Theoretically, it's a good idea.... even by making your scout retreat it is hiding the presence of further fleets incoming. It's the length to which it goes to as you say and the way it currently neglects its own safety by doing so.

This is probably another factor in what I think is the single biggest problem with the AI as it stands and has effects on every aspect of combat versus the player - speed! If those fleets moved considerably faster it would put a lot more pressure on your line and they'd have a lot more chance of either catching your scout or driving it off to allow for covert attacks on your position.

i used this tactic to bait the AI as well. isnt this a version of "screening" tactics used in naval warfare...?

-0.

I agree that the AI likes scouts too much. I often have several scouts out in the galaxy to set up a sort of "sensor net" to keep tabs on the other civilizations. In my current game the Yor (on Intelligent difficulty) started a war with my allies and consequently myself. The scout ships in my sensor net were at least a sector or more away from any of the Yor planets, and not even between my planets and the Yor planets. However, a few turns later, I had Yor fleets bearing down on my scouts, despite the fact that I was poised to attack several of there planets (my fleets were well within their sensor range). Although I think screening is a valid tactic, I think some AI alarm bells should go off when they see 5 of my fleets closing in to surround their planets. It seems the AI has a problem discerning the strategic value of targets.

As others have noted instead of moving to defend their planets, the AI foolishly chose to continue to pursue my scout ship. It seems the AI only or mostly looks at the total attack of an enemy ship/fleet and decides to attack based upon that, rather than the actual strategic value of the target. I believe this because my attack fleets were vastly superior to any single one of their fleets, and all of there fleets retreated from them. In addition, I had a starbase in the middle of their space (which had wheeled and dealed away from them much earlier in the game) that had very high defenses but a relatively low attack rating. The AI (again foolishly) attacked this starbase twice despite its defense rating being more than quadruple the attack power of their fleets, and naturally were destroyed without doing damage to the starbase either time.

I also agree with the speed comment, the AI neglects engine research far too much (and this is with intelligent or higher difficulty). They get their impulse drive and shut down research on engines almost entirely for too many turns. Occasionaly, the AI will research Warp Drive, but I have yet to see them research engines beyond that. It seems the AI needs a priority check because I can always run circles around them, even if I wait till late in the game to ramp up engine research (which I seldom do since it is such an important tech). Have others experiences been the same or similar to mine?

Ai has fast ships in my game. They make sure they have powerfull fleets first and then upgrade to speed. They are usually moving 5 or 6 per go, which to me is pretty fast when mine are about 3-5.

I think you guys have been unlucky or are very good at research.

I built a hunter/killer drone (a tiny fighter) with nothing but engines and one doom ray. I forget the name of the engine, but it was the most advanced engine on the tech tree. 22ps/turn speed.

I parked them behind a string of military bases with full sensors. Every time the enemy got within sensor range of a base, a horde of tiny drones with the most powerful beam weapon in the universe would swoop down on them from out of nowhere. Total pwnage