1939 Diplomacy

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks Claus, very interesting and fantastic feedback on this situation... a lot of food for thought and I can already think of some AI adjustments to make based on this and will discuss further and coordinate with Bill to see what he might be thinking for his end as well [:)]

[n0kn0k]

There is a dyke there called the "Afsluitdijk". The Germans were in reality stopped there during the invasion by a few machineguns.

[BillRunacre]

ORIGINAL: Xwormwood

The post you were looking for can be found in the Bugs section.

This happened in my first turn (the AI played the Axis side and played the "real" first turn.

I went to the war room, selected France, marked Luxembourg, and clicked on Declare war.
Then I left the war room menu. When i was back at the game map view, two information pop ups appeared. France declares war on Germany, followed by a second pop up, where the game told me that UK declared war on Germany. The USA was angry because of the declaration of war against Luxembourg, if I remember correctly i got this message within the war room once I've declared war.

You are right, but I don't know why the messages are appearing after France declares war on Luxembourg. They should have appeared in the AI's turn, not after France attacks its neighbour. Very odd.

[John B.]

I wonder what effect this would have on the US? If France is holding strong they may be less inclined to ship stuff to Europe as opposed to the Pacific.

[xwormwood]

July 1941, Germany begins slowly (!) to crumble.

When I look back, the most important lesson learnd is this:

- The AI need to take the Allied units in Poland serious. The AI can't afford to let them slip deep into Slovakia.
- Once Germany has more than 2 or 3 allied units on german soil, it should postpone any attack on the Netherlands or Belgium until it has kicked the invaders out.
- if the AI wasn't able to kick France out of the war until Summer 1941, it should shift the focus completely toward the west. One solution could be that the AI grants "russian" Poland to the USSR (pre-WW1 borderline), abandons all balkan neutrals toward the USSR (or whoever "comes first") and start to do everything to win the war in the West.
Giving up conquered Poland could have the effect, that the USSR AND the USA could lose great amount of war readiness.
In short: the AI should be granted a complete new war goal, while the Allied player should -no matter what- at least have won a draw once the game has ended. All this would give the human player the game of his live, a complete different war.
Problem would be that the game would need a complete new set of pop-ups and decision events once the AI got new war goals.

[xwormwood]

August 1941, USSR declares war on the Axis.
But illprepared. Wouldn't it be better to allow the Russian player to place at least some of his units at hexe of his own choice?
Wouldn't it be better to ALLOW the Russian player to declare war, instead of forcing the war upon him?

Another observation: the Egypt convoy line still runs through the Med Sea. Might it be that the Decision to move it is connected with the Fall of France?

[BillRunacre]

The problem is that the engine has no way of telling, without us adding in lots of complicated scripts, what situation Germany is in when the USSR reaches 100% mobilization.

If Germany is in a bad way then the Red Army units that deploy can easily be moved to better positions as the Axis won't be invading, or at least the Axis invasion will be weak.

As to the USSR declaring war on the Axis, I know what you mean but I'm not sure it makes any significant difference. The pressure is on for the Axis and both sides were able to see the rising temperature in the east as the USSR's mobilization increased towards 100%.

Knowing that that 100% figure means war does keep things a lot simpler, and it helps focus both sides' minds to concentrate on what needs to be done. [:)]

[xwormwood]

In a game where the Axis AI wasn't able to take France in 1940, the AI Afrika Korps should be placed in Germany.
I'm nearly through with my game, with Germany nearly reduced to a small place near the Alpes, but the Afrika Korps fights in Lybia.
This is not a mistake, of course, but i suppose that these units wouldn't have sailed to Africa while the war in Europe was still taking place near the german border.