How much work was put into the new AI?

[luftwaffe]

It seems the AI is much better then in the first game, for example I've noticed the computer doesn't leave its transports unprotected spread all over the Atlantic anymore or not as much as it used to. The improved AI is one of the reasons I upgraded to AWD, I've always had a interest in AI. I do realise the AI well never be as good as a person but it is putting up a good challenge for me so far.

[Joel Billings]

That's good to hear. Gary did put many months of additional work into the AI, and we got good feedback and some good saves from testers that helped him improve things. It's still not smart like a human player but it will give you a fight, especially if you give it advantages or play one of the intentionally unbalanced scenarios.

[wargameplayer]

I think the AI is pretty good actually too.

I think the Japanese AI is not so hot but that's because it's a friggen hard country to play.
I mean...you need to do quite a bit to get Japan in to shape and there are some thing that seem intuitive that just end up causing problems if you do them. A good AI for japan is prolly hard to do.

[Tom Grosv]

I've just finished a game where I played Germany, Arsenal of Democracy scenario, everyone else AI with Attack Help 2. Initially, the AI seemed to do well and my Sealion attempt was a disaster. I switched to Barbarossa but was now running late and too many resources had been spent on now useless transports instead of infantry etc. My 1941 invasion of Russia rapidly hit a brick wall against the superior numbers of Russians. I adopted Fortress Europe in late 41, building up a large garrison in Eastern Poland and slowly building up my defences in France and Italy against the WA. I was sure I would be finished by 43 and waited to lose the game.......and waited.......and waited. The WA built up large forces but never launched an invasion - I suppose it didn't fancy the odds of a seaborne invasion. The Russians built up large numbers of forces (three times as many infantry as Germany) and could definitely have crushed me, but they held loads of forces in Leningrad, Moscow and other irrelevant locations. They did not seriously threaten Rumania which was nuts because I couldn't defend two area at once. On my part I would launch my panzers out on raiding missions destroying small groups of Russian forces with ease then sally back to Poland. It was not until 1945 that the Russians finally got their act together, bringing up enough units to have two large groups of forces. I split my units to defend Rumania and the Russians united both groups and defeated me in Poland. From there the retreat to Germany started. However, by the end of Fall 1946 I still held West and East Germany plus the WA had still not invaded. My ally AI Japan also still held out.

Thoughts - as Joel said, the AI is not as good as a smart human player, even with added advantages, and sometime soon I'm going to dispense with the AI and look for a human player. However, the AI does do a better job than WAW and can help the new player learn some of the tactics of the game, if not necessarily valid strategies. And the AI did stop me getting an AV, my high watermark being 68. Perhaps, I should have another go against it to see if this time...........

[luftwaffe]

That was one problem with the first AI, not aggressive enough, on other hand if you play the AI more than once you will find that it is programmed for different strategies, even in the first game I would sometimes see the AI do things I never expected.