[Mybe not a Major AI Flaw] AI NEVER EVER uses strategic spells!

I'm not at home so I can't post a screenshot, but in my current FE game, the AI definitely used a strategic spell on me.

As soon as I declared war on a nearby faction, I saw a spell animation above one of my cities.  However, my issue is that I couldn't tell what spell had been CAST.  There was no icon in the city description or on the overworld map indicating what enemy enchantment was cast on it.

In the end, by individually hovering over the different numbers in the town, I figured out that the enemy AI had cast the spell that give a penalty to Unrest (I forget the name).  When hovering over the Unrest in the city, you could see the negative modifier from the spell.

My issue is that:

1) There was no notification that the enemy had cursed my city on the right hand event bar.

2) There was no way that I could see from looking at the city that I'd have any way of knowing that it was cursed.

3) The only way that I knew the city was cursed was because my screen just happened to be near that city when I declared war and clicked the "Turn" button, at which point I saw the spell animation.

The Ai also frequently uses unit enchantments and city enchantments, all of which are strategic spells.

Earthquake spell is too strong and devastating. And while AI doesn't use it Human playercan use it frequently, which wipes AI to the grownd. Earthquake should be weaker, more expensive and available to AI.

I got a spell casted on me, a grip of winter or something like that. It froze my production queues, so it really fucked me for a while... Had to be quite careful with not losing a single unit in battles What I agree with is that the lack of any message telling you what spell was cast gets kind of annoying (it took me a while to realize that everything was frozen...).

Perhaps it has to do with difficulty levels?

I've definitely had antipathy cast on my city before. And, AI has no problem at all fully using city enchantments and unit enchantments.

The real issue is noticing when it casts strategic spells on you. 

If the AI started using direct-damage strategic spells like Vetrar's Howl, pillar of flame, falling star and Tornado, the "AI is too easy" complaints would become much more rare. Pretty sure they've NEVER used one of those on me, though of course it is possible I just didn't notice. 

The in-territory, damage-whole-army spells (or within 1 square radius even) - I've never had the AI use one of them on me.  And on Challenging, I can't remember the last time the AI used a city curse.  Not that there's much notice if they have though.

I have seen the AI use strategic spells on me, although I'd like to know what they are as I haven't memorized the animation.

*lol* ok, you got me on this one...

But it's really weird that I haven't had a single malicious spell cast on neither my troops nor my cities... Maybe due to the fact that I play on challenging?

I agree. More warning and pop-ups required when AI uses strategic spells against player.

AI uses to use tremor and freeze more , especially vs main stacks.

I  just nailed two major armies on the AI's own ground and sacked three cities in a row with no single malicious strat spell cast on my troops.

And that particular AI faction is quite powerful. So it ought to have enough spells and mana to lay waste on them... Very weird that...

I've noticed the same thing about the AI as far as the spells being cast on my troops in their territory.  It would certainly raise the stakes if the AI could utilize those spells. 

Similarly, I think it would be great if the AI could upgrade outposts strategically.  I often upgrade outposts because the offensive and defensive bonuses really help troop stacks in the area if it's of strategic significance.  However, as I noted in another post, it might be easier for the AI if the outpost upgrades were simply "buildings" in the regular city progression model that could be built in the city queue to affect all outposts connected to that city.  I'm not sure if the AI can actually interact with outposts once they are built.

Any chance the AI could be tweaked, Derek?

I've had grip of winter cast on me - and got a message to that effect

Seems to me tha AI usually doesn't have enough manna to do much, fortunatley for me

The main problem seems to be bad mana management from my experience. To fix this on higher difficulties the AI could get a mana multiplier and/or free/cheaper strategic spells. This would be much better then the current system where they get free traits on units.

Maybe ion higher diff levels in which the AI gets bonuses and cheats in other aspects anyway. But to REALLY FIX this, the AI has to be implemented in a way it actually manages it's ressources in sensible manner!

The AI does get a mana multiplier on Expert and higher. Right?

I'm not sure 'resource management' coding is the problem - on expert and higher, the AI can spend resources into negative (pretty sure I have seen an AI with negative mana before).

I suspect the AI just isn't coded to use direct-damage strategic spells. But with the improvements Stardock has been making with updates, who knows? This could change.  

Maybe. But it should have been so from scratch. Though I believe the others they had grip of winter or such cats on them. But I am yet to see something similar...

AI can cast city effect spells. Antipathy, grip of winter, etc. 

Maybe I am wrong, but I've never seen personally, or heard here of a witness to, the AI casting spells like: Pillar of flame, Vetrar's Howl, etc. (Spells that do damage. )

See, that's what I meant...