Battleground Italy 43-45 scenario: AI Allies stops attacking after 43

[stolypin]

I'm playing the Battleground Italy 43-45 scenario as the Germans against the AI.

I abandoned Sicily pretty quickly after the Allies landed in Taranto in Fall 1943 and formed a line running from Naples to Termoli.

Beginning in January 1944, the AI essentially quit. As of August 26, 1944, there has been no further landings and the AI has not attempted a single ground attack.

The scenario description does not say it's only playable H2H or Allies versus German AI.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[quertice]

I have read about a similar allied ai issue on this scenario (no landings) one or two years ago, I thought it was solved.

I'm interested to begin the same scenario with axis, I'll wait for replies hoping for good news.

[Joel Billings]

Can you send a few saves to 2by3@2by3games.com. Ideally one around October 43, and another at the end of the year. Occasionally the Allied AI seems to get out of sync in Italy, but I haven't heard of a case of this in a long time. Sorry you ran into this.

[Erzac]

I've a similar issue with the scenario. Allies landed east of Taranto in August. I formed a defensive line at Taranto, and from the beginning of September 1943 to January 1944 the allies have not made a single attack. They haven't even crossed the completely undefended strait of Messina in that time either.

[Joel Billings]

Thanks, if you can send me saves as well, I'd appreciate it. In the past, there were some things that would throw off the Allied invasion planning in that scenario, and once that happens, no invasions would take place. If you get to the end of January and nothing has happened, the AI has probably failed for the scenario. Sorry about the problem, and if we can identify where the failure is, we'll try to fix it. Once I get some saves, I may be able to tell what other saves I might need for us to duplicate this. Thanks.

[stolypin]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

Thanks, if you can send me saves as well, I'd appreciate it. In the past, there were some things that would throw off the Allied invasion planning in that scenario, and once that happens, no invasions would take place. If you get to the end of January and nothing has happened, the AI has probably failed for the scenario. Sorry about the problem, and if we can identify where the failure is, we'll try to fix it. Once I get some saves, I may be able to tell what other saves I might need for us to duplicate this. Thanks.

Saves sent.

Thanks for looking into this. I am playing the scenario a second time and am seeing the same thing: the AI pushes me hard until the end of 1943, then stops.

I am using the latest 1.065 beta build.

[Erzac]

Sent saves as well.

[Joel Billings]

Thanks for the saves from the two games. This didn't turn out to be catastrophic AI failure to make a landing on the mainland like we had in the past (and which seems to be fixed). These turned out to be cases of the Allied AI showing it's inability in this scenario to break the German lines without help. The AI has several different strategies for where and when it's going to land in 1943. One of them (and probably the most likely) is the Taranto landing. This strategy is fairly easily beaten unless you give the AI help. In fact, we always recommend that once you understand the basics of the game, you play at least at Challenging level if you are playing the defensive side in the scenario. The "attacking" AI is generally going to need some help. It's much easier for the AI to play the defensive game (in WitW that's almost always Axis) then the offensive game. One of you set up a line around Naples and kept it from attacking. I would be interested in a save from around June 1944 in this case because I would have thought it would start launching some attacks then. The other game shows the Taranto landing bottled up. I changed the morale help levels and saw the AI attack in both games in the saves sent, so it seems it just can't get the desired odds without the help. The good news is you can change the help levels mid-game against the AI. I suggest you back up in your games and go to 90 Axis and 110 Allied morale help (maybe even 120 for the Allies to help it break the stalemate. The alternative is to try the game from the Allied side without help and see how you do, then you can increase the help levels as desired.

I wish I had a better answer for you, but the Italian campaign is a slog and the Allied AI is not the brightest bulb in the shed (or maybe it knows better than the Allied generals what a futile campaign it was and doesn't want to lose it's virtual soldiers).

[Tejszd]

This still occurs using the latest beta (Apr. 2018 v1.02.15Beta) but looking at the stacks I can't believe the Allies couldn't break out if the AI tried.

I expected a breakout so kept my additional troops in rough/mountains to the W, N and NW.



Edit: the Allies final tried attacking again, Taranto, in Feb. 3/1945 after nothing since the lines formed in the image above in 1943.