Strategic Command AI

[sPzAbt653]

Computer Defense Report - After DAK and Italians moved thru Egypt, Iraq and Iran, I moved north to see if I could snatch Baku from the computer. I did, but then the Soviets started showing up and their presence has been growing. I got a little silly and started moving north along the Caspian coast and the computer snuck in behind me. Now I have to hope I can fight my way back south to Baku. Meanwhile the Soviets are pushing hard on the Italians on my left flank. It looks like the Soviet supply sucks over there so hopefully they will not create a big issue.

In the rest of Russia Leningrad has fallen and I have reached Moscow and Rostov. The computer has not enough units to form a line but he does good at blocking all advance routes at towns and cities.

Notice it is July 1946. The Western Allies have tried but failed to get a good grip on Normandy and Brittany. Vichy France remains neutral. Spain and Turkey are also neutral and are in a diplomatic tug-of-war between the two sides. I have to keep a few units on their borders in case they flip to the Allied side. Nothing is happening in the Mediterranean or Middle East. My Italian Navy sits idle. The Western Allies shadow every naval move I make and protect the Northern convoy route to Arkhangelsk.

[gwgardner]

Playing expert Allies, +2 experience to the Axis AI, fog of war off so I can observe the AI better. I have reached summer of '40. The AI uses a bludgeon approach to taking France, as opposed to striking quick and deep in blitz fashion. It is REALLY good with its bludgeon, hitting the line with a unit, pulling that unit back, bringing forward reserves which hit the same line again, and so on. so it is positioning its units well for that kind of attack. It basically treats armor as infantry in this regard.

The AI started the '40 campaign in Feb, and is now in July on the outskirts of Paris.

The only questionable tactic of the AI so far is sending suicide cruisers into Scapa Flow for a raid, and not having enough movement points left to withdraw that cruiser, thus leaving it for some serious hammering during my turn. It's done this twice. However, it has not completely lost both cruisers, so perhaps it's a good tactic?!

[later]

The Italian AI declared war on Greece. Italian forces were placed in Albania by the event. The next turn all of those forces but one moved north to the Yugoslav border with Albania, rather than towards Greece. The Axis is not at war with Yugoslavia.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: crispy131313

Just a few observations that stood out to me:

•USSR AI has failed to prioritize Infantry Tech - This is game breaking if the AI does not IMO
•AI has to do a better job of protecting Air Fleets in the Middle East after Egypt surrender (Maybe operate out of the Theater would be best)
•Allied Navy AI in the Mediterranean is not aggressive in my game - Allowed me too much time to build up my Navy
•Talinn - An Industrial center had no garrison (summer 1941)
•Kharkov and Kursk - No Garrison, but Belgorod did (the town right between the two - Fall 1941)
•Alexandria was only defended by Garrison when multiple Corps units were outside the city (early 1942) - The city was too easy to capture, and it should not have been if a Corps was inside the city instead
•USSR/France though understandingly not aggressive (Apparently USSR will be later) should be more opportunistic in trying to kill low strength units

Thanks and I've made some adjustments here... one exception is the Air Fleets in the Middle East after Egypt surrenders as that will likely have to wait until post release as it is unfortunately not a simple fix with the current game engine.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: TheBattlefield

ORIGINAL: crispy131313


•AI has to do a better job of protecting Air Fleets in the Middle East after Egypt surrender (Maybe operate out

Beside this, I think the AI should generally know that Air Force units are not appropriate troops to block the enemy or for protecting a resource. Particularly if many suitable infantry units are available. Such behavior was observed repeatedly in an AI turn.

I've made an adjustment here as well, I had already previously thought this was no longer happening in an internal beta build and test run but it looks like there were some lingering issues where the AI got confused in some situations.

Hopefully the next build resolves this and the little bit of testing I did seemed to show a marked improvement,
Hubert

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: Xwormwood

The German Afrika Korps (when AI controlled) should have at least one fighter unit, and this air force should stay put in Africa.

This one was a bit tricky to resolve and especially since the DAK normally arrives at Tripoli now but I did work this over a bit hopefully you'll see a bit of an improvement with the DAK air units remaining in North Africa.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: Xwormwood

Greece:
After the Axis AI captured Athens, Greece did surrender.
An UK Garrison remained in Kalamarta. The AI appears to have no battle plan to free all of the Greek towns and places, as it ignores the enemy presence for at least 6 month by now, while an AI army sits just one hex away in Patras.

I purposefully have the AI ignore certain locations on the map via exclusion lists in the AI editor, i.e. this is one of the tricks in helping to speed up the AI as otherwise it just tries to take into account too many locations or worse over compensates for locations that are not as important as others, but I can re-list these few areas in Greece.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

My first time playing, I'm the Axis on beginner vs. the computer Allies with no bonus.

At the beginning of 1944 the overall situation is fairly historical in Russia, the Allies did an Overlord in 1943 and still hold beach heads in Brittany and Normandy. In the Mediterranean the DAK and Italians took Egypt-Palestine-Irag-Iran and continued towards Baku where they ran into thick Soviet units around the border of Iran-Russia and are stopped. I think the Western Allies might have done more in the Mediterranean. There was no Torch and the USA did not send any units to Egypt/Iraq/Saudi Arabia . I know that Eisenhower was against sending any US units to the Middle East, but if the computer is not going to execute a Torch in West Africa, then it seems like maybe it should send some help to the Brits in the Middle East. Maybe something like this is in there and it hasn't been activated yet in my game. If it doesn't exist, I know it is a difficult thing to add but it just seems like, regardless Ike's historical position, that the USA would have done something to protect all the oilfields in the Middle East. Plus it might make the ME a little more difficult for the Axis to over run.

Maybe a Torch in 42 or 43, or if not then a few units to Egypt [or Iraq if Egypt is over run]. This might make the Computer Opponent a little better [as I don't think a few US units would be missed from Overlord].

Just my early opinion.

Torch is an AI possibility and doesn't necessarily happen in every game and only to provide for some surprises and variety, but keep a look out for it in a future run through of the game [:)]

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

The Soviet Black Sea Fleet is in love with the red highlighted hex. They park a unit there every turn, and every turn the adjacent Rumanian Armies wipe it out. The Soviet Fleet will soon be kaput !

Edit: I am Axis human, computer is running the Soviets.

Definitely a bug and that is not even a sea hex, if you encounter this again please do send me a saved turn as I'd be happy to take a look and correct it.

Thanks,
Hubert

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: crispy131313

No Garrison in Saratov (City)

This seems unusual given how highly contested each hex is immediately southward, and this is the route to Kubyshev

Some notes:
Kubyshev is the current USSR Capital
Game date May 7, 1943
USSR currently has 60 land units

I've made an adjustment for this as well.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: John B.

The Italian AI was not the best for its navy. They gathered around one ship near Taronto in the face of a host of British and French BBs and were then exterminated. The Germans seems to be doing a pretty good job with their subs and with clearing their own sea lanes. German attacks have been good so far. Poland and France fell about on time. They have pushed to the historical limit in Russia. Probably a bit supbar since Hitler seized all of Poland in 1939.

I've made some further adjustments to the Italian navy and hopefully this will be an improvement in the next build.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

The computer made some nice Allied landings in Normandy and Brittany in 1943 and struck fear in me, but over the next year plus I slowly wiped them out. As you can see in the screenshot, the computer lines up his transports turn after turn to get wiped out by the U-Boats. I sorta guess that if he has a port available, he will try to land what he can, but he could probably use some help in recognizing that he can't land. Since a unit can be transported and landed in one turn, there shouldn't be a need to stack up outside the port and wait [like the Allies did historically !] if it is at all possible to program.

Thanks and I've made an adjustment here that will hopefully help out in similar situations.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: Mrslobodan

I've started a new campaign as Axis on expert and full experience bonus, and I'm happy to say there seems to be a noticable differance in the skill of the AI. I'm just curious what does the experience bonus do exactly? The enemy units don't seem to have any extra experience and they don't really seem to hit harder or anything like that. So is the experience bonus purely affecting the intelligence/aggressiveness of the AI? If so, that is really great!:D

I'm only at the very start of Barbarossa so I will have to go a bit further to really know but so far the AI seems better. I'm even being pushed back in Egypt[:D]

The Axis AI, out of general WWII ET necessity, is set to be much more aggressive than the Allied AI and there should be a noticeable difference so I'm glad to hear this.

This is not to say that the Allied AI will never be aggressive, but since the AI has a pretty good handle on what is a good or bad attack in terms of potential results, an over aggressive Allied AI early on would tend to make wasteful attacks that only cause higher losses to itself than to the Axis. The end result being it is likely to only make the Axis job easier (in the early years) and one of the primary reasons the Allied AI favours a withdraw and delay strategy at the moment for Poland, France and the USSR.

For experience it doesn't affect the intelligence or necessarily the aggressiveness of the AI, but since it does provide the AI units with an experience bonus, the AI may tend to be a bit more aggressive in its attacks since more attacks will have more favorable odds for the AI.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: gwgardner

Playing expert Allies, +2 experience to the Axis AI, fog of war off so I can observe the AI better. I have reached summer of '40. The AI uses a bludgeon approach to taking France, as opposed to striking quick and deep in blitz fashion. It is REALLY good with its bludgeon, hitting the line with a unit, pulling that unit back, bringing forward reserves which hit the same line again, and so on. so it is positioning its units well for that kind of attack. It basically treats armor as infantry in this regard.

The AI started the '40 campaign in Feb, and is now in July on the outskirts of Paris.

The only questionable tactic of the AI so far is sending suicide cruisers into Scapa Flow for a raid, and not having enough movement points left to withdraw that cruiser, thus leaving it for some serious hammering during my turn. It's done this twice. However, it has not completely lost both cruisers, so perhaps it's a good tactic?!

[later]

The Italian AI declared war on Greece. Italian forces were placed in Albania by the event. The next turn all of those forces but one moved north to the Yugoslav border with Albania, rather than towards Greece. The Axis is not at war with Yugoslavia.

Thanks and the Italian DoW on Greece and then moving forces away in preparation for an invasion of Yugoslavia should now be fixed. The questionable AI behavior for the Axis navy is likely only occuring since FoW is off. I only mention this as the AI behavior has been optimized for FoW and when the AI can see everything it might tend to try and attack everything it can see if it thinks it has favorable odds without as much thought.

I'm glad to hear that you are finding the AI quite efficient in its attacks and making good use of its units to do so. This is something I've spent quite a bit of time on and one of the reasons it may seem to use Infantry like Armor is that often it will lead an attack with Infantry if it makes better sense to do so.

This may initially seem counterintuitive but in some tighter areas where there is less room to maneuver and when you end up with an offensive line 2 or 3 units deep, if you always lead with armor and the armor doesn't break through or just destroys a front line defender using up its strikes and AP to do so, then it blocks all the units behind it from further attack or the units behind cannot push through far enough due to lower AP and enemy ZoC.

On the other hand if infantry are able to open a hole or sufficiently weaken a front line defender, then an armor unit can either finish the unit due to its double strikes and/or pour through striking even deeper due to its higher AP and striking power despite further ZoC.

The algorithm is not always infantry first and in many cases, and especially when near a priority goal position that is reachable by an armor, the armor will blitz as expected.

[Ason]

ORIGINAL: Hubert Cater

ORIGINAL: Mrslobodan

I've started a new campaign as Axis on expert and full experience bonus, and I'm happy to say there seems to be a noticable differance in the skill of the AI. I'm just curious what does the experience bonus do exactly? The enemy units don't seem to have any extra experience and they don't really seem to hit harder or anything like that. So is the experience bonus purely affecting the intelligence/aggressiveness of the AI? If so, that is really great!:D

I'm only at the very start of Barbarossa so I will have to go a bit further to really know but so far the AI seems better. I'm even being pushed back in Egypt[:D]

The Axis AI, out of general WWII ET necessity, is set to be much more aggressive than the Allied AI and there should be a noticeable difference so I'm glad to hear this.

This is not to say that the Allied AI will never be aggressive, but since the AI has a pretty good handle on what is a good or bad attack in terms of potential results, an over aggressive Allied AI early on would tend to make wasteful attacks that only cause higher losses to itself than to the Axis. The end result being it is likely to only make the Axis job easier (in the early years) and one of the primary reasons the Allied AI favours a withdraw and delay strategy at the moment for Poland, France and the USSR.

For experience it doesn't affect the intelligence or necessarily the aggressiveness of the AI, but since it does provide the AI units with an experience bonus, the AI may tend to be a bit more aggressive in its attacks since more attacks will have more favorable odds for the AI.

Ah I see, I would like to suggest to make each difficulty one step harder. so difficulty settings that is used for 'medium +2 bonus' would replace current beginner level as it is simply too easy. Then replace current medium level with the 'expert +2 bonus' and then replacing current 'expert +2 bonus' with an even harder AI (more experience?) than the current one.

Basically It feels like current beginner is too easy, medium should be beginner, expert should be medium and a new even harder setting for expert.

And I think there needs to be a bit more clear change in USSR of defensive/offensive tactics. It feels like once the Axis has got an advantage in upgrades it's all over for the USSR AI because their units are constantly one step behind in upgrades and they will keep being defensive.

Maybe make some scripted offensives that has a certain % of happening if conditions are met.
Perhaps make them more aggressive after 42/43, maybe by having an event that increases experience of all soviet units in the summer of 1942.

All I'm missing from the AI is basically larger concentrated offensives. USSR should have more units and they should be more willing to sacrifice them after summer of 1942 even if odds are against them. Basically their strenght should be in numbers.

This is all I think the game is missing, everything else is pretty perfect[:)]

[BillRunacre]

ORIGINAL: Hubert Cater

Definitely a bug and that is not even a sea hex, if you encounter this again please do send me a saved turn as I'd be happy to take a look and correct it.

Thanks,
Hubert

Ah, it isn't a sea hex now but it was a land-sea one until I changed it a week ago.

There might be occasional instances of this elsewhere, but I figured that it could be an ongoing problem at Odessa so I made the change.

Bill

[Hubert Cater]

Ah I see, I would like to suggest to make each difficulty one step harder. so difficulty settings that is used for 'medium +2 bonus' would replace current beginner level as it is simply too easy. Then replace current medium level with the 'expert +2 bonus' and then replacing current 'expert +2 bonus' with an even harder AI (more experience?) than the current one.

Basically It feels like current beginner is too easy, medium should be beginner, expert should be medium and a new even harder setting for expert.

And I think there needs to be a bit more clear change in USSR of defensive/offensive tactics. It feels like once the Axis has got an advantage in upgrades it's all over for the USSR AI because their units are constantly one step behind in upgrades and they will keep being defensive.

Maybe make some scripted offensives that has a certain % of happening if conditions are met.
Perhaps make them more aggressive after 42/43, maybe by having an event that increases experience of all soviet units in the summer of 1942.

All I'm missing from the AI is basically larger concentrated offensives. USSR should have more units and they should be more willing to sacrifice them after summer of 1942 even if odds are against them. Basically their strenght should be in numbers.

This is all I think the game is missing, everything else is pretty perfect[:)]

Thanks and just to make sure we are on the same page, can you tell me at what difficulty level and experience settings you played against the Allied AI?

I only ask as there are already scripts in place to have the USSR be a bit more of a challenge as you select Intermediate and Expert levels, especially for 1942 onwards, and if the scripts need additional boosts I can certainly do that... but if you've only played at Beginner level then I would be curious to know how you would find the USSR AI at the harder levels before making further changes.

[Hubert Cater]

Ah, it isn't a sea hex now but it was a land-sea one until I changed it a week ago.

There might be occasional instances of this elsewhere, but I figured that it could be an ongoing problem at Odessa so I made the change.

Bill

Makes sense!

[Ason]

ORIGINAL: Hubert Cater
Thanks and just to make sure we are on the same page, can you tell me at what difficulty level and experience settings you played against the Allied AI?

I only ask as there are already scripts in place to have the USSR be a bit more of a challenge as you select Intermediate and Expert levels, especially for 1942 onwards, and if the scripts need additional boosts I can certainly do that... but if you've only played at Beginner level then I would be curious to know how you would find the USSR AI at the harder levels before making further changes.

I've played entire campaign on beginner without bonus exp. I'm now playing expert +2 experience. I'm in March 1942, so perhaps I will notice something soon.

[sPzAbt653]

v1.07.01 - Axis Intermediate vs. Allies Computer +1. February 1940.

Not sure what Frenchy is up to here. He moved most of his fleet into the North Sea.

[n0kn0k]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

v1.07.01 - Axis Intermediate vs. Allies Computer +1. February 1940.

Not sure what Frenchy is up to here. He moved most of his fleet into the North Sea.

Thats gonna cost you like 50-60 mpp a turn if he goes raiding. Could also be good bait for the uk fleet. I'd be impressed if the a.i. pulled that off.