In my play tests I have found that an ISD and a Vic has potential.  If you can get the Vic nose to nose with the starhawk, it can’t get around the medium base and is stuck.  Then either the ISD or Onager test bed can fire gleefully at the starhawk.  
 
Onager and interdictor work well as well.  The interdictor can repair a lot of the damage the star hawk inflicts while it is nose to nose with the starhawk.

Rmcarrier1,
My experiences are very similar to yours.  I do not have anyone in my area who plays Armada, but I love the game, so I started to use @Crabbok AI system.
I found it a good starting place, but like you, made my own house rules.
I use a 12 sided dice to determine which card to use.  This has the same affect as your random number generator.
I use the AI cards for target priority, special rules, and move priority.  When it comes to command dials, it depends on the ship.  If I don't care, I use the AI card.  But if a ship is better always doing something, then I make a special rule for that ship.  For example, VSDs should use Navigate and Interdictors should mostly use Engineering.
The defense token use was an issue.  My AI ships committed suicide too easily.  So borrowed a method from DnD called Skill check.
Basically, I would roll for each appropriate Defense dial, except for Contain. My rule is that for Green defense dials, there should be a 50% chance of using it. Orange should have a 25% chance.  This allows for the effect of the AI "choosing" not to use a defense token like a human would.  For a 12 sided dice, a green token would be used for a roll greater than 6 and a Orange for a roll greater than 9.
Regarding Contain, I always invoke it when it can cancel a Critical result. (until it is gone.)
I do have an exception to this, which is my self preservation rule.  If the incoming damage is greater than half the remaining HULL points on the defending AI ship, then that ship  must use a defense token(s) to cancel the most dice.
This has created some interesting battles.  I mostly win, but there have been a few setup that were stacked against me that resulted in "me" loosing. 
I have found that certain ships need special rules to make sure card combos go off when they should and the ships behave more "intelligently".  But I try to keep that to a minimum.  
I also have not used this much with Rebel AI.  Imperial ships are more forgiving for bad AI "choices" and they are easier to handicap.
  

You mentioned in the video that it was difficult to see what the Munificent had in the rear firing arc.  The following screen grab from Fantasy Flights intro video shows 2 red die in the rear.
 

You mentioned in the video that it was difficult to see what the Munificent had in the rear firing arc.  The following screen grab from Fantasy Flights intro video shows 2 red die in the rear.
 

4 VSDs commanded by Thrawn - 15 command dials.