When ships attack I

[Mauritania]

Alright here's the scenerio. I had a caravel with an explorer on board passing a peaceful AI island city next to my enemy. I saw an enemy galley with a settler on board so I deposited my explorer in the peaceful AI island city and attacked the galley. My caravel lost (rotten luck)

Anyway I fortified my explorer in the island city because he could'nt go anywhere. A few turns latter enemy frigates started entering the city and my explorer started attacking them. He beat two but lost to the third, anyone know why or how this happened?

 

[Exavier]

Yea your enemy was either the enemy of the civ you dumped your explorer in or they had open borders

And i believe ships can attack units in cities they just can't take the city (sorta like helecopters)... if not then you experienced a bug

 

[ZippyRiver]

And i believe ships can attack units in cities they just can't take the city (sorta like helecopters)...

I wish that was true. The only thing a ship can do to a city is bombard cultural defences. I had hoped that I could attack a ship that was inside an enemy city but alas no can do. I pictured the AI hiding it's chump galleys on main street, broadway, 3rd ave. Instead of leaving them in the water at the dock where they normally would be .

Most likely, the enemy had an open border with the island AI. Being able to move into another civ's city can only be done with open borders, and since you had a unit in that tile, combat occured.