Slitherine

Sorry, forgot to shrink the screenshots
Here is the 2nd screenshot showing the Arab reserve cavalry 'queuing up' to attack the French shieldwall and ignoring the open flank and rear around the wood. There probably isn't an easy answer to this (and that any cure could be worse than the disease) and the changes to the AI making its use of the cavalry reserve more aggressive is certainly 'a good thing'...

regards
Ben

It is very difficult to make the AI take a wide route that a human might see as a good idea.

Historically there are few battles where no tactical mistakes were made. Gameplay-wise provoking and exploiting various mistakes by AI is how you win against the superior numbers. Rear guard battles are pretty desperate even without optimal AI behavior and I'd rather not have to resort to anchoring my army to map borders.

Fair points that personally I'm inclined to agree with!