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.

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?

Thanks, that's a good idea!

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.

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

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

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.

Yet.

Omniscient Difficulty for next patch?

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.