[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Arralen:
Build castle IF money=1.2*(castle cost)
will take care of this very well, but only testing in a "real life" will show. Any takers?

I think the underlying problem is that the AI never has any money because it has blown all of its cash hiring garbage. Your troop hiring formulas might improve that, although it still wouldn't stop the AI from squandering most of its money on troops it wastes in futile attacks. For instance, human players tend to win attacks on provinces, unless the attack is anticipated by the defender: In contrast, the AI will often lose attacks even when you did not specifically anticipate it.