Man is that ever the story of EBII in general, though.
For instance, there has to be some sort of script that tells the Carthaginian faction to put everything on the line and focus all efforts on retaking Sardinia if it loses it, because AI Carthage in the game honestly has a singular focus on that island. If it's still fighting the Numidians in North Africa it will continue to do so, but it shows no interest in retaking other lost territories like in Iberia, the Balearic Islands, Sicily, or elsewhere so long as Sardinia is out of its hands. The predictability of this makes it easy to concentrate my forces at Sardinia to repulse whatever army they try to land there. Meanwhile, I get to hack away at everything else!
I sometimes get the feeling that if Carthage was down to one settlement, Qarth-Hadast itself, with its last gasps and dying breaths it would build another naval fleet and land a half stack outside Nurri in Sardinia, just because!