AI worker/worker capture counterattack logic

[Bibor]

So here's my question, does anyone know when is it "safe" to capture settlers and workers without the AI immediately retaliating?

Here are my observations from obsessively watching AZ's videos and my own experiences:

1. If an AI city has a garrison of 2 archers or less, it won't retailate with the garrison after a worker capture.
2. If you capture a guarded settler by killing the escorting archer, the other escorting archer will freeze for 1 turn and won't attack or move.
3. If you see a settler with escort and DOW, the settler will try to move back to the city of origin, but the escorts will freeze for 1 turn (opening up a possibility of sniping the settler with a 2-move unit).

Am I wrong? Are there other (exploitable) examples?

 

[Gumbolt]

Sounds about right. AI are normally blind to T1 of worker stealing on turn you declare.
If a settler is being escorted the settler normally runs with troops stationary.

No idea about point number 2. As you have already killed the escorting units.

 

[ArchGhost]

So here's my question, does anyone know when is it "safe" to capture settlers and workers without the AI immediately retaliating?

Here are my observations from obsessively watching AZ's videos and my own experiences:

1. If an AI city has a garrison of 2 archers or less, it won't retailate with the garrison after a worker capture.
2. If you capture a guarded settler by killing the escorting archer, the other escorting archer will freeze for 1 turn and won't attack or move.
3. If you see a settler with escort and DOW, the settler will try to move back to the city of origin, but the escorts will freeze for 1 turn (opening up a possibility of sniping the settler with a 2-move unit).

Am I wrong? Are there other (exploitable) examples?

#1 gets muddied up a bit because generally the AI never does anything with only two units in a city; it runs those two units on AI_CITY_DEFENSE and won't do anything with them regardless until more units show up or it sees a fight it can absolutely dominate like a 3 vs 0.2 or something. Even barb archers, who I thought I read have max unit courage somewhere, will be crazily passive when guarding a city if they are the only 2 units there. Regardless, in an AI's case it won't happen on the turn after DoW if that's all it has, ever.

The other part of that, which I learned from fellas on here, is that apparently the AI can't even see your units or the worker on the turn of DoW (since you go first and it only remembers how you were at the end of its own turn, or something like that), so it doesn't do anything anyway. If you putt around and stay there another turn, or try to take workers after already at war it might counter and kill the unit+worker sure, but not if you were at peace at the head of your turn.

#2 and #3 I suspect are related to the same thing regarding turn order. The second archer needs a turn to change its script from escort to attack or whatever, so it just sits there whether or not your unit is vulnerable.

As for the settler running away unescorted, I don't have much experience with that though it sounds exactly like what they do with Settlers/Workers at war: they constantly try to keep moving the unit somewhere where you can't reach it else they'll just plop them in a city. This is exploitable with things like Woodsman or the Impi because the AI doesn't take into account promotion-granted movement advantages