Attacking Unconnected Provinces

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by thejeff

That makes no sense at all. The AI, in this context, refers to AI played nations. It's true that independents and special monsters are implemented as nations, but that's pretty much just for the purpose of figuring out who fights who. They don't recruit troops, cast spells or attack other provinces.

Random events do happen to unconnected provinces, but that has nothing to do with whether AI nations will attack them. (Exception, some nations unlock random events that provinces with national troops. LA Ermor cultist attack comes to mind.)

Sorry I didnt notice this earlier.
Actually all 3 (indepts, Spec1, Spec2) are individual AIs. They can be turned on in a game using map and/or server commands. In particular Spec1 and Spec2 can be turned on as full computer players. I do it on the Chaos games on my server (chaos games are not recommended for new players). The result is abit of extra fun to have independent armies with a pretender and a prophet marching across the board. They all fly the white banner so its not as easy to tell when you are being marched on until it catches you by surprise. They also are automatically immune to certain long-distance attacks.
http://www.dom3minions.com/HostedGames.htm

[thejeff]

Yes, that's all true, but still irrelevant. I understand that all three are individual AIs, and could be made into AI nations, but normally they are not. (It's a neat idea and I can see how it could be fun to play with.)

In normal usage AI nation refers to the same nations that a human player could play but controlled by the computer, not to random attacks that are grouped together for convenience into things that could be nations but aren't.
So when someone asks, "will the AI attack unconnected provinces?", to reply as you did may be technically true, but it's at best misleading.

It's also misleading to say that random attack events sometimes reinforce independents. As far as I can tell, barring map or mod hacks, it's not sometimes but always. "Almost always" would have worked, as would "Always, with the following exceptions ..."
"Sometimes" is just wrong.