I can't say anything about Dom I (still haven't had time to try it out) but I can definitely second the AI's usage of scouts, spies, and assassins in Dom II.
I'm always swatting the little buggers, and I've had many assassins sent after me. In one particular game, I had pushed up to the gates of the enemy's home province, but the battered remains of my army couldn't beat the enemy pretender and his guards within the castle, so I was prowling around the bordering provinces, nailing them down and building some temples. The AI's economy was a wreck (it was endgame time) but it apparently had enough to fund an assassin every turn or two. They kept seeking out the commanders of my army, and the damage they did was enough that I finally had to pull back my most valuable commander (my prophet) to keep her from getting hurt any worse. (They'd already given her the Limp affliction.)
Once I had fallen for it (slapping forehead) and the prophet pulled back with her troops, the Pretender came out with his back-up men, crushed the other half of my already-weakened army, and then proceeded to reconquer quite a bit of what I had just taken.
I should have pulled everybody back; to stay in place just wasn't a good idea. Then we could have charged
en masse when the reinforcements arrived. As it was, the final toppling of the enemy was delayed quite a bit, and all by clever use of assassins.
Re: suggestion about commanders
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