AI Hard Cap on Units to be transported

[Lothos]

I have run several simulations and noticed what appears to be a hard cap on how many units the AI will assign to a transport mission.

The CAP appears to be 3

I saw this with the AI Transport command to retreat the BEF out of France. The retreat is set to 1,4 units (max 4 basically).

I always see it only do 3 and never 4

I also tried to split this into two separate transport missions and hit the same cap with a max of 3 units in transports at sea at the same time.

No matter what I do the AI always leaves 1 of the units behind (in many cases it is the HQ which is a devastating loss)

[Hubert Cater]

Hi Lothos,

Off the top of my head there shouldn't be a hard cap, but it will be limited to the number of available transports at any one time, and if you only have 3 transports for the UK at the time of the BEF evacuation, it will cap it there as that is the amount available. This can be double checked in the Build Limits section of the Editor.

If this is not the case, please send me more details and possibly a save game from right before the BEF evacuation plan is engaged by the AI and I'd be happy to take a closer look.

Hubert

[Lothos]

Hi Lothos,

Off the top of my head there shouldn't be a hard cap, but it will be limited to the number of available transports at any one time, and if you only have 3 transports for the UK at the time of the BEF evacuation, it will cap it there as that is the amount available. This can be double checked in the Build Limits section of the Editor.

If this is not the case, please send me more details and possibly a save game from right before the BEF evacuation plan is engaged by the AI and I'd be happy to take a closer look.

Hubert

It was not the case, I will work on getting you a saved game just before the missions are assigned. The CAP is at 6 for the UK.

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks for the turn, and it looks like the AI is properly assigned the correct Transport plan for those units, but when it runs the 'Protect Capital Fronts' routine, some of those UK units are reassigned to protect Brussels as Brussels has not fallen.

This is a top priority routine that overwrites the Transport plan for some of those units, e.g. the one Corps and HQ, and these ones are being picked as Belgium is set as a UK minor.

If you set Belgium as a French minor, then it would prioritize French units instead, and then it would be very unlikely any of those British units set to Transport away from France would be re-assigned as they are in your game.

Hope this helps,
Hubert

[Lothos]

Thanks for the turn, and it looks like the AI is properly assigned the correct Transport plan for those units, but when it runs the 'Protect Capital Fronts' routine, some of those UK units are reassigned to protect Brussels as Brussels has not fallen.

This is a top priority routine that overwrites the Transport plan for some of those units, e.g. the one Corps and HQ, and these ones are being picked as Belgium is set as a UK minor.

If you set Belgium as a French minor, then it would prioritize French units instead, and then it would be very unlikely any of those British units set to Transport away from France would be re-assigned as they are in your game.

Hope this helps,
Hubert

But is that what is causing it not to pick up the 4 units and to always leave the HQ behind? If I waited for Brussels to fall you think then all 4 units will get picked up?

Also making Belgium a French Minor I prefer it be a UK minor because it sends all of its resources to the UK through the Belgium Congo.

Thank you for looking at it

[Hubert Cater]

It is as I described, all those units get assigned to a transport plan successfully.

Then the 'Protect Capital Fronts' routine takes effect and a portion of those units get re-assigned to a 'Defensive' plan. At that point, there is no longer a Transport plan associated with those re-assigned units. Those that still have a transport plan will embark, those that are now in a Defensive plan, stay on mainland Europe and never get reassigned to the Transport plan, e.g. that Transport plan is lost to them completely. This is why only a few units leave, and at least one or two with an HQ stay behind.

Hopefully this makes sense,
Hubert

[Hubert Cater]

So what you want is in those cases where some units will be drawn away due to an attack on the low countries and Brussels still being active and not having fallen, is for French units to be assigned to 'protect', not the UK ones. This is the reason behind the suggestion of making the Low Countries or Belgium a French minor instead of a UK minor.

You can check plans associated with units by left clicking on them and then pressing the '~' key.

If you load up the Allied turn, load it to be played by you,e.g. the one right after the Axis turn where they attack Belgium, and then press F9, you'll see the UK units are all assigned to the transport plan. Pressing F9 (it is a helper option for AI debugging) on a fresh turn will assign plans to the Allied units based in the current conditions of the current turn, e.g. the same as what the Allied AI would assign at the very start of the turn if it were to be controlled by the Allied AI.

It is then during the AI turn that these units get re-assigned as I described.

[Lothos]

It is as I described, all those units get assigned to a transport plan successfully.

Then the 'Protect Capital Fronts' routine takes effect and a portion of those units get re-assigned to a 'Defensive' plan. At that point, there is no longer a Transport plan associated with those re-assigned units. Those that still have a transport plan will embark, those that are now in a Defensive plan, stay on mainland Europe and never get reassigned to the Transport plan, e.g. that Transport plan is lost to them completely. This is why only a few units leave, and at least one or two with an HQ stay behind.

Hopefully this makes sense,
Hubert

Yea it does, it explains why the work around I did worked by splitting it into two transport commands. The first one took 2 CORP and the second one only executed when they got close to Paris to take the last two.

Thank you

[Hubert Cater]

Yes, I was thinking a secondary plan would also potentially work as a workaround as well, nicely done.