north american native behavior: varies by which faction the player is playing

[FactionHeir]

Similarly, it seems the AI pirate faction likes to attack the player at all costs as well.
In the madagascan straits the pirate AI would chase me all the way across that map to take out my 2 indiamen when there were so many dhows and indiamen from other factions (undefended) there.
I made it a point to have 1 indiaman arrive there each turn and lo and behold, the pirates never bothered to attack any other AI stacks there, always making a beeline for my ships until I got annoyed that I just proved my hypothesis and sent in the big guns.