AI magically creating family members?

[Jacque Schtrapp]

I am playing as Macedon which means that I have been at war with the Brutii for most of the game. I have thoroughly defeated them and driven them from the Italian peninsula. Their only remaining city is north of Patavium. Now I am focusing on fighting the Julii. To that end, I have sent a particularly skilled assassin to hassle the Brutii. They have one family member standing with half a stack outside the city and the FL and FH in the city with another half stack. I killed the family member outside the city and on the very next turn a new family member came out of the city and joined that army. I figured they must have had a son mature and had my assassin kill him as well. The next turn he was replaced again and I killed the replacement again. Twelve turns in a row a family member has appeared to replace the family member I have assassinated and been assassinated in turn only to be immediately replaced in turn. Is the computer cheating? I don't believe it is possible for sons to just happen to mature one after another for twelve straight turns! Especially since I killed the heir and TWO more sons appeared, one to become heir and one to take over the army outside the walls. This sucks!

Edited to add: I just went and checked on the next two family members to appear and neither were in the city (skilled spy says they weren't anyway) prior to the assassination and both new family members appeared at 20 years of age. The AI has to be cheating!

[Akka]

I've successfully eradicated at least two factions by killing all their family members, so it's definitely possible to do.

I suppose the family gets replacements in the form of "man of the hour" and adoption, which would explain why they suddendly appear with above-usual ages.
I don't know if it's really a cheat. If the player was also in a dreadly shortcoming of member, perhaps there would be much more adoption too. You should, seek if they don't have another city/army somewhere else with another family member that adopts everyone, though ^^

[Servius]

my experience has so far shown that the number of family members is determined by game situation and at least not entirely by random factors. For example, if you expand quickly, a whole slew of children will be born. Likewise, if you are stagnant, no children will be born.

If these heirs were all adopted I could understand because that makes logical sense. If these heirs are not adopted then yes, the computer is cheating. Unfortunately, the only way to tell would be to see the nme AI's family tree so you could see how many kids were about to come of age.

And while I kind of like the adoption mechanism when the situation is desperate, I really don't like it when you're doing fine because the AI only seems to provide you with enough males to govern your cities and does not provide you with a surplus number to command your armies.

The fertility of my family should be completely independent of game factors, save for the Fertile/Infertile v/v. The number of cities I own should have no affect whatsoever on how many kids are being born.

[Oaty]

Well playing as a Roman Quite often I get a chance for adoption after an honorable death. I think the game is programmed like this so when someone plays a Roman faction that they just ca'nt lose due to no family members. And my guess for the reason is everyone is technically suppose to play the Romans first. Plus historically the Romans just would not die at least not enough of them anyways

[Bhruic]

Actually, I think there is a bug in assassinations. I assassinated what I believe is the same family member 3 turns in a row. Each turn he "reappeared". I'm pretty sure it was the same guy because he had the plague, and the same stats. I didn't think to write down the name before I eliminated the stack, so am not completely positive, but it seems terribly unlikely they had 3 family members with the plague all waiting to join this stack.

Bh

[Nestor]

but it seems terribly unlikely they had 3 family members with the plague all waiting to join this stack.

They could be adopted Generals. If the first one had the plague, all of the new ones should have it: they get it the moment they appear in the plagued stack.

both new family members appeared at 20 years of age

Same thing: adopted Generals. They were captains and 20 years of age is the usual age of a captain.

Looks like a cheat in favour of the AI to me. If I remember correctly my adopted Generals appear in my capital with the exception of the "man of the hour". They couldn't be, they didn't do anything to deserve this, they just got killed

First time I saw this was after a senatorial task to assassinate an Egyptian General. He was reborn, or so I thought, every turn for the next 5-6 turns. I've already read about the steel-skinned Egyptians. If their Generals couldn't be killed... I was like "Ok, let's forget the eastern part of the Roman Empire. What's left on the west?"