This question pop up a lot. Should I play against human players?

Been ages (literally) since I played skirmish against AI. But AI on expert should give you good reference point. They are good, but AI good. Predictable, sometimes rushy and spammy and as far as I recall an expert AI cheats (as in: it knows your units, etc) or at least that wa steh cas ein vCoH. However, unless you play chess - AI in games can never come close to human players.

AI is good for practicing the timing of your build order and learning to cap. As [Expert] AI will have progressive build order: T1, T2, T3 , T4 (infantry, support, light armor, heavy) and it will aggressively cap resources and it will rush VPs. It will use combined arms.

However, losing against expert AI doesn't mean you will be bad against humans. AI "sees everything" AI almost always retreat units before they are wiped out. Manages resources and units better so there is no "busy with engagement" moment. On same token, it is predictable and reacts poorly on unpredictable behavior.

Playing against AI will also give you indication of balance and how certain units hold against other units. Is puma good against infantry? Will a nade wipe of an MG? grenadiers in green cover and conscripts in yellow, who will win??

Saying that, do';t play against same faction. Balance is different and everything said above is nullified as you will play against different faction in ranked matches. Conscripts vs grenadiers is not the same as grenadier vs grenadiers, or grenadiers vs pios, etc.

Finally, as this question comes a lot, there is nothing wrong to start of playing against humans. Sure, you will lose. Lose a lot. But you will lose anyway. The important thing is to learn what you did wrong and what opponent did right after each loss.

Literally it is a game - you lose nothing by starting off against humans. As said you will lose and lose a lot, but important thing is to learn after each loss and not get disheartened