An untried strategy ...

[whpsh]

Can anyone confirm or disprove that the AI does/does not improve their cities?

This question can be an important one if you employ slash and burn defensive or offensive tactics and I've never actually noticed that the AI had rebuilt anything I'd destroyed.

Hypothesis #1:
The AI economy, crushed under the cost of supporting its ridiculous starting troop levels, is always in the red.

Hypothesis #2:
The AI is required to man cities with a number of units equal to that of the human player in order to quell the same amount of unrest.

I plan on testing this by slipping a spy into a city to determine initial troop levels. Seige it. Destroy some structures and leave the city to be retaken.

If #1 holds true, then the status of the city can never improve from the state you leave it (until you come back for it).

If #1 holds true, until the player disposes of enough enemy troops to bring the AI economy back into the black, there won't be any more units (improved, re-enforced, whatever) than the AI starts with.

If #2 holds true, then the AI will be forced to use some/all of its initial overwhelming quantity of units to hold cities that are unhappy.

If #2 holds true and you sack +law/+happiness structures, would it be possible for the city to actually rebel against its current rulers because they can't house enough units in the city to quell unrest?

And regardless of who is currently in posession, would an AI home city that becomes a rebel state become the first priority, perhaps giving the player extra turns to prepare while the AI forces turn towards that city?

If you burn one of your own cities before the enemy seiges, could you create a mire that stops their advance as it focuses on quelling unrest in that city?

I'm just looking for ways to slow down the Lithuanian Zerg-rush. I've even thought about moving to that little Vilnus island and trying to rebuild from there.

[Kennylz]

Uh, I've conquered castles and cities in the high period of my enemies that were more advanced than my own, sometimes giving me access to buildings and units that I hadn't quite been able to reach yet, and I am constantly building.

So no, they build. I have no idea why you think they don't.

[spanish_emperor]

yeah sometimes they beat me in the arms race and i see guys way more advanced that i had thought to see in armies way later

[Theseus1234]

the AI gets a money script (money given freely per turn) so that they dont have to worry about wasting time on economics (i think...(

[The Vandal Returns]

afaik the money script is only if you play on very hard campaign difficulty. But they definately do build and can still somehow maintain a decent economy.

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

Can anyone confirm or disprove that the AI does/does not improve their cities?

The AI DOES improve its settlements. Especially the richer factions build those budget killing huge improvements (that's why conquering them pays off).

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I think the OP was more referring to the AI repairing damaged buildings. From what I noticed using spies/assassins is the AI recruits and builds before giving priority to repairing and finally retraining. If at the end-of-turn it has florins left over it will repair or retrain but it does not seem to queue them for some reason or another.

The AI gets money and other bonuses at all difficulty levels but much more so at the higher difficulties. (How else do they end up with 16 Mailed knights 8 turns into a game)

[skullman86]

I think the OP was more referring to the AI repairing damaged buildings. From what I noticed using spies/assassins is the AI recruits and builds before giving priority to repairing and finally retraining. If at the end-of-turn it has florins left over it will repair or retrain but it does not seem to queue them for some reason or another.

The AI gets money and other bonuses at all difficulty levels but much more so at the higher difficulties. (How else do they end up with 16 Mailed knights 8 turns into a game)

...Council of nobles maybe?

The AI does improve settlements over time but after sabotaging buildings I rarely see anything get repaired so I think you may be right.The settlements usually rebel before I see the Ai actually re-build anything though.

[Fishrudder]

It seems like they never upgrade, but I think they always are, except when they are at war. If they are at war I think they stop building. Once i has just entered the gunpowder era and I was at war with Egypt, they didn't upgrade in one of their cities, because they were at war, at least that's what I thikn...