seems best way to rescue PM against ai

[TerryHoax]

[:D]

the ijn Ai seems to have always little garison after initial invasion of rabaul, so instead of reinforcing PM with every AUS brigade i can get (as i have done in WitP) i have retaken rabaul with 2 brigades in january 1942. Only a ENG Force was there and some Airunits but thei are now gone.!
I think now is the AI in big trouble there. Anyone seen this before?

casualties only some hits to my APs and some cruisers by bettys...

[Remenents]

I never noriced that. Now that you bring it up though, I might try a landing over there with some of the ground units I brought in from the West Coast. Would be a nice to remove that thorn in my side.

[Speedy Gonzales]

Interesting. I wonder if this might actually break the AI so that it keeps doing very stupid things over and over again.

I held Pegu in Burma against the AI but Japan keeps attacking as if the AI is not capable of comprehending that it lost there and that it wont get Burma. Maybe something similar will happen in the southwest Pacific theater. Keep us posted.

[Rob Brennan UK]

ORIGINAL: Speedy Gonzales

Interesting. I wonder if this might actually break the AI so that it keeps doing very stupid things over and over again.

I held Pegu in Burma against the AI but Japan keeps attacking as if the AI is not capable of comprehending that it lost there and that it wont get Burma. Maybe something similar will happen in the southwest Pacific theater. Keep us posted.

Breaking the AI wrecks any fun for me. I hope this move won't for your game but i suspect it may well do.

[Remenents]

Well, I have already broken them really. Take a look at my post "Protecting Wake FINALLY".

[TerryHoax]

So, now i have my first Baseforce on their way to Rabaul,
i hope Ai is trying to retake Rabaul or, if it see, i'am to strong there hopfully it will try to defend
the line at truk and go for another target (by the way , wake is still in my hands,too but with weak surface-defend, my CVs have retreated to PH and Sydney for short (2weeks) repairs)
If this should be no fun and the AI will do stupid things, i will try to have my earlier savegame and cancel this operation so that AI can build up rabaul.

[Remenents]

I pretty much wooped the AI over at Wake. So taking Rabaul wont be a problem. Problem with this is the AI will now be really "boring" to play against because they will really be on the defensive then.

[TerryHoax]

ORIGINAL: Remenents

I pretty much wooped the AI over at Wake. So taking Rabaul wont be a problem. Problem with this is the AI will now be really "boring" to play against because they will really be on the defensive then.

yes, in this case i have to load my old savegame before invading it...
But why is the AI doing this? So the value of Rabaul should be shifted or with a new AI script there should be more garison for Rabaul (and all other Mainbases (exept of port arthur, i have seen that in my game there are about 90.000 men in Port Arthur, why?)

[John Lansford]

The AI appears to "forget" to leave sufficient garrison/defense units behind after they take an important base.  I retook both Djakarta and Tjilitjap from the AI after they were taken from me.  My ground forces had been forced out of the bases, but the invading units kept going down the road towards the next base and I moved right back in behind them.
 
They do that a lot in Burma too, but since the approaches are more limited it's harder to retake the bases after they move through.

[Remenents]

I dont know why they do that. It seems the AI is programed to take certain bases, but not to actually garrison them. And if they fail taking a "programed" base, then they just keep sending units at it... and as in my campaign... they dont care about the losses, no matter how high they start to mount, they just keep sending units, and usually its not enough units to counter the units I have at the objective. Perhaps there will be a patch to fix this later?

The AI takes what it is "programed" to, moves on, and if you take back what they are "programed" to take, they come back to retake it again... but then once they retake it, they just move on again leaving a nearly wide open base. Using this strategy, you could easily keep the AI busy for months on end as the Allies by just retaking Rabaul for example, abandoning it, and letting the AI retake it, all the while, gaining the prescious time needed to build up your units.

[vonTirpitz]

In the stock campaign Japan simply does not have enough combat units to go around. Japan is challenged to both take all the pacific islands within its reach and garrison the most important strategic locations as best it can. An aggressive AI (or human for that matter) will always be stretched. The large number of locations and limited number of units means that it is not feasible.

Perhaps, the AI could be encouraged to leave a stronger garrison at critical locations by increasing the value of those locations. However, there will always be weak spots and exploitable islands/bases.

Has anybody noticed this situation with the tougher campaigns such as 'Ironman'? I would guess that giving Japan a few extra combat formations might change how the AI sets up camp and protects what it takes.

Anyway, this is mostly conjecture on my part. [8|]

Tirpitz