Slightly unexpected tactical AI moves

[PvK]

I saw a couple of slightly unexpected tactical AI behaviors in Doms II today, in a battle where my force was Iron Faith Ulm, against a Mictlan army of about 40 heavy infantry and slave spear-carriers. On reflection, they aren't all that new or unexpected, but might be interesting to read.

My force was seven experienced Black Templars and two Ulm heavy infantry, led by a Black Acolyte. One of my heavy infantry was diseased and going to die in a couple of turns anyway, so I put him by himself on my left flank, forward of the other units with Hold & Attack orders, to bait the enemy force into attacking him. On my right flank, I grouped the other units. The Templars were to wait to get blessed, with Hold & Attack Rearmost orders. The idea was they would run around the enemy troops, which would probably be headed towards the wrong flank, and go trample the commanders, probably routing their whole army. The Acolyte simply had orders to cast the Bless spell. The other heavy infantry was to guard the Acolyte.

The enemy army did as expected, and charged after the slightly-forward single diseased guy. Their slaves led the charge, getting pelted by their own slingers (moronic but expected ) and barely able to handle my one diseased pikeneer, felling him just before my cavalry arrived...

... which was the first unexpected part. Why did my cavalry, with orders to attack rearmost, go after the slaves in the front? In the past, attack rearmost has seemed to have the units actually move along the flank and go after rear units.

The Templars started wiping out the enemy army the hard way, which turned out to be easy for them (experienced blessed Templars trample ***), but then I noticed the second unexpected part: my Acolyte was charging along with them (followed by his huffing, puffing, armored bodyguard), almost keeping up with them, since they were zig-zagging to catch the enemies. I guess this has been commented on before - if a mage lacks any good spell to cast, he may actually go on the offensive, by default. I guess I need to give him "(Blessing)(Banishment)(Banishment)(Banishment)(Ban ishment)Stay Behind Troops"... hopefully that will keep him out of the fray.

PvK