Disabling free AI troops

[Theory]

I'm playing a Hard campaign (RTW 1.5) and factions I'm about to destroy keep spawning hundreds upon hundreds of troops in their last two or three cities.

I've blockaded their ports, infiltrated their cities and sabotaged all of their training facilities, but when I hit end turn the city banners nevertheless leap up until they're nearly or entirely full. It's not even mercenary troops that appear!

Is there any way to play on Hard without the AI cheating so obviously? I don't want to go back to Normal difficulty because it isn't challenging enough.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Welcome aboard Theory
That is rather odd I must confess. The AI do get extra money per turn on harder difficulty levels, but I've never heard of them being able to go into "super recruit" mode if they want to. A simple explanation may be that they are re-training existing troops or bribing surrounding forces, but that would not explain why new troop types are appearing.

Sorry I can't be of much use

[Quirinus]

Perhaps you could go up a difficulty to VH-- it sounds counter-intuitive, but I've heard that VH is actually easier than H.

[Theory]

I'll give that a go next time. For now I'm using the auto_win cheat to defeat the spawning armies, though it's a bit of a judgement call to decide what they trained legitimately and what they didn't...