So in my last game, the AI shot itself in the foot with its colonization methods.

I was playing the Lumeris with the UE being my next-door neighbors. I found a juicy chokepoint system right on their doorstep and moved to colonize it quickly. About 3 turns before it upgraded into a Colony, the UE brought a giant fleet onto the system, running off my scoutship guard. I would be lucky to build up a similar fleet before the outpost ran out of food in 9 turns due to being Besieged.

...But after their colony ship arrived and established an Outpost on a separate planet in the system, they left. Suddenly I was back to just being 4 turns away from a Colony, against a rival Output that would take 24 turns. Their fleet never returned to siege my Outpost, and I easily won the system a few turns later, getting the UE's planet colonized as a bonus.

The Emperor sent me a diplomatic message soon after, scolding me for my aggressive behavior.

lol, that is hilarious.  I have seen this before.  I have also seen the AI stay and fight and win.  I have also seen them remove thier colony right before I finished mine.  So I'm not sure I can say this is a consistant behavior.  I also think there maybe a lot of other factors the AI is considering that you may not have enough insight into if you can't see everything they are dealing with.

Vorell wrote:

lol, that is hilarious.  I have seen this before.  I have also seen the AI stay and fight and win.  I have also seen them remove thier colony right before I finished mine.  So I'm not sure I can say this is a consistant behavior.  I also think there maybe a lot of other factors the AI is considering that you may not have enough insight into if you can't see everything they are dealing with.

Also a possibility, but it's still not smart for it to set up a losing outpost and then abandon it, essentially giving me a free colonization. It's a half-assed commitment that just makes the AI look stupid.