As someone who played the first Civilization game, I can assure everyone that all units on the same tile dying together was not "awesome". Along with the zone of control rules, it made for some really goofy tactical play that had little relationship to reality. Combat was probably the weakest element of the first Civilization, and it was one thing that the later Civilization games enormously improved upon. They have an old list of the AI combat foolishness at CivFanatics that I'll link to; here's my favorite one:
Quote:One of the most common failing of AI is not bypassing strong points on the way to an objective. You can set up a kill zone by building a road to the strong point from AIs' likely areas of approach, put a couple of defensive units fortified on defensive terrain (ex. mountain), and watch bodies pile up until they are higher that the hill you are sitting on! It is almost as easy as putting up a sign the says "TRAP IS HERE, PLEASE ENTER AND DIE".