Playing Dark Avatar 1.80g, suicidal difficulty...

I'm playing as the Thalans, in a long, drawn-out war with the Drath.  Each turn when I hit the turn button, I had become acustomed to clicking through the numerous battle sequences.  Clicking almost too fast, I thought I saw the Arceans attack one of my ships!  I thought perhaps this was just a graphical glitch.

I had been at peace with the Arceans throughout the enitre game, had great relations including trade and treaties with the Arceans, we had been getting along just peachy.

Then, the next screen pops up, confirming it: the Arceans invaded and took one of my planets.

At the completion of the turn, I receive the drop-down indicator that the Areans declared war on me.  There was no diplomatic declaration of war, they just surprise bombarded me.  Nor did I receive any indications that someone had paid them to attack me.

This is wonderful!  In all my time playing Dread Lords and Dark Avatar, I can not recall the AI ever using a surprise attack like that.  In fact, (as has been stated before by players) the prior build up of military force and surprise attacking the enemy without bothering to declare war first using the diplomacy screen is a bit of an unfair advantage that the player enjoys.

I'd like to see the AI take advantage of this tactic more often.  Perhaps this option is only available to the AIs at very high difficulty levels?