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Here is a sample rotation as France vs. the AI players. Note: AI players on hard. All other six players at war with France in 1805. Note that Russia managed to hold out for five years (until Nov, 1810) with two of those years being the only remaining power at war with France.

1812, Sep Spain surrenders unconditionally to France
1811, Dec Great Britain surrenders unconditionally to France
1811, Nov Turkey surrenders unconditionally to France
1811, Jun France has declared war On Great Britain
1811, Mar Prussia surrenders unconditionally to France
1811, Jan Turkey accepts a call from Prussia to war against France
1811, Jan Spain accepts a call from Prussia to war against France
1811, Jan France has declared war On Prussia
1810, Dec Austria surrenders unconditionally to France
1810, Nov Russia surrenders unconditionally to France
1810, Nov Austria has declared war On France
1808, Dec Great Britain surrenders unconditionally to France
1808, Jan Spain surrenders unconditionally to France
1807, Oct Austria surrenders unconditionally to France
1807, Sep France has declared war On Austria
1807, Jul Prussia surrenders unconditionally to France
1807, May France has declared war On Prussia
1807, Jan Turkey surrenders unconditionally to France
1806, Jan Austria surrenders unconditionally to France
1805, Jul Prussia surrenders unconditionally to France
1805, Jul Russia has declared war On France
1805, Mar France has declared war On Spain
1805, Feb France has declared war On Turkey
1805, Jan France has declared war On Austria
1805, Jan France has declared war On Prussia
1805, Jan war exists between France and Great Britain

The next update v1.09 should include AI improvements.  There are a lot of known weaknesses with the tactical AI that are listed in Mantis and fixing most of these should help a lot.  There are also some AI diplomacy issues that deserve some consideration to improve DOWs, alliances, and such.
 
Beyond that, and based on the sample rotation given above, what other insights should Marshall consider?
- Do the difficulty settings for easy/medium/hard need to be reconsidered?  Hard AI currently receives 20% bonus on manpower and money but maybe a higher bonus is needed, unless the other fixes succeed in making the AI more competetive.
- Did the AIs form any alliances and show any cooperation, or does this area still need some attention?
- Could you provide final victory point status for the MPs at game end?  I assume France got a victory in 1812.  Curious to see how the others stacked up.
 
Personal opinion here.  For solo games like this the AI should be fairly competent, the difficulty settings challenging, and the game experience basically fun if not historical.  Hopefully we'll get there one of these days.  For multiplayer games, it's important to have fairly competent AI with somewhat historical behavior for individual computer opponent MPs in lieu of the UMP rules, for those games where only some of the players are computer controlled.  Hopefully v1.09 will get us closer to that objective.

ORIGINAL: pzgndr
Beyond that, and based on the sample rotation given above, what other insights should Marshall consider?
- Do the difficulty settings for easy/medium/hard need to be reconsidered?  Hard AI currently receives 20% bonus on manpower and money but maybe a higher bonus is needed, unless the other fixes succeed in making the AI more competetive.

Is there any real difference in the difficulty settings?

Hard gives bonus on Future money, manpower, and victory points, if not under an enforced peace or having their capital city occupied. So no bonus to starting out capabilities. For countries like Prussia, which spend most of the game under an enforced peace or with Berlin occupied, the hard bonus isn't any bonus.

The hard bonus is particularly valuable to Russia and Great Britain, since they are likely to be the countries who can go the longest without being under an enforced peace to France because their capitals are so far away (or defended by the english channel).

Both Russia and GB put too many factors into garrisons and not enough into corps. I'm also not sure the extent to which the AI saves money to pay supply vs. foraging corps. It could be that the AI is putting factors into corps, but not paying supply.

ORIGINAL: pzgndr
- Did the AIs form any alliances and show any cooperation, or does this area still need some attention?

The AI forms plenty of alliances. The AI war efforts are independent. I have not seen any loaning of corps or stacking of armies. FR did not try to ally with AI countries, so the AI countries could only ally among themselves. FR did receive offers to ally from spain, turkey, and possibly others.

ORIGINAL: pzgndr
- Could you provide final victory point status for the MPs at game end?  I assume France got a victory in 1812.  Curious to see how the others stacked up.

Sept 1812 econ phase
FR 100% 410
GB 55% 350
SP 66% 295
PR 57% 295
TU 68% 285
RS 53% 315
AU 52% 305

(no econ manipulation. FR was in the dominant zone during every econ phase. TU was in the dominant zone for a little while after receiving a russian surrender.)

For the most part, the countries fought FR only. Prussia surrendered to Russia in early 1805 (around the time Prussia surrendered to France). Russia surrendered to Turkey around the time Russia surrendered to France. The AI does separate surrenders sometimes, instead of surrendering to multiple combatants simultaneously. Like the AI realizes it can't fight both enemies, so it surrenders to one power first. But the outcome is not in doubt and then it is forced to surrender to the other power.

I do not think that GB used its ability to reduce FR VPs.

Russia got hurt on VPs by holding out for a while with its capital occupied (spending time in the fiasco zone).

Not sure why Turkey came out so well, possibly from the boost from the Russian surrender.

FR surrender terms were 3 countries/provinces, 36 months, and reparations.