AAR #2 - Western Allies v. the AI

[Hanal]

Winter '46

Germany delays the end by springing a Winter Offensive which has them taking Western Poland...the Russians in Berlin are now cut off!

[Hanal]

Winter '46

Time is fast running out, so the Western Allies launch a series of attacks which results in the liberation of France and Austria seized....

[Hanal]

Spring '46

Russian reopened the road to Berlin and the Western Allies launch the largest attack of the game against Western Germany...

[Hanal]

Western Germany Falls!

[Hanal]

If you are wondering what is going on in the Pacific, it has basically been a stalemate because many of my transports have been destroyed which makes keeping my forces in supply difficult...a number of naval campaigns are all that has been occurring...I did decide to take Siam in order to deprive the Japanese a resource...whoopty-damn-dooo!

Once again I spent too much time concentrating on Germany that I played a terrible Pacific Theater Campaign....bad habits die hard....

If the game ended now, it would be a draw, but I still have a couple of turns remaining...I will try sending as much as I can via the Red Sea to the Pacific and see if I have enough time to take Honshu (probably not)....I will need some help from the Russian AI as it will finally turn their attention towards Japan..........

[WanderingHead]

Out of curiousity, could you let the AI play every country and just watch it do its thing?

If you did, would it always choose the same initial strategies?

How long does the AI take to do a turn?

[Hanal]

Turn length will depend on certain variables, such as if you have combat animation on, animation movement speed, message delay time, ect. so it is difficult to pinpoint a specifc time, but AI turns do take awhile because there is alot going on....you cannot sim a complete AI game in an hour if that's what you are looking for as it will take much longer than that.....

Regarding if the AI plays different from game to game....the short answer is yes but some basic strategies are fairly consistent.....I just started up an all AI game because of your query and saw this move that I have not seen before:

The WA invaded Finland in 1942! I have seen other AI moves like this but would rather you discover them yourself...the "surprise" moves do not happen every game, but they are there....

By the way, I missed capturing a pic of the actual attack because I was unprepared for the move!..I had to wait for the German AI to give me a nice view of occuppied Finland...and while we are at it, note that Leningrad has fallen...sometimes the German AI captures it from the Russian AI, sometimes it does not....

[CPTBrown]

That's great! Unpredictable AI is a rare commodity in strategy games today. It looks as though 2by3 has placed its priorities in the right order here and focused on a great engine and AI over everything else. Anxiously awaiting the release...

CPT B
FLY ARMY!

[Hanal]

Fall 46

The Russians bomb the Japanese mainland............

[Hanal]

...while the Western Allies move east...there will not be enough time!

[Hanal]

A bamboo splinter in my butt, New Caledonia, finally is taken...

[Hanal]

The game ended in a stalemate (draw) since I was unable to occupy mainland Japan.....I had not played the WA in awhile and had forgotten that the Victory Conditions have been tightened up a bit since then...to acheive a victory you must either conquer both Germany and Japan or have an A bomb and 5000% (50 to 1) production to win...obviously I did neither, which results in the draw... I did make some strides but not enough for the win.... Upon reflection, this is as it should be, for as I said in my opening post, the marginal victories I was acheiving were not really fullfilling because I was not conquering both countries....

So, where did I screw up playing the WA?....Let me count the ways.....

1. Once again I payed little attention to the early campaign in the Pacific Theater as I concentrated on a Germany first strategy....and even there I took too long....while invading through Yugoslavia was a nice variant, I let Italy remain in the game, where more factories and resources were present than in my Balkan territories....

2. When playing with Advance Supply on, you need to protect your transports as much as possible especially in the Pacific...broken supply chains smother your progress....Also, I have never invested research in Transport Amphibious Capability...I believe this should not be overlooked by the WA player because you will be able to do more, with less....

3. Though my invasions into France were beaten back numerous times, they did serve to deflect forces away from the east....saying that though, had I been patient, and built up a larger force, like the one that finally held fast in France, I probably could have reduced the time it would take to conquer Germany...then again, maybe not....[;)]

4. I messed up in other areas as well, but I'll leave you to discover for yourselves how to go about winning as the Western Allies when playing GGWAW.....I'm not the one to show you the way as you have clearly seen....[:D]

Anyway, that's that..I hope you enjoyed it......

Regards

[Hanal]

..................................

[dricard]

Excellent AAR! I was interested in the AI of this game, so you AAR
helped me a lot. I think your AAR has changed my opinion of this game, this is a "must buy" for me. Thanks.

[WanderingHead]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon
Turn length will depend on certain variables, such as if you have combat animation on, animation movement speed, message delay time, ect. so it is difficult to pinpoint a specifc time, but AI turns do take awhile because there is alot going on....

What I meant is how long does it take to think. Of course the other stuff will take more time.

Looks like great stuff. I'm wondering how much I can learn from the AI .

[Joel Billings]

On my 3.0 GHZ machine with 1 Gig of RAM and a 128 Meg graphics card, it takes the computer about 15 seconds to play the first turn if all messages and animations are turned off (that's playing all 5 players in the Spring of 1940). Of course on turn 1, the Soviet Union and the US are just doing production, so it slows down later. However, if you have a machine like this, you will not be waiting for the AI, it will be waiting for you.

On my 2.0 GHZ machine with 512 Meg of RAM and a 64 Meg built in graphics card, it takes 25 seconds to play the first turn. The Spring 42 turn (turn 9) took 45 seconds for all 5 players.

[kfmiller41]

Great AAR sir, reading thru this has convinced me to buy this game.[&o]

[AAGamer]

Great AAR very nice. I have read all. THis is quick and thorough and I wanted to say that I apprecaited it very much. Keep up the supurb work

[Grotius]

Yep, excellent AAR. This game was already a must-buy for me, and your AAR heightened my interest even more.

I love the fact that you have to conquer both Japan and Germany (or outproduce them by 500%). That will force WA players to concentrate on the Pacific War, and since I'm a Pacific War buff, that's good news to me.