Has any 4X developed a competing city-capture system?

I wanted to advocate for a system in Old World to govern situations where two Civs are fighting over a city, and then you make calculations that have your units hold back so that when your units attack, you can take the city in the same turn. Sometimes I'll try to have the AI whittle down the defenses then I swoop in. Other times the AI is smart and hangs back and then I don't want to attack b/c the AI will swoop in.

I have always found this kind city-capture competition situation to be really stupid, not fun, and incongruous with reality (I am not a big believer in making games as realistic as possible at the sacrifice of fun/gameplay) but just on a conceptual level it feels weird. I do get that it was a dog eat dog world back then but the notion of calculating when to attack to steal the city just feels off.

At the same time, is there ANY 4X that has tried to deal with this situation, and if so, have there been any that have done it successfully?

 

I totally get what you're saying, but the concept of "I'm here try to get me out" has always been there. Take Germany in 1945. It was literally a race between east and west to see who could hold more German lands so they could direct the carve up. That's why operation Market Garden was so important. Without it the Allies would have ended up months behind USSR's timeline and possibly missed out on any of Germany.

Edit: Another very clear example: China today in South China Seas.