Two words, Merc regiment.
AEF do use mercs yes. Mainly because it's fun for me to get a bunch of diffrent people together I don't normally play with and fight regiemnts. If you ever think the AEF by itself is bad then look at TNWL where we lost to the 32e 4-6 when they have lost to the 1er 6-4 and beat the 58e and 45e as with about the same scores.
I'm not saying your regiment is bad, but your argument is terrible. You can't base the skill of your regiment off of how close you lost to a regiment that lost to other regiments lol. What have your own scores been (without mercs) against 1er, 71st, 45e, 58e. For the most part I'm guessing the average is 2-8.