I use cheat engine (for infinite gold) when I start losing in Civilization games....
Fuck the AI! It cheats too much in the deity difficulty.... I am just making things fair.... Right?
Hahaha. I did the same in HoMM 3. Tons of cheats like reveal map, arch angels, unlimited movement etc.... I'm not losing.
And if anyone wants to see an AI that cheats, play HoMM. Each faction starts with some shitty structures. The randomizer makes every town/castle start with shitty ones, but can be slightly different. Some might have an extra building like a tavern or barracks. But nothing crazy.
In order to move up and summon more monsters, you have to build more structures. It takes gold, resources and mandatory chronological or requirements order to build summon buildings. You cant build a level 7 monster until you build enough structures to qualify and have the right resources. And it takes time as you can only build one structure per day.
I'd see the AI getting level 4 or 5 monsters early in the game when it should be impossible to get it that fast. So it shows the starting AI castles get boosted resources and more default structures in their base in order to artificially move up progression.
The game is supposed to have a fog of war, but the AI never loses travelling points exploring. It knows how to bee-line for stuff with efficiency as if it completely knows the maps already.
Another great AI cheat is portal travel. When you go through a portal, you arrive at the other portal door. In order to go back, a human gamer has to travel one spot off and then one spot back into the old portal door. The AI can backtrack through a portal instantly without needing to walk out and waste travel points or fight your army you purposely placed one step outside the new portal as an ambush.