People who've been playing strategy games for any length of time know that the game's AI is usually given various hidden and not-so-hidden economic, civic, and military bonuses, to make up for the AI's weaknesses and provide players with more of a challenge. This is standard stuff, and not criticism per se.

Around turn 88 of my first Dwarfs campaign, there was one remaining Greenskins settlement on the map; it was the only settlement owned by that faction. I still have my last few saved games from that campaign, so here's a shot of the settlement:

Spoiler for Campaign map: 


Within just a handful of turns, the Greenskins managed to recruit and reconstitute almost two full doomstacks from that single settlement, and also have a complete WAAAAGH!! army:


Spoiler for Greenskins settlement: 


Now, obviously these are cheap Greenskin units, but I have to wonder how they can afford the upkeep for over 1.5 doomstacks with a single settlement without going massively bankrupt very quickly, cheap Greenskin upkeep or no. What really made me suspicious though was the WAAAAGH!! army. The Top Knotz nearby are their allies, so they haven't been fighting them; I'm the only other faction around, and they certainly haven't defeated my Dwarfs, so... where did that WAAAAGH!! come from?

I'm posting because I'm finding it quite difficult to predict what my AI opponents are actually capable of based on their settlements, buildings, heroes and so on. I know the AI has to be allowed to "cheat" in order to provide a challenge, but intelligence-gathering is important, so I'd like to get an idea of how much they cheat and in what circumstances. So, I'm wondering what other players know about AI cheating and how they adapt to it.

P.S.: I'm not entirely new to TW, by the way. You might be thinking I "joined for Warhammer" (I lurk a lot and have seen the comments), but I bought Shogun 2 on sale in 2013, and not long after bought Medieval 2 and Kingdoms. I haven't played TW in a couple years, though.

Spoiler for PROOF!!: