Quote Originally Posted by Hybr1d View Post
That's stupid, why is it like that? The AI should start as the player does and have to manage their financses.
If you take away the bonuses the A.I. will be continually bankrupt. To increase realism, the EB team made building projects more expensive and seriously increased the costs of maintaining armies. However, the A.I. does not take upkeep into account: in fact, it seems more interested in recruiting units than stabilising the economy or improving their cities. Unfortunately, this behaviour cannot be modded: it's hidden somewhere in the .exe file. Hence the team has to help the A.I. by giving them money bonuses (these are not flat amounts by the way, but depend on the number of cities the A.I. owns and its financial status).

I don't know if these will be present in EB2. The M2:TW A.I. is smarter, so I hope less aid will be needed. But it's still no match for a human.