I don't seem to have too much trouble with the hards. This may be a really difficult question to answer though. I'll give you some tips. I'm sure you're already doing many of these things, but bear with me.

1. Buy potions. They're cheap and effective. Going back to the Crystal to heal often will make the enemy higher level because they'll be in combat longer.

2. Buy scrolls of teleportation on larger maps. They're cheap and they can save you tons of time. You want to remain near the battle as much as possible.

3. Don't take too many risks early on. You still get experience if any enemy (DG or grunts) dies NEAR you. I.E. you don't actually have to kill them yourself in order to get experience. So for the first few levels you may just want to run in battle to pick off one or two then step back. On the other hand...if there are no enemy DG's around, then go ahead and kill as many as possible. The goal is to not get so hurt early on that you have to leave battle to heal.

4. Besides potions, buy at least one item that gives you +hit points per second. It's a good cheap way to avoid going to the Crystal to heal often.

5. Capture logs of flags. Not only do they give nice bonuses, they also increase your war score. This is important because it determines what upgrades you can buy at your Citadel.

6. Some good early Citadel upgrades are Priests and increasing gold mine income.

7. If the enemy is really pushing you back toward your towers then upgrade the towers's damage. If you can keep the fight near your towers you have a big advantage. You'll get some experience for whatever the towers kill AND if an enemy DG attacks you, he will likely be attacked by your towers.

8. Sometimes it's ok to solo. The experience you get from any kill (DG or grunt) is divided by everyone that is in the immediate vacinity. So if you are the only DG around, you get ALL of the experience.

9. On the other hand, it is sometimes good to go with your fellow teammates so you can get some early kills. Early kills are important because it will give you the edge in levels early on. This makes it easier to get mid game kills and that makes it easier to get late game kills. My point is...the early game is IMPORTANT.

10. Oak is a general so don't forget to buy idols. These will let him summon minions. I don't beleive he can summon any minions without these.

11. Oak doesn't have a lot of ways of stopping the enemy from getting away if they should choose to run from you. There are certain items that can help him with this problem. Boots of speed are a good early game item. But make sure you keep an eye on all of the normal AND artifact items throughout the game.

12. If you find that your grunts are always outnumbered by enemy grunts...go to the Citadel and buy more waves. They're expensive, but worth it.

13. The most important flags to capture are the flags that control portalts. Many maps have these not only in your base...but also in the middle. The team that controls that gets a lot of extra reinforcements.

14. When you get to the mid game you can run around the battle to get to the enemy's rear flags (not the ones in their base though). It's a great idea to capture these (even if they capture them right back). It will increase your war score and make it so enemy DG's have to leave battle to recapture them.

15. If you are getting beat in it IS possible to use a scroll of teleportation in battle to get the heck out of these. You need to practice it a few times though, because the timing can be tricky.

16. Combat potions can also be used in combat (hence the name). However in the later part of the game they don't heal much...so try the other two levels of potions. The larger ones at the normal shop can heal a lot but they have a long cast time. And a lot of people miss the fact that there is an even larger potion at the artifact shop.

17. Always try to pick on lone enemy DG's. Two-on-one is three times easier than one-on-one (funky math...but it's true)

18. Area spells and items that have area damage are great because you can get large number of grunt kills in a single swing. This nets you a lot more experience and gold. Also, for Oak, this means he can heal his ally's.

19. If you pick Oak's Last Stand ability (I think that's what it's called)...once he dies he will go on something of a rampage for 10 seconds before is actual death. During this time do NOT run away. Since you are going to die anyways, try to get the last hit on the enemy that killed you. Running away is totally pointless when he is in this state.

I'm sure there's lots more. But this is all I can think of for now. I hope this helps.

^^^ Another note on the flags is at lower levels they give you buttloads of XP.

I think I was incorrect in my advice on idols if you're going to be Oak. If you're using Deathward you'll probably reach the max minions so idols may not be worth it. It all depends on which build you go for.

Offtpoic... but, fortresses spawn when your citidel upgrades to a certain level, dont' know what level it is offhand though.

handy, but i hope they put in a more equal hard difficulty the jump between normal and hard is substantial in my book.

I generally buy level 2 archer idol, avoid buying the melee one till the end as they really aren't that worth it compared to priests and range. Prioritize getting better equipment first though, except for getting archers as they can outrange towers right off the bat and helps taking them down long before most other demi-gods can. I idsagree with avoiding getting shield even if it's 1v1. The use I find for it is when you chase them behind their towers, it can literally be the difference between suicide and getting away. If you are dieing though consider last stand although personally I never find a use for it. Oak played right is exactly like his character description, he's an iron wall that never dies.

Keep the flags as it makes the computer predictable espcially on cataract they ALWAYS go for the experience one as should you, with their bonus' you simply cannot afford them to hold it for very long. If you want to see good shield usage I suggest playing a nightmare oak. Even though erebus can hit like a beast oak would constantly block bat swarm / bite with a well timed shield. Personally only find computer hard if i'm playing QoT or just plain boring if I play rook.

Really wish there was a way to view replays as the easiest way to show tips on computer ai would be with a replay.

I highly disagree due to how useful archers are at taking out towers. Espcially if you leave them alone then go to the other side of the map. If they kill them you just summon them again and start to attack towers near you again. They're like moble mini regulus'.

I frappsed a game vs hard ai realy quick but it saved it in weird increments. (one is 5 mins another 6 another 7 then 1)

Yes I mean shield as the skill, the only equipment shield I can think of is the artifact one anyways. For citadel upgrades I generally only do the level 1 tower regen as it counters most of the damage regular troops are going to do. Rest I only do as a reaction. (say they just upgraded their priests, i'll do the same.) Back to skills try to use shield more defensively. ie you have enough time to get it off before rook's hammer slam hits even if he boulders you first. (unless it's point blank max rank) Or using it when an erebus is at half health so he can't hurt you with bite. (he'll still get the health though D:)

The shield is only really useful for you in the early game. As like the rook, oak's health and his armour start to get pretty high near the end. For the favor item I tend to prefer using the staff of the warmage, (700 mana +15 weapon damage) oak does need speed boots but really penitance slows them down and it's a short cooldown and like i've said mainly you just need to be a wall. I've had an online match where the lane I was in the demi-gods avoided because it would either take too long to kill me or they'd try and fail. If you're facing other generals though consider getting the parasite egg, I can't stress enough hiow amazing that and anything that gives oak cleave are with him.

For tactics against another demi if they're getting low try to save penitence for an interrupt as it's not expected or simply so you can snipe them when they think they're save. The only demi I avoid fighting is sedna believe it or not, but a sedna that uses yeti's + well timed heals.... well the fight will go on a long time and it's better to gang up with SoF and penitance.