I started a third game and this time Athena lost no time sending General Butler down with a minimal force to secure the " Roads" before I could get Norfolk's heavy guns on site.

That was without doubt either a striking coincidence or Athena is more "intelligent" than I first realized.

...and though in another thread I said I was turning up the A.I. I decided to stay on normal settings for now to compare how repetitively the game plays itself...so that wasn't a factor.