Question about plundering routes and military formations

[Infixo]

1. Yes, there is an operation for defending a city. I never looked into it more closely, so I can’t say much more about it.
1a. All operations are built from basic actions, which in turn form famous (or infamous for some) behavior trees. So, basically any operation can recruit units, as long as the tree is programmed to do so.
2. Yes, the city can abandon a current production and go for something else, more valuable atm. There is a log for that, and I’ve seen entries saying “abandoning” and starting something else. Also, submitted contracts have a timeout, so if a city won’t build it for some time, it is canceled.
3. There is another defensive mechanism that AI is programmed to use. When there is a war and a city is threatened, a special strategy is activated called “rapid expansion” or smth like that. Basically it forces AI to quickly build a settler and settle a city with “lessen expectations” i.e. it allows to settle a city in a place where nomally the AI would not settle it. This is kind of an emergency strategy and I must say it is quite efficient, i.e. I’ve seen it often activated.

 

[Disgustipated]

And here in this thread I read, that they don't USE battering rams

I see them build battering rams all the time. And as I mentioned above, they actually used it properly once. Unfortunately only once, most of the time they are unescorted and just roaming around apparently aimlessly.

 

[Canadian Bluebeer]

Plunder yes. Rams yes. (depends on the civ) balloons/drones. never

 

[Infixo]

Looks like my tweaking gives some results. Rome and Kongo killed Brazil. This is Rome taking Sao Paulo. This is a quite difficult siege, as there are 2 mountains blocking the way. Trajan impressed me.

 

[Infixo]

And several turns earlier, Mvemba took Rio.
Consistent behavior. These are just 2 examples, there were more. Every time 1-2 siege weapons are used.
And on another continent Norway is rocking. Yup, possible.