Quote Originally Posted by Quillan
Tell me about it. I wouldn't mind the AI doing some unpredictable things, but I'd like some design in it. For example, first it decides who to war against. That might be an unpredictable target. Once it's chosen the target, then do a military comparison. Don't have what they need to gain the upper hand? Well, before attacking, build up scads of troops. Then, muster those troops together. Only when they have 2-3 armies gathered should they attack. If they're coming by sea, they should come in force, not these little random drive-by blockades and weak invasions. I had Spain drop a single pavise crossbow unit on Corsica earlier. It didn't even siege (not suprising as I had a 16 unit garrison of militia there in that huge city), but it doesn't take much either for me to take a unit of cav militia and go run them down. It lost a unit and a 3 ship fleet for nothing.
Those random, really weak attacks are actually raids. There is this "raid" setting in the AI file that causes it to send tiny armies just to irritate you if it is too weak to mount a proper invasion. Check your alliances; you may be in a group that is opposed to the raiding faction, hence it is searching for an opportunity to aid its fellows against you. With the post-patch tweak that makes the AI consider itself adjacent to any of your coastal provinces, it is no wonder that you get random morons sailing halfway across the world just to land raiding parties at your doorstep. I think even a 1-turn siege of any settlement cuts off trade for that turn, so they are achieving something even if the very garrison they are besieging sallies forth next turn and obliterates them.