Quote Originally Posted by Ksifos View Post
In my latest campaign with Casse, I used spies extensively so that roman conquered cities in 'Barbarorum' were harder to pacify.Remember spies get levels too.When one gets the 'guild' trait he becomes very powerful in that city and causes BIG problems.I already had two roman cities in Gaul, revolting in favor of Aedui because of my activity :-)

In early stages of the war against Sweboz I used assasins to damage their level 4 MIC each round.That way the sweboz couldnt recruit top units.

Also maybe the AI gets bonuses but he certainly comes to a point where he can not deal with the huge army upkeep he creates.I think these are moments that they AI freezes.So it is beneficial to blockade ports or besiege towns just just for the economical damage.In fact most of the times, I do not blockade ports deliberately so as the AI keeps fighting on. ;-)

All in all, economic warfare is there and in a balanced conflict can certainly give you a valuable advantage.
That's true; it is possible to damage MICs to shut down recruitment for that turn. But, as formalhaut astutely observed, the same crippling upkeep activates the script, allowing the AI to take on more upkeep burdens. Blockading ports certainly does do damage; but the money script makes it irrelevant. In fact, blockading a port could theoretically generate a windfall for the blockaded faction by causing their treasury to fall below zero, triggering a massive cash bonus.