The ability of AI units to explore freely and establish settlements without being attacked allows them to make an early land grab and recruit heroes in hard to reach spots whilst the human player is still trying to get going, harassed by the local wildlife.  Having now played the Tarth I was able to enjoy the same freedom.  Spamming pioneers out into the wildness I could grab most of the settlement spots early on and not worry about them being attacked, letting me shut down the AI's expansion and score  (I play on normal diff, 2 AI opponents, small map).  I even sent pioneers deep into AI lands to  build outposts next to strong/deadly mobs just to activate them so that they would run riot across the AI's resources and towns to damage them in the early game.  Payback is a bitch.

My point is that this master scout ability for AI units appears to be a crutch that causes ill feeling among players struggling to deal with the environment. Will this fudge continue in the next beta or will we have to wait until the AI is to taught to deal with the wildlife rather than get a free pass to ignore it?