Is adding AI control to allied countries so that you can play only as Italy for example, is planned?

[lIIlIIlIIl]

Is adding AI control to allied countries so that you can play only as Italy for example, is planned?

[AlvaroSousa]

No.

But in WarPlan 2 you will be able to control an alliance side.

I might make a Europe/Pacific USA. Not sure yet.

[Omnius]

I absolutely hate the idea of having an AI control any of my units, one reason I hate playing games that had that annoying feature. I'd rather control the whole side and move countries in an alliance at the same time.

How would two players share a side like the Axis or Allies in multiplayer mode? I haven't played multiplayer so am not sure how that works compared to hotseat. Would it be easy for two players to share each side, one controlling the European theater while the other manages the Pacific? That would be a nice touch although it means coordinating between 4 players instead of two.

[kaliyama]

I love this feature in Strategic Command, especially putting the AI in charge of the Chinese and Soviets and playing only as the US and UK. It is a much more faithful recreation of the problems of command to _not_ have full control over your allies - there was zero coordination and little cooperation between Germany and Japan, and Germany ended up brutally occupying its most significant ally Italy, and Germany's other key allies Hungary and Romania were riven by internal power struggles over which faction to support. Stalin's miserable paranoid view of the world meant his cold war started in arguments with the western allies over delays in opening the second front.

Even the US and the UK were locked in conflict over competing objectives as the UK tried to steer the US towards decisions that would help the UK preserve its empire. The UK's manpower problems led to Montgomery's conservative, set-piece approach to fighting. ABDACOM was one of the worst allied failures in the pacific and the closest the allies came to naval cooperation was minor (tho important) australian contributions throughout and british carriers that arrived in 1945 to strengthen the UK's claim to its pacific holdings.

Inter-allied mechanics that reflect these challenges (e.g. different VP incentives for allies, requiring expenditure of political points/resources to directly control allies' forces) would create more realistic command problems.