[PvK]

I've had fairly hard games on crowded maps against the AI. Been beaten by the Tien Chi and Marignon AI's, when I didn't have much room to expand. I was stalemated against C'tis AI with Pangaea on my flank on the small (Aran?) map until I was saved by luck. I think a lot of the difficulty depends on things like:

luck
specific circumstances in the game situation
your settings
how competitively and aggressively you play
your nation design

PvK