I captured Tenochitlan last night and found that the AI had irrigated two squares in the vicinity. I don't see how the AI could have done this without cheating, there's no fresh water around and nobody is even close to getting electricity yet (it's about 400BC). Not that I'm complaining though, now I can irrigate my way back up to my heartland and finally get my population booming.

i saw the same thing

also while i layed seige to their captial i saw them produce 2 settlers with out their population drop....hmmmm

I was wondering about the same thing. I thought the AI is not supposed to cheat on Regent level!

It's probably a good idea to automate settlers when there are no rivers or lakes around. It seems automated settlers sometimes can irrigate squares not ajacent to a source of fresh water... same as in Civ2.

I may be wrong, but I think there is a small fresh water lake near that city. It is easy to overlook because it is close to the coast (only a small land strip separates it from the ocean).

You are quite right . . . there is a small lake one right next to Tenochtitlan. In fact, the way this map is, those little one square lakes are the only source of fresh water I've been able to find! A quick and easy way to determine if a square is a coastal square or a lake/pond square is to just right click on the square and check out the terrain info. Lake/pond squares produce 2 food and 2 trade, while coastal squares produce only 1 food and 2 trade. If the water square produces two food, it is a freshwater square.

So no cheating by the AI then. Glad to know about those little lakes, that'll be something to watch out for in future games where fresh water is scarce.