Initiating a battle on the campaign map does not only mean an attack. It is also a recon which could be done with different strenght. AI is fair, so without a recon it does not know players force.
The enemy sends recon units, that makes perfect sense. What I don't understand is why that means I have to enter a full scale battle?
On this occasion the enemy was dug in deep in the forest, I was planning to attack north of this position the next turn and then try to attack them from behind. Why does an single recon unit initiate a full scale battle situation? maybe we could get an intel report that says something like -
'your forces have spotted an enemy patrol @ 113/445'
and then we could have a choice. Attack? Y/N?
The way it is now we have no idea what is happening and we are sometimes forced to do crazy things because we don't know if we are being attacked or not. If we don't want to fight the only choice is to wait 3 hours for the timer to finish or retreat which loses territory.