How to capture Paris from Belgium

[Servius]

Huh, so essentially, it's a mousetrap. The AI is so drawn to the center flag that it will drive for it first rather than wiping out your relatively puny force of defenders? If that's true, then I should just surround the hunk of cheese as you've suggested. I'd worry about running out of ammo, but as you say, I could include some cannons with shrapnel shot, as cannons have unlimited ammo.