More AI observations

[Jim D Burns]

Started a new game as allies and this time Poland fell after about 4 turns or so. AI then declared war on Denmark the turn after surrender and wasn't able to get units close enough to occupy Copenhagen (pushed defender out but failed to advance). This allowed me to transport a British Corp into the city and the AI was then unable to cope with finding a way to take the city vs. a competent defender. I withdrew the unit afer 3-4 turns to allow the AI to take the city before March, so as not to break the game, but as things looked it was never going to fall had I stayed.

As soon as it took Denmark it declared on Netherlands and again had too few units to destroy even one Dutch unit let alone occupy much territory. I could have easily flooded the country with units had I wanted to take advantage, but I refrained to keep things going in game.

It handled Belgium fine (Again declaring the very first turn after a surrender) as it is so close to the Netherlands, so no issue there.

The AI needs to wait to declare war until the entire border is garrisoned with units with full action points, that would go a long way to prevent a human from easily stopping an AI in its tracks in 39.

France needs major work. The AI attacked around April I think, and I refrained from sending any British units into France except for a few turns of fighter support before withdrawing them back to Britain. I have managed to hold the AI out of Paris and the game is now into January 1941 and Paris is still looking good even though this game is set on seasoned level of help for the AI. Again I think the main problem is lack of action by the AI (I downloaded a short patch this morning so I think I'm running the most current build).

Edit: Actually it's not so much lack of action, but lack of focused action. A player can use his entire airforce to prep a tough hex, the AI seems to rely on support missions only, which just isn't enough to break a tough hex like Copenhagen. Perhaps force the AI to keep 50% of its airforce on mission and use it on tough fights before any land attacks go in?

The AI does make multiple attacks now on the same hex, but it seems to take very heavy losses in most fights, so I assume it is making very low odds attacks. As of the current date Germany's land losses are 508 and all of the combined allies are slightly above that but nowhere close to 600 total yet so losses are pretty much even.

Here's a screenshot (had to reduce it by 50%) showing the situation, as you can see Germany's units are pretty low strength given that they have a seasoned experience buff of 12% experience for every unit that I set at game launch.

Not trying to be a pain here, just want to help make the AI better if possible.

[gwgardner]

What level of difficulty are you playing at? It's my experience that putting the AI on Optimal experience and a very high effectiveness (supply) setting makes a big difference in AI performance.

With higher effectiveness, the AI will do things that it won't otherwise do, in terms of positioning forces, etc. Try putting the AI on the highest levels and play a few turns to see if you notice a difference.

I would of course like to see the AI at its best on normal difficulty levels.

[Jim D Burns]

As mentioned, I set the game to seasoned level. It gives 12% exp. Might try it at max 30% after another patch comes out. 12% is a pretty significant strength boost in 1939, 30% might help it attack early on, but I'm worried the units will simply be too strong to overcome late game at that level given that the Germans will be at 100% while most allies start at 40%-50%.

I didn't mess with the other setting as it appears to change how the game plays and I don't want to learn things/develop habits that won't apply in PBEM games.

Jim

[Meteor2]

Another question regarding the allied AI:
USA joined the Allies in Dec 41. In Jan. 42 a US submarine group was detected in the Med.
FoW and no real?
Otherwise, which base was used for an AI sub near Rome?

[AlvaroSousa]

I'll take a look at the airforce focusing again. It should be doing it.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Meteor2

Another question regarding the allied AI:
USA joined the Allies in Dec 41. In Jan. 42 a US submarine group was detected in the Med.
FoW and no real?
Otherwise, which base was used for an AI sub near Rome?

If I had to guess they used tankers to refuel at sea, then began basing out of Gibraltar or some other allied base. Just a guess.

Jim

[Meteor2]

Next Observation:
Russian Partisans occuoies an hex.
In the next turn, this hex is occupied by a russian air unit. [:-].
That situation should not be possible.

[Meteor2]

In the game the SU is occuoied till the Ural.
Neverthess no surrender.
It does not feel right. 20 soviet Units left and no surrender.... [:(]

[Jaqwonthechef]

I've noticed from my messing around that you can invade Benelux as the allies while Germany is still messing around in Poland. This lets you encircle the Siegfried Line and advance all the way to the Elbe at least before the Germans can bring their forces to bear.

[AlbertN]

Against a player I doubt it would work - but vs the AI probably so.
The AI seems quite lackluster in general in its 'brain', then the beefing up through superpowers is another story.

[AlvaroSousa]

I've been thinking about changing the surrender of countries so players can have absolute dominance in Russia.

As for the A.I. there are a mountain of scenarios I can't think of myself. As long as they keep coming up I can adjust the A.I.