calvinms: oh yeah I just realized I could adjust the difficulty level. I play in normal mode to keep balance though. I dont like playing something that's too difficult either.
KingCrimson250: Hard, I believe, is actually the "balanced" difficulty in the sense that I don't think there are any handicaps on either side.
If I recall correctly, on Normal the human still gets a starting resource bonus, the AI only builds structures every other turn(!), the AI won't use Wait in combat(!!!)... Not exactly a level playing field.
Exactly. If we look closely to the differences among difficulties:
Hard Difficulty
AI will correctly estimate the strength of human player armies when deciding whether to attack them.
AI will be cautious about moving it's heroes into dangerous situations.
Computer players can build structures every turn.
AI is very aggressive about town development.
Computer players will search for Grail when they have revealed 1/4 of the Puzzle Map.
Individual computer players won't hire heroes if they already have four or more.
Computer players as a whole will not hire heroes if they already have 14 or more between them.
Expert Difficulty
AI is extremely cautious about moving heroes into danger.
AI searches for Grail as soon as it can identify the approximate location of the Puzzle Map.
Individual Computer Players will not hire heroes if they have five or more.
Computer players as a whole will not hire heroes if they already have 14 or more among them.
Impossible Difficulty
Individual Computer Players won't hire heroes is they already have six or more.
Computer Players as a whole will not hire Heroes if they have 20 or more among them.
We see that there is not much difference of AI between Hard and higher difficulties (if you play the campaigns, the grail is nothing; and the difference of numbers of hired heroes is not a big issue), besides, you get balanced resources, as you said.