AI steals/kills level 7/9 hero just one turn before I can recruit them

The pattern here is that in neither case did you get there "firstest with the mostest".  You saw what looked like a good opportunity, then realized you left your wallet at home and had to run back and get it.

I don't deny that they AI could be coded to block some advantages for you (that's just good strategy, and you would do the same to it), but if you'd had what you needed to recruit those champs in the first place it wouldn't have been a problem.

I don't think so. AI is just following the code.

But next time, if you are interested in a champ, build an outpost  to get it controlled, untill you get the $ or the tech needed.

When I play a kingdom and encounter an unrecruited empire champion, if I can manage it, I kill them.  The same goes if I'm empire, and they're kingdom.  I want to deny an extra champion to my enemies, and at the same time raise my own units' experience.  And if I find a champion I can recruit, I'll try to beeline over there to grab them before the AI, as well.  I'll go so far as to channel funds I'd meant for something else into grabbing that champion.  How exactly is it cheating for the AI to do the same thing?

The fact that it knew where I was and what I was doing and then jumped in right before I could complete my actions seems to be cheating to me. I know that the AI has omnicient knowedge of the playing field, but there is usually coding included to make the AI ignore it.

It's the timing of the AI's actions that make me supicious. Why did the AI recruit/kill the hero Exactly one turn before I could? Why not 4 turns or 10 turns. Seems like the AI spawned a unit out of the blue (or teleported) one just in time to prevent me from getting the hero.

Thanks, that's a good idea!

Do you really think that those two examples prove anything than a bit of bad luck? The AI is not a sentient being. 

It's an illusion.  (For reference, please see the numerous threads about how monsters never attack the AI.)

The AI is not omniscient (though it's probably better at scouting than you are).  The AI is not spawning units or teleporting them to frustrate your efforts.  The reason it appears to happen simultaneously with your intention is that you wouldn't notice if it didn't.  Either the AI gets there earlier, and you never see the hero or it gets there later, after you've already recruited the hero.  The only time you notice the AI killing an unrecruited champion is when you are planning on recruiting that champ.

Not that the AI isn't trying to impede your efforts, because it is.  It's just doing it in a mundane way.

But I've done just that to the  AI, myself.  Managed a turn, perhaps two, to grab or kill a champion right before a stack or unit the AI had sent into the area.  I suspect you're running into a few coincidences, but that doesn't mean the AI "cheats."

I would believe the OP that the AI is getting a free 'heads up'

I disagree. Two instances does not a cheating AI make. And I've never seen anything that strikes me as suspicious in my games.

Or... play altar and recruit all your heroes for free?

Try playing with a custom leader with the adventurer trait: recruiting any champion is free (pretty broken with kraxis imo lol). One of the best profession to pick up!

those 2 events were probably bad luck. Champions have to be considered as rare resources. Denying them and recruiting them is as important as getting your resources up and running (and probably even more).

I can't remember if this is the game, but sometimes pulling back the fog of war will show something that has already happened. By the way, I kill every empire hero I run across on the map (never play Empire lol) just to deny them.

Skip the free hero pickup, I have played 3 full games and 2 partial ones now and the only starter hero I ever found was the one where you spawn. By the time I unlock level 5-9 I have more than enough money to pay them.

Unless you are playing a melee Sov, then Warlock is the way to go.

Cast a wider net and take into consideration the overall history of turn based games. There are far more games where AI's are getting various sorts of free heads up than those games where the AI does not.

A very good example, My first Stardock game was Galciv1 and the AI gets free knowledge of where all the best planets are for colonization without having to scout ahead.

It is by no means conclusive, but, all things considered, i would indeed be inclined to believe the OP.

Yet.

Omniscient Difficulty for next patch?

sounds like you got outsmarted

Putting the Champion into an Outpost area really doesn't mean anything.  The AI has a tendency to ignore your borders (which is funny considering how much it bitches when you're in their space) and can recruit without being adjacent to the Champ.

Didn't know AI can recruit that way. But at least, you can see the hero, and throw away the AI unit from your ZoC. It is not perfect, but it can help.