[Edratman]

I've seen indies have artifacts quite a few times. It might be because I always set idies to 9, maybe not.

I hae noticed that the indies that pop up and take one your provinces almost always have at least one item, unless they are barbarians. A couple nights ago I watched the battle when I lost a province to pop-up indies and there were 5 or 6 artifacts between 2 indie commanders. I haven't had a chance to take it back so I don't know if they are all right now. (The strength message I get says there are fewer troops there now than there were during the battle.)