Just what rules do the AI play by?

[Smeghead]

See, as I haven't been playing this game for very long, I don't know all the details.
I found it strange that none of the AI's ever seemed to run out of money, and could happily mobelise the entire kingdome (no vassals) and have them walk around, and yet never run out of money. So I did a test
I started a game as germany; made a grand mobilisation and sent all troops across the sea and ended up with a budget of -15000. I saved and then reloaded as another nation, and had a look at Germany, and lo and behold the -15000 turned to 0 instantly.

So the AI can't go below 0? How fair is that?

are there any more things like this I should be aware of?

 

[Count Lake]

Here's the skinny on the A.I. debt rules.

Simply put the A.I. in the game is not able to handle debt and the strong penalties that would eventually come from being chronically short on cash. The human player would have a massive advantage as any sizeable kingdom fell apart into rebellion and all of the improvments in the a.i. provinces were sold off to creditors.

This is certainly high on the list of things to rework in CK2 but until then we are stuck with this crutch for the a.i.

 

[TempestDK]

See, as I haven't been playing this game for very long, I don't know all the details.
I found it strange that none of the AI's ever seemed to run out of money, and could happily mobelise the entire kingdome (no vassals) and have them walk around, and yet never run out of money. So I did a test
I started a game as germany; made a grand mobilisation and sent all troops across the sea and ended up with a budget of -15000. I saved and then reloaded as another nation, and had a look at Germany, and lo and behold the -15000 turned to 0 instantly.

So the AI can't go below 0? How fair is that?

are there any more things like this I should be aware of?

It is unfair in the sense that it is a cheat ... but very fair for the gameplay, as you would have it too easy if it didn't cheat. Basically in 1200 you would have at least small castles and mines in all your provinces, while even the largest AI nation would have nothing but hill forts and, if lucky, maybe a forestry.

All AI lands would be riddled with Thieves' Guilds, Smugglers Rings and worse.

You would meet the mighty german army of around 7000 troops.

AI is horrible at keeping it's finances together, so we have to live with this until CK2

 

[KonradRichtmark]

Well, the upside is, your vassals can't go into debt either