What's with the American Army?????

[James Ward]

I'm playing as the Brits and it's September of the first year. The American have about 30,000 troops near Boston and another 10,000 or so in Province.
Every town I try to take with my raiding Indians has a Militia garrison. How do they get so many troops? I can't come close to those numbers so early on when I'm the Americans.
Don't tell me the AI cheats and gets free troops?!?!?!?!?!?!? [:@]

[CptHowdy]

how much influence do the brits start with? colonials get like 60 to start i think, so thats 10 militia units right there, cost 6 influence each. only other way to get influence fast is to occupy a major town and those give ya +10 i think, so they run through then you run through and ya just keep trading without ever defending.

[James Ward]

ORIGINAL: CptHowdy

how much influence do the brits start with? colonials get like 60 to start i think, so thats 10 militia units right there, cost 6 influence each. only other way to get influence fast is to occupy a major town and those give ya +10 i think, so they run through then you run through and ya just keep trading without ever defending.

I believe the Americans start with 80 influence, enough for 13 militia units assuming they do nothing else. That gets you ~4,000 troops assuning 300 per militia unit. One of the American generals (Lee?) had 21,000 infantry late July/ early August. And there were at least 3 other armies with over 5,000 infantry each and that was just in the Boston area. There were also milita units all over the South and near Philly.
I did a No Fog of War test and the A I Americans seem to be able to raise far more militia than a human could.
I'm playing at Captain level with the realistic rule set.

[CptHowdy]

wow, that is a lot. im playing the first scenario after the tutorial which only lasts for a year and a half. i start with 3-4 armies near boston the largest being around 4000 men i think. i guess hussargames will have to answer this one.

[HussarGames]

The AI has some bonuses in all resources including influence.

[James Ward]

ORIGINAL: HussarGames

The AI has some bonuses in all resources including influence.

Is there a way to reduce them without giving the human an advantage?

[HussarGames]

Set difficulty to Soldier, then change the morale bonus for the computer to 0 in the file AI_bonusz.dat. The file is in the data dir and can be opened with notepad.
The numbers in it are the morale modifiers for the computer.

[James Ward]

ORIGINAL: HussarGames

Set difficulty to Soldier, then change the morale bonus for the computer to 0 in the file AI_bonusz.dat. The file is in the data dir and can be opened with notepad.
The numbers in it are the morale modifiers for the computer.

Thanks.

[Brandtake]

Is this a one-time influence bonus at the start of the game (in which case it's probably not a big deal over the course of the campaign), or does the AI continue to generate extra influence?

[marc420]

" Don't tell me the AI cheats and gets free troops?!?!?!?!?!?!? "

Apparently, that is what they are telling you. 

The classic crutch for people who won't program a better AI.

[FM WarB]

I wish to preface by saying that this is a fascinating game system.
The issue is not just Alfred. The recruitment regional logic is faulty. Huge armies from all over the country can be created in Portland Maine, for example. The Americans are alloted too much infantry and militia, and they can be recruited pretty much wherever you want.
I slow watched a battle against Alfred, and he had 9,000 militia recruited in Portland Maine that came from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. I had captured or burned Every town from NYC to Albany, Holding all but Springfield and Plymoth (pillaged) and Providence RI, where Alfred had a 40,000 man army, suffering no supply or recruitment woes. This in 1777 in the campaign game. I had also pillaged my way from Trenton to Anapolis.
Also annoying was the 10 cavalry units Alfred also manged to recruit.