How often do you guys use cheats?

[Randal]

I think the current system makes sense.

History shows that time and time again kings were desperately short of money. In the middle ages they had to borrow left and right and grant privileges to the cities to pay for their wars and building projects. In early modern times the kingdom of Spain went bankrupt... I don't know how many times, but a lot. In antiquity it happened that city-states or the Roman republic had to borrow money from the temples. In medieval times they borrowed from the church and monasteries.

It makes perfect sense to me that if you run a country and want a barracks constructed that it will take some months to raise the money, especially if your kingdom is a poor one. And if you're running a deficit because you have a large army and it's the start of the game... well, then you're obviously too preoccupied with trying to feed that huge army to be able to afford any grand new building projects.

[Suraknar]

If only we had a time machine we could confirm our views. Since we do not, we both have to enjoy the game our own way. It is why its a "cheats thread" after all. :)

[A_Dane]

I use toggle_fow to see how the world is evolving. Before i do it however, i march my armies to exhaustion, and map out where they'll go next.
If there's an enemy army, it's just too bad for me.

I use auto-win if i crash after winning a long exhausting battle, that i don't feel like doing over.

other than that, i occasionally transport AI characters/armies to somewhere else, if it's being ridicolous.

(in my hayasdan campaign, i was fighting the seleucids and Ptollies, sharing only borders with those 2, samartia and Pontos. Out of nowhere, a parthian army appears and besiege one of my cities. Now parthia is fighting for it's life vs the Seleucids, i got the place heavily defended, and an army nearby. Makes no sense, for them to start up a new front, with a nation they share no border with AND is helping them fighting the nation trying to exterminate them)

[Biowulf]

That's the AI for ya. It just went and attacked you.

OT, the only thing I have is FOW off all the time using the game files. Otherwise if I crash or run out of money I have to work at getting back on track the hard way. My RTW console doesn't work. The M2TW console on the other hand works perfectly, so go figure.

[QuintusSertorius]

I cheat all the time, usually to make the game more interesting, rather than my own benefit. I play for my own entertainment, not "challenge", and I play nice and slow (none of this "beat the game in 100 turns" nonsense). Since I like playing one faction as though it were another of my choice (Epeiros as Pergamon), I have to cheat at the start to set myself up with one province and get rid of the old holdings of the previous faction. That involves teleporting armies and judicious use of an auto_win, as well as create_unit to make my new starting army.

After that I often use create_unit to make proper stacks of attacking enemies and add_money to boost AI factions who are lagging.

[Brennus]

I often use toggle_fow to see how everyone is doing on the map and add_money to keep the Seleucids in play for longer (unless I am the Seleucids or opposing them) I just think its innacurate to have a Ptolemaic empire stretching to Armenia or a Bactrian empire which reaches Anatolia.

I will confess to having used the move characted cheat the other week. I was playing as Carthage and the Ptolemies attacked me I will admit I couldn't have beaten the army they sent against me but my motivation instead was to preserve historical accuracy. As far as I am aware Carthage and Ptolemaic Egypt never fought each other. It also made little sense to me to be at war with Egypt as at the time they were struggling to keep the Seleucids out of the Nile Valley, the only reason they attacked was the games AI kicking in once my empire had passed a certain size and level of power.

[vartan]

It also made little sense to me to be at war with Egypt as at the time they were struggling to keep the Seleucids out of the Nile Valley, the only reason they attacked was the games AI kicking in once my empire had passed a certain size and level of power.

Are you sure it wasn't over Kyrene? Because that's part of the little Egypt-Carthage script pop-up event in EB.