the reason for lack of (victoryflag-less) field battles

[Bosje]

I am currently securing Africa as Rome. carthage, lybia and carthago nova all keep sending armies/fleets along the african coast. with forcemarch (speed rowing)
this makes them unable to attack me.
and although they try to invade my own lands, which is cool, i think they should oppose me in the field. or at least block my path to their city. maybe allow garrison reinforcements for such a field battle if i attack that stack.

lack of testing maybe, or tested and found preferable, perhaps. i dont know.

trying to understand the CAI:
-they retreat when they think they dont stand a chance and instead go on a naval adventure.
-they use force march wherever they go. (force row at sea)

i am not sure, this is based on what the AI did during my africa invasion in my current 50-turn campaign on normal difficulty. so it's circumstantial at best.

but here is my point: could it be the force march ability, coupled with the AI making decisions on odds? those decisions makes the AI save an army while losing its lands. what if we take away force march. or restrict it to owned land? that would get rid of the victory flag as an added bonus.
or get rid of transport fleets / restrict to naval escorts of a certain minimal size?

i wonder what you guys think. not trying to about gameplay decisions, but rather trying to understand why we see what we see and trying to figure out how to enjoy myself more.

[Jackal2233]

AI needs to stop on the naval adventures IMO, I noticed they do try to hold their last settlement, but in one game Veneti decided to flee on ships with 2 armies STRAIGHT into my navy with artillery ships! Was hilarious, but come on my navy was right THERE, they should have stayed on land.

[Deathcake]

I agree that the AI needs to use forced march WAY less. Pretty much every single move seems to be done in forced march mode.
The AI needs to learn the art of patience I think. It is better to take two turns to get somewhere in a lot of cases, especially of course when in enemy territory.
But those AI armies zip around the map like someone has spiked their mead...

[thyco]

probably explains one of the reasons for some of the fast battles too as forced marching and rowing reduces the morale of the army/fleet