Outmanouvering the enemy?

[Innocentius]

I was playing as the Swedish in Late, Normal. I had a very peaceful game untill the late 1340's when the Danes attacked Scania (but were quite easily beaten back). The next year, I invaded Denmark to rid me of my pestering neighbours, and they decided to fight (no wonder, as their only other province was Estonia, and they had only one ship, which was stationed in Skagerack).

Their army consisted of mainly royal knights (heirs) and two units och chivalric knights. They numbered about 300, and my army counted some 600 men (mostly heavy infantry). I decided to force their cavalry to attack my chiv-sergeants using my arbalesters or a bait, but I never even got to that part.
Their army was on slightly higher ground than my own, so in an attempt to get to level ground while at the same time flank them, I started moving my entire army up to their far left flank (my right). So far so good, but then the Danes simply withdrew from the battlefield. And the next year their entire army appeared in Estonia, even though they couldn't have got there!
Perhaps I failed to notice something with their fleet, but is the AI really clever enough to abandon the battlefield when facing a total out-flanking? Manouvering on the battlefield is common (sometimes I have to maouver against my enemies more than half of the battle), but I've never seen an enemy simply run away like that.

[Geezer57]

It doesn't happen all that often, but I've seen the AI do pretty much what you described on several occasions. They often stay to see how you deploy, but if there seems to be no good way to attack you advantageously, they'll leave the field of battle.
In your case, there must have been a sea link to their last province, which allowed a successful withdrawal.

[caravel]

It doesn't happen all that often, but I've seen the AI do pretty much what you described on several occasions. They often stay to see how you deploy, but if there seems to be no good way to attack you advantageously, they'll leave the field of battle.
In your case, there must have been a sea link to their last province, which allowed a successful withdrawal.

I see that all the time. You notice it more in woods an on hilly terrain. The AI doesn't get a good look at your entire army, until you're getting close to them so they manouver, deploy, redeploy, and then when they get a clear line of sight on your entire force, they withdraw.

[Peasant Phill]

The withdrawal happens frequently enough and is logical IMO. But the other part, where the AI king moves to another nonbordering province without a shipline, is a bug. It does sometimes happen while the player himself is unable to do this. This really sucks when you want to collect ransom or kill the king. I think it only occurs when the king and all his heirs are in the same army on an isolated province (with at least 1 other province owned) and the AI doesn't want to fight. Because the AI doesn't want his king to be stuck in a siege (like it normaly tries to avoid) it will withdraw his king and his army to another province. It can apparently cheat in this way.

[naut]

I see that all the time. You notice it more in woods an on hilly terrain. The AI doesn't get a good look at your entire army, until you're getting close to them so they manouver, deploy, redeploy, and then when they get a clear line of sight on your entire force, they withdraw.

I like this feature, makes the AI seem smart.