Well, the reason Firaxis changed some of those values was to keep the AI from building obsolete units. For example (under 1.17): If an AI civ needs units to attack a civ, is in early industrial (has researched nationalism), and doesn't have access to horses, it will build LONGBOWMEN because it has been told that is it's best offensive unit. This is why every so often you'd see the AI using masses of longbowmen late in the game - that was it's best offensive unit (so it thought). With riflemen set to offensive it will NEVER build longbowmen after it researches nationalism.
Killer, I would bet that in the instance you're talking about, that civ didn't have access to horses. If, in that case, riflemen had not been marked as offensive units, you would have seen the AI throw a stack of 20-50 longbowmen at your city (which would have been just as effective, but looked a little silly - also if the city had been take the AI wouldn't have held it with longbowmen).
For a civ with access to all the resources it needs, these additional AI strategies just mean that an AI will bring more defensive units along during the attack, which is a good thing (they need to hold territory just as much as they need to take it). For civs lacking crucial resources this change will leave them much more able to defend themselves, and also slightly better at waging an offensive war. Unfortunately in certain cases it means that the AI will build only defensive units which may look a little silly, but realize that it the best army it can put together given the resources.
Killer, I would bet that in the instance you're talking about, that civ didn't have access to horses. If, in that case, riflemen had not been marked as offensive units, you would have seen the AI throw a stack of 20-50 longbowmen at your city (which would have been just as effective, but looked a little silly - also if the city had been take the AI wouldn't have held it with longbowmen).
For a civ with access to all the resources it needs, these additional AI strategies just mean that an AI will bring more defensive units along during the attack, which is a good thing (they need to hold territory just as much as they need to take it). For civs lacking crucial resources this change will leave them much more able to defend themselves, and also slightly better at waging an offensive war. Unfortunately in certain cases it means that the AI will build only defensive units which may look a little silly, but realize that it the best army it can put together given the resources.
