ps wrote:
you're going up against guys in university departments dedicated to AI and computing, so don't get your hopes too high on getting a high rank
Have you seen even the current top of the leaderboards play? Even somebody who's good at AI in general would still overlook a lot of tactics and approaches everybody on this thread has learned long ago, playing WL themselves.
Being an AI wizard helps... but in no way guarantees a victory if you don't know the best strategy to teach your AI. The current competitors are not even completing bonuses when there's no opponent nearby and they already have enough armies to take it without needing a single deployment. There's ton of room for improvement; I'd say somebody with moderate programming skills and no AI knowledge, but with time and willingness to learn stands a decent chance at a high ranking.
Btw, I'm amazed at the competitors; out of the 30 or so people who listed their institute, about 20 are Dutch and/or are working in the Netherlands (ASML, Sioux Embedded Systems, Radboud University, TU Delft, Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen and Tweakers are all Dutch... not all of them are actually "Institutes" though :p ).