Axis vs Allied AI

[Jack59]

Finally finished a game of the Axis vs Allied AI. The axis won a Minor Victory. It took me just over a year with some large gaps in time. The US did not Island hop as I expected. They invaded the Dutch East Indies, which I repelled, and doing so Japan took naval and naval air losses. I sent much of my Navy to Japan for repairs and replenishment. Then the US invaded Northern Japan, directly. I was able to defeat two invasions since the land units had no supply. The US attempted a major blockade around Tokyo which to my surprise Japan sunk most of the extensive US fleet. It helped my navy was in town. The US did sink units grouping to attack Hawaii. In general Japan was stretched to the limits but held on.

Italy held much of East Africa and helped bolster the Atlantic Wall. The Italian Navy dissuaded an invasion of Morocco and occasionally entered the Atlantic. Germany foiled multiple invasions of France. Germany stagnated in Russia till they had break through and capture the Russian oil fields from Persia. Then they headed North. Slowly the Germans finally broke the Russian morale and caused Russia to surrender on the last turn.

Strange things I noticed: The UK HQ Ritchie seemed to abandon its troops and head into Persia. I then saw him East of the Caspian Sea. After that he must have been detained by Russians. I would have thought he would retreat to India. After the game ended, I noticed a sizable, damaged fleet in and around Russian Pacific ports. It seems odd they did not return to the US for refit.

Why does Japan have to blockade Vladivostok to disrupt US supplies to Russia? They must have big guns in that port. Why is there not a convoy route to the port?

Why do the Allied Convoy routes to the UK not pass closer to Iceland as they historically did? I could see this if Iceland was axis controlled. The maritime bomber in Iceland cannot protect convoys. I think the gulf stream runs more northerly also. A maritime bomber in Scotland could also support that northern route.

[Elessar2]

Yeah, the US naval AI needs some work: some of it is in the scripts: if you examine the FLEET scripts you'll see ones for the Solomons, DEI, and yes Japanese home islands, but the ships numbers required before the scripts are "triggered" are fairly low, which means you as the IJN can defeat each sortie in detail. Also noticed the damaged US ships hanging around level 5 ports (Russia & Aleutians), which of course can only repair them to 8. The fleet build scripts also need a lot of updating (ships are typically only built after most other units have been purchased, which will then have them commissioned from 1944-on, which is too late esp. if the human bought a lot of ships of his own.

There can be only one convoy route for any pair of countries, so to pork Lend-Lease another means (kludge) is needed.