How good is the AI in this game ?

[BSG]

I'm thinking about buying it but mainly for single player . If the AI sucks though then I might reconsider. Does anyone have an opinion on the games AI ?

[Alpha77]

Go back some pages, there are quite a bit threads for the AI..

Imho, if you do not care about a-historic scenarios the AI is ok (I mean the so called Ironman scens, which from players reports pose quite a challenge). In a historic scen like 1 the AI has serious probs, however if you are a newbie it is good for learning [:)]

[Trugrit]

+1

It is good enough to give you a fun game. It can give you some surprises for sure.

If you have an interest in history it can give you insights into why the war
was fought where it was the way it was.

There are players here who only play single player and they report it is alright.

The Advantages:
The AI is always ready to play 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Late or early hours are not a problem. Multiple turns in a single day.
The AI won’t quit and won’t get mad or complain about some obscure issue.

This from 2010…...9 years ago almost to the day:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2627304

I'm getting old.

[spence]

As I understand it the AI has several scripts "to read from" but once you've seen them all it won't do anything strategically unexpected. Since the game's inception Andy Mac (forum name for one of the developers) has written some new scripts for some if not all of the scenarios.

[bomccarthy]

As with almost all games, the AI does better on defense than on offense. That said, the Japanese AI in the historical campaign scenarios will really give a new Allied player a run for his/her money in the first 18 months of the game - the Allies are so weak during this time that you will be on pins and needles most turns. The AI gets a few small "cheats" to make up for its lack of organizational skills and intelligence (i.e., ships that will teleport from one port to another in order to join a task force ordered by the AI script). You can also adjust the AI difficulty settings as the game progresses ("hard" gives the AI some logistical advantages, while "very hard" gives it some logistical and combat advantages).

The scripts will produce surprises through the late years - in one historical campaign game I played, a small IJN carrier task force sailed to within striking distance of San Francisco in May 1945 (while my forces were focused on the Japanese Home Islands).

As you gain more experience in the game, the AI presents less of a challenge. But, keep in mind that each turn represents one day, so it is not unusual for a new player to need 12 months of real world time to reach Dec 1942 in the game. This is well before you begin receiving the huge Allied reinforcements.

I don't have any experience playing against the Allied AI, but opinions on this forum give it pretty low marks. The strategic possibilities on such a huge map can confound the AI script if the human Japanese player has advanced much farther than historically and the Allied resource requirements seem to be too complex for the AI to handle adequately. Under certain circumstances, the Allied AI will merrily sail unprotected supply and troop convoys into Japanese controlled waters (from what I have read on this forum) because the script will tell the AI to capture a base far behind the current Japanese front line.

[Kull]

Does the AI do a creditable job of replicating the historical events of the first 6-12 months of the war? Yes, and that's pretty much regardless of which side you play (although new players are just asking for trouble if they start off as the Japanese - not because of the AI, but the learning cliff is exponentially harder to master). After that, it kind of depends on how you play. One thing is for sure though, the Japanese AI is no worse than the historical Japanese opponent. It might even be better.

[BSG]

Thanks for all the replies!