is the AI cheating

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by theenemy

So, that MEANS that the AI is cheating or what? Because, I don't see any other reason here.
In one SP game, I set up all the players(except myself) with ALL NEGATIVE SCALES, sucky dominion and sucky pretender. Then I switched to AI players in-game. Well guess what, the AI recruited HORDES of cheap troops each turn while I struggled to keep my small armies from starving. Keep in mind though, that when u switch from human player to AI, it goes to normal. Not hard, not super-hard, not super-duper-yippie-kiyay hard, just NORMAL. As far as I know, the AI doesn't get any bonuses on NORMAL difficulty level.
Another thing that makes the AI harder is that all the "ultra-mega-uber-kill-everything-in-site-spells" aren't available until the higher mag. lvl's. And if you turn the magic research to easy in options, the AI only get's tougher for some reason unknown to me. So, if I turn down the mag. research... the AI b****slaps me to hell, if I don't turn down the mag research... well, the AI b****slaps me to hell too.
I usually don't get easily frustrated with games. I play because it's fun, not because I wan't to win. But getting raped by the AI again and again and again is starting to feel kinda old now. Every time I see the banners of my AI enemies in a SP game, it already feels like I'm about to loose.

END OF RANT

But perhaps it is only my poor troop placement skill. I have trouble deciding what kind of troop is better placed where.

Oh, and isn't unrest 100 or over = not able to recruit troops?

They really should include SP diplomacy in this game. Would make things SOOOO much easier.

No, the AI on normal gets no bonus to gold or anything else. It can cheat in the sense that it can micro more than a human ever could, but on normal you really, /really/ shouldn't be having so much trouble.

I suggest you detail exactly what pretender, magic, scales and nation you're using and what you're doing in the first 10 or so turns. Because the only explanation is that you're making a series of fairly major errors, or you're fighting like 4 AIs at once.