Hmmm... surely a better idea would be to put small delaying/scouting forces in the province+the majority in the city? speculation, speculation, ho hum...

(2) Keep phalanxes in a line and march forward into combat - stop them veering off to make piecemeal unit to unit match ups.
can't overemphasise this. the way the A.I thinks about these guys needs to change...I can pull a.i phalanxes out of formation into a big amorphous blob in the centre of the field with skirmishers they try to chase, then charge in and finish them quickly...but they really should keep in blocks or they're dead and useless - even if it got to the point of the A.I going "these guys are in battle line, they're not deviating 'till they contact the enemy line/general, etc." of course the problem being how do you judge what the line will need to do once its been formed from constituent phalanxes, thtere we go...the whole idea of carefully controlled setups gets derailed by the over-detailed unit-unit matchups the AI does...