Can the AI actually go bankrupt?

Well, as the topic says, can the AI controlled nations actually go bankrupt? And if so, what negative impact does this have? Should I even bother blockading their trade?
The reason I ask this, is because on numerous occasions, I reduce an enemy nation to a single, one building province, with no income and no trade. Yet, they still somehow manage to keep five armies of elite veterans trodding about, dealing hell to everyone in their path. Is money even something the AI takes into consideration? Or is it just a pain for the players?

It depends on the difficulty. Even a one province AI can manage a stack and a half usually. Its very hard but i believe they can. Even if you do, the effects are gradual. They get increased unhappiness and their units will slowly be disbanded. On hard i conquered all of mainland spain as the british leaving them with the Balearic islands. When i finally came down on them, they had 3 full stacks on the islands (mostly militia). That was an interesting battle....

I'm not sure about total bankruptcy, but most AI controlled regions always seem to have decreasing region wealth, which can cause problems in the long run. They don't seem to know how to MAKE money, but only know how to spend it

It is possible, at least it was in ETW.. in my last game i blocaded all British ports which made them go bankrupt so they were unable to repair them for some time... I was playing as France and they send army to Canada to occupy it.. fun part was, when they didnt had money, lots of soldiers deserted, so i only met half strength units...

I agree with JaM it's certainly possible in ETW, but the only way to tell is that you suddenly notice that their army and naval flags become tattered as their troops and ships desert. I would have thought it should be possible in NTW, although as trade plays a smaller role in most campaigns its probably harder to achieve.

I was playing just the other day and spying inside an enemy city... I was trying to incite a rebellion, so I was checking on the city stats... they did have a flashing bankrupt symbol. Whether or not they were handed 10k that turn to spend by the computer is unbeknownst to me.

If you know the glitch where the Great Britain AI won't disband naval units to save money on upkeep, you can destroy their ports so they have no trade, and then they end up rebelling and become a republic. They're bankrupt for life because the AI won't disband their navy and they don't have the money to repair ports. Their army and navy both gradually disband.

Yes, you can monitor it if you know how and they certainly do.

Yep, the Brits go bankrupt repeatedly in every single one of my campaigns. Usually Nelson's fleet is busy blockading the Dutch port while several French fleets cut off any and all British trade, with predictable results for the British economy.

That is why in my mod i have reduced the priority for attacking enemy port below the desire to protect own ports... AI now protect itself and only attacks if it has free capacity for it... it makes AI harder opponent..

Yes that was a stupid thing to see in my campaign as well ... I was fighting Purssia as England after they attacked my protectorate. I reduced them to a single tiny region with a theater and a supply post ... their total per-turn income (according to my spy) was $1039. so then my question to CA would be? How the Heck can they afford 3 full stack armies, 2 of which are militia, and 1 of which is heavy cav, artillery, line infantry and 4 foot guards?!!!!!! Those armies cost well over $9000 per turn in upkeep alone!!!

It seems to me that the only one concerned about money is the human player while AI players are not restricted by money, which is Bull-droppings!!

Originally Posted by DinoMight

Yes that was a stupid thing to see in my campaign as well ... I was fighting Purssia as England after they attacked my protectorate. I reduced them to a single tiny region with a theater and a supply post ... their total per-turn income (according to my spy) was $1039. so then my question to CA would be? How the Heck can they afford 3 full stack armies, 2 of which are militia, and 1 of which is heavy cav, artillery, line infantry and 4 foot guards?!!!!!! Those armies cost well over $9000 per turn in upkeep alone!!!

It seems to me that the only one concerned about money is the human player while AI players are not restricted by money, which is Bull-droppings!!

They can't afford that many soldiers. I'm fairly sure that they're unable to replace them once they're dead; they're broke but the AI doesn't disband units.

Originally Posted by J.Philp

They can't afford that many soldiers. I'm fairly sure that they're unable to replace them once they're dead; they're broke but the AI doesn't disband units.

So, basically the AI can afford to go bankrupt without suffering any penalties. Although I'm pretty sure it does in ETW, I've seen both France and Spain suffer army attrition as a result of my blockades.

Yes, the AI can go bankrupt. In fact playing as Spain usually making a good navy (with Santissima Trinidad) and blocking a pair on English ports does the trick. Furthermore, a couple of times they had a revolution and changed to a republic.

Here we see me blockading Chatham Docks whilst the British are going bankrupt. -15 happiness isn't very good but -576 Town Wealth is downright sickening! I'd have a revolt too.

And yet so far at least the British Army seems to be intact. Their fleet in Chatham looks a little the worse for wear, but that may have been done by your fleet.

Good point! I just snapped the shot after recalling this thread, but I wasn't paying too much attention to this neck of the woods so I wasn't investigating as best I could to see how long they had been in it. So much so that I didn't even see that the fleet at the Docks was not an army. With those stars I just presumed it was Wellington in there. Nope it was Nelson with a stack 2x the size of mine, whoops. That damage of theirs wasn't from me (yet).

I actually never play naval battles as my rig couldn't handle them, and you need a fleet 2x the size of Nelson's to beat him in autoresolve. New gfx card, so I decided to try to see what it looked like and figured I'd fight the battle. it was tons of fun, looked and played great and I routed the entire fleet, killed Nelson, captured 2 ships o' the line, and managed to keep Villewhatshisname alive!

Originally Posted by J.Philp
They can't afford that many soldiers. I'm fairly sure that they're unable to replace them once they're dead; they're broke but the AI doesn't disband units.

thats because in CAI files they have very low priority set to disband excess units...

i've seen britain becoming a republic cause of a rebbelion caused by bankrupcy on vh, on the other hando i've seen nearly all of the small nations fielding two and a half full stack armies just with their tax income

It is because of "nice" economy feature in ETW where if you have more provinces, your income is lower than with small number of provinces.. for example with Prussians its not problem to get 10000+ per turn early on, while Britain with its American possessions, would have huge problem to maintain it and huge army to keep it... so sometimes because of this wicked logic, if you loose the province, its better for you financially.. and nothing is better for your finance than loosing an army... quite strange results...