AI Capable First Congo war

[lion_of_judah]

I have uploaded an AI capable scenario for First Congo war. The DRC is AI capable and tested, but haven't tested Zaire. So I recommend playing as Zaire and let the AI play as DRC. I was able to win against the AI player. Interested to see if the AI is able to win.

[lion_of_judah]

just finished testing the scenario with the DRC as human player and Zaire as AI.... DRC won, while Zaire AI responded slowly and I was able to take my objectives rather quickly.

[Alan Sharif]

Thank you so much for your hard work. I only play VS the AI so am really looking forward to this.

[Vic]

Hi Lion,

Nice work.

One of the things that the AI has difficulty with is having a low unit density compared to the frontline it is confronted with. Maybe something to keep in mind in future scenarios?
Ideally the AI would like 2-3 units per frontline hex, but 1-2 should suffice. Less might cause it to hesitate as it could get 'over-scared' of enemy encirclement opportunities.

Further as some feedback on the Congo scn. The Ruandan AI seems to function reasonably well. However I noticed that the neutral hexes were sort of changing ownership.
I found out that if you change rulevar 79, auto-conquer of neutral hexes from 1 to 0 the AI seems to do quit a lot better.

Going to make sure this is going to be standard behaviour for the next Community Project patch.

Small critique: Check out the counter in BIG mode with NATO counters on, some of your graphics should be fixed there.

Thanks for making this.

Best wishes,
Vic

[lion_of_judah]

Vic
thank you Vic, very much appreciated. I will check into those suggestions you have made. I'm noticing that the AI tries to outflank where a strong defense is encountered.

[lion_of_judah]

Appreciate this and hope you enjoy the scenario.

[lion_of_judah]

I have uploaded an updated scenario. The only change made was removing the major Zairian reinforcements. The tank Bltn and the Corps HQ I left. Also towards the end of the scenario, the Zairian player will stop receiving replacements.

[lion_of_judah]

uploaded another version. This time made a minor change in the AI and the results are promising. Still wining as the Zairian player but the AI is making it a little harder.

[lion_of_judah]

This is not an AAR, but just a screen shot of how the AI is doing so far

[lion_of_judah]

another screen shot

[Alan Sharif]

Thanks, just going to upload the new version.

[lion_of_judah]

Vic
I went into the advanced editor and could not locate rulvar 79, where would this be. Thanks

[lion_of_judah]

Thanks. Let me know how the AI does for the DRC.

[Vic]

ORIGINAL: lion_of_judah

Vic
I went into the advanced editor and could not locate rulvar 79, where would this be. Thanks

Well setting it in the rulevars tab would not help since it will get overwritten by the master (untill I update the master - which i will do)

So you need to add a scriptline to your event in the master: ExecSetRulevar(79,0,0)

[Khanti]

I have waited for lion_of_judah to update this scenario, but he still has many other activities, so I tried my best to update this myself. I just like this scenario and want to play it.
You will be able to check it in scenario-bank, but here is summary what was changed.

Rules:
1) 906 enabled (no reports when turn starts) - so all reports are in menu, but none of them bothers players every turn.
2) 79 enabled (auto conquer neutral hex) - Vic said it will help, so let's try it.
3) 307 set at 3 (was 1) (minimum power needed to capture hex) - to ensure units with one little soldier will not take lands.
4) 119/120/121 set as 9/6/3 (was standard 10/3/0) - default set 10/3/0 means no XP for pinned enemy and little for making them retreat. I like to have them as 9/6/3, so there will be XP for all combat results.

Replacements:
5) Less airborne, engineers, staff overall and less infantry for DRC/Rwanda.
6) Little more (mostly +1 random) for some stuff and Zaire gets more infantry and conscripts.
7) At least now Zaire can get more trucks than tanks
8) High Quarters set to unique unit (only 1 can be on map).
9) Zaire Special Presidential Division/Kamanyola made motorized and got rpg and +10 morale, but only 2 of them are possible to be on map (so no more of them, as 2 are on map already).
10) No more Rwanda conscripts replacements, as no units would use them. DRC gets them still.
11) Rwanda gets trucks instead of halftracks (they not use halftracks at all).
12) Rwanda gets staff as replacements and lose engineers (they do not use engineers).
13) Zaire gets air replacements but not guaranteed (only small random chance).
14) All replacements are random besides 1 guaranteed unit, only air planes gets only random one. I like it this way, but lion_of_judah made it already. I just say this to highlight this solution.

TOE / SFT changes:
15) eng regt +trucks (now it is motorized)
16) art reg -trucks (not needed so many to be motorized)
17) mech btln -trucks (too many, besides there are APCs)
18) inf bde -trucks (too many, still motorized if AFDL)
19) Trucks ratio numbers cut by half (50 to 25) so there is less trucks (cosmetic change) but individual units numbers are rarely changes (see above).
20) Added Rw- for all Rwandian used units (Airborne, Engineer, 105mm, etc). It is easier to spot what troops arrived (in Replacement report / REPS).
21) All units got 25% kill to retreat chance. Formerly only few units had such feature (halftracks, etc has 50%). Anyway halftracks still run away better than infantry
22) Trucks carry supplies (10 instead of standard 2 as other equipment).
23) New color pictures for some units (to replace tha black-white ones or to get better ones).

To do list, but I don't have idea how to do it in editors:
- officers / names / abilities
- recruits cards do not work / waste of PP /
- victory points
- card gives fuel 8k buy says 59k? (originating at Goma)

To do list, but needs more tests:
- light flak aa abilities / logos /
- m113 /ac dies too fast
- make Zaire stronger??

Masterfile disabled, as rulevars/SFTs were changed and I do not know other way to make it.

[lion_of_judah]

I'm impressed by this update. Sorry it is taking me so long to get too these, but I like what you have done.

[Khanti]

To do list:
- officers / names / abilities - partly done
- recruits cards NOW do work - I got new skills with that!

[Khanti]

I've added some text to description, as I've changed some things in scenario.

Anyway I think this scenario is perfect for 1:1 equipment proportion, as it has modest number of units on map. Will be good test battlefield. What do you think?

The First Congo War 1996-1997 was a foreign invasion of Zaire led by Rwanda that replaced dictoator Mobutu Sese Seko with the rebel leader Laurent-Desire Kabila. Destablization in eastern Zaire resulting from the Rwandan Genocide was the final factor that caused numerous internal and external factors to align against the corrupt and inept government in the Zaire capital - Kinshasa.

Foreign involvement

Rwanda - according to expert observers, as well as Kagame himself, placed the largest roll of all, in the First Congo War. Kigali was instrumental in the formation of the AFDL (Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre) and sent its own troops to fight alongside the rebels.


Zairian Order of Battle:

Special Presidential Division
Kamanyola Division
1st Armored Brigade
41st Commando Brigade (airborne)
31st Parachute Brigade
32nd Parachute Brigade
13th Infantry Brigade
21st Infantry Brigade
22nd Infantry Brigade
several independent infantry battalions, initially around 55.000

Rwanda - unknown number of combat troops
AFDL - 57,000 men

Tactical situation:

Zairian troops do not have proper command structure and that is their main weakness, as President Mobutu did not trust anybody enough to allow them Corps commanding. First corps will be created as reinforcement some time after war start, but it is wise to create another Corps as early as possible.
As soon as the war begins the Zairian soldiers will be mobilized (infantry and staff), but nonetheless Zairian player can use money (PP) to support its mobilization. While it gives random, unpredictable results - it brings fresh troops anyway.
After 4 months of war both sides start pouring regular replacements into training camps and some time after also heavier equipment stats appearing.

AFDL/Rwanda troops are prepared for an invasion with adequate command structure, officers and mobile units. Their main weakness is lack of money at the beginning (PP) as they used them for preparing their army. So the key to success is capturing enough territory to actually increase PP income.
After 4 months of war both sides start pouring regular replacements into training camps and invaders have potentially more resources.

This game variant is based on completely random replacements (only 1 unit of each equipment is guaranteed) so it's always unpredictable who will have more troops. So yes, Clausewitz, Nonlinearity and the Unpredictability of War in its fullness. Good luck.

[lion_of_judah]

is this able to download now? I'm interested in seeing how this plays out now