shut down shipyards and most other industry. The allied AI kept sending AKs in a line south of Makin/Tarawa. By 43 I had victory almost by using subs alone. Plus there were a few attacks on strongholds, like described by you.
Playing the game vs. AI pretty quickly lost attractiveness to me. Especially if you played several times and recognize the AI actions early in game and know the script pattern for the rest of the game.
The downside of adaptive AI, on the other hand, is miscalculation, stupid moves, too slow pace, high CPU stressing during decision making. But personally I prefer unpredictably stupid over predictably suicidal.