Rommel relieved by AI

[Drax Kramer]

Why does German AI consistently relieves Rommel from duty and redeploys DAK to Russia? In each and every 1941 or 1942 scenario I played, German AI shut down the North African front on the turn one.

Now, if such move paid off in Russia, I'd say "Good strategy", but German AI so far showed incapable of winning in Russia, so I wonder what makes German AI so reluctant to fight in North Africa?


Drax

[Daykeras]

Well as a strategist, I'd say they decided north africa was too long and big to assault on against a large fleet and relatively large army with air support (assuming the WA is a computer and did what it normally tries to do there). So you pull out and guard the southern front of italy. On paper it seems logical enough, except that you'd defend much less by just taking out all the med and fortifying both ends.

Oh, and never rule out that the computer is stupid and random.

[Agema]

Had it not been for the need of Germany to support the Italians busy messing up their little side projects (note Greece as well, for instance), I doubt they'd have bothered with North Africa in real life either. It dragged on so long because they decided to tootle around without expending the resources to gain victory.

[Daykeras]

But that's mostly due to the views of Hitler. Hitler wanted Italy to take the Mediteranian while he dealt with Russia and he thought that since England was much like Germany they'd leave him be. He was wrong, but that's how things go.

He also didn't aspire to seal that area off. He should've (which is a big reason why we do it as axis in this game) because that means in the end you have a much smaller front to protect... but that's just how it goes.

[Agema]

Yeah, that's sort of what I was saying. The Italians made a right hash of things, and the Germans (who never wanted to get that much involved in the area) had to prop them up, but weren't prepared to devote the resources necessary to secure victory.

But if you then stick an AI in who doesn't have to consider Italy as a separate country with expansionist desires and a military woefully inadequate to the task, you might well decide your troops are better spent elsewhere. (Or, it might decide to rampage through the region to secure the Middle East resources and possibly also open a second front with the USSR, but that may be a less likely a calculation for an AI.)

[Drax Kramer]

Anyway, it certainly looks strange for Germany to abandon NA all together and than routinely send their Italian based stukas to attack Allied ground troops in Tunisia or Lybia. In one game, Germans even dropped airborne unit in Lybia to prevent Italian surrender (Soviets were about to invade North Italy from Yugoslavia).


Drax

[haruntaiwan]

I just played a game where Germany kept 12-15 units in Africa...they took Egypt and marched to Iraq where they sat for the rest of the game instead of taking Iran and Caucasus...and they had tons of supply, too.

They also did not repair Iraq's resources.

In the same game I took Norway in the first couple turns...maybe that affected the AI?

[Joel Billings]

Odd that they just sat in Iraq. If you have a save for this, please send it to 2by3@2by3games.com. I would have expected that they would have done something with those units. As for the 41/42 scenarios, I'm not surprised that the AI abandons Africa as I think Gary felt that this was the best strategy. I've taken note of these comments and will make sure Gary sees them when he puts some more time into the AI.

[Agema]

I just played a game where they abandoned Libya, but tried to hold Morocco to Tunisia.

[Drax Kramer]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

As for the 41/42 scenarios, I'm not surprised that the AI abandons Africa as I think Gary felt that this was the best strategy.

Hm. Without entering into each man's understanding of what was best, I do tend to play within historical limitations as far as strategy is concerned. Where I am looking for improvements is within operational scope. It means, that for me 1941 is the optimal time for invading USSR, for example.

Now, when I played 1942 scenario as Germans. I captured Malta on first turn and advanced into Egypt. In Summer, I tried to repeat Rommel and capture Cairo, but was stopped (as Rommel was). Allied reinforcements prevented me from trying again, but the very presence of single armoured unit with artillery, militia and fighter attached, essentially prevented Allies from making any offensives against me, until Torch.

What this showed to me is that this single German armor unit served better purpose right there in Africa, then in Russia where I had more than enough units to capture Caucasus then Moscow and finally Gorki, all before 1944.


My reccomendation would be to let German AI maintain the North African front, if for no other reason than for historical one, to keep Allies from plotting invasions of Italy.

And when your attention would be focused on the Mediterranean, how about placing Taranto where it belongs, to Central Mediterranean? Italy already has an Adriatic port.


Drax