OK, to start off, I'm playing the game as it came in the box (v1.07, if I understand things right). So, some things may have been changed in the patches. Anyhoo, here are a few things I've discovered (by accident) to be allowed by the game, and have made use of, even though they are probably unintended side effects of the programming.
1) The game will roll for changes in the defender's seige value at the end of an assault, after any change in the attacker's value, and monthly afterwards. This includes pausing the game, initiating an assault, ending the assault, and then resuming the game. Even though it often won't have any effect, it will often enough that the city will fall inside two months (assuming you 'assault' about once per week), at no risk to the attacker. On a scale of 0-10 of cheats, I'd rate this a 2.
2) If you have two units in a province, one stationary and one moving, select both units, and hit 'merge', the game will merge the lower-ranking leader into the higher-ranking one, or if tied the smaller unit into the larger one. This means, since movement times do not get recalculated, you can split off your cannon, start the inf/cav moving, and later on merge the two units back together. Mind you, it doesn't *always* work (and I haven't figured out why yet), and sometimes I forget to merge them in time (setting me back a month on moving the cannon), but still.... I rate this a 3 or 4, certainly the highest of any cheat not involving altering the files.
I make use of these to compensate for the game 'cheating' against me, such as there being rivers on the map that don't affect movement, or not raising my army in England's morale at the begining of the month when it does everyone else's, or not adding numbers correctly, or attriting my English fleet despite my having maxed out Naval Tech, or handling things differently than they list in the instruction book that came with the game.
-Pat
1) The game will roll for changes in the defender's seige value at the end of an assault, after any change in the attacker's value, and monthly afterwards. This includes pausing the game, initiating an assault, ending the assault, and then resuming the game. Even though it often won't have any effect, it will often enough that the city will fall inside two months (assuming you 'assault' about once per week), at no risk to the attacker. On a scale of 0-10 of cheats, I'd rate this a 2.
2) If you have two units in a province, one stationary and one moving, select both units, and hit 'merge', the game will merge the lower-ranking leader into the higher-ranking one, or if tied the smaller unit into the larger one. This means, since movement times do not get recalculated, you can split off your cannon, start the inf/cav moving, and later on merge the two units back together. Mind you, it doesn't *always* work (and I haven't figured out why yet), and sometimes I forget to merge them in time (setting me back a month on moving the cannon), but still.... I rate this a 3 or 4, certainly the highest of any cheat not involving altering the files.
I make use of these to compensate for the game 'cheating' against me, such as there being rivers on the map that don't affect movement, or not raising my army in England's morale at the begining of the month when it does everyone else's, or not adding numbers correctly, or attriting my English fleet despite my having maxed out Naval Tech, or handling things differently than they list in the instruction book that came with the game.
-Pat
But honestly you do not need an excuse to cheat. 
