Matrix Games Forums

[&:]This is for SPWAW;
I Hope someone can help me with this; when I want to generate a
campaign (campaign generator or WWII campaign), I set my purchase
points to the max (20,000) and buy to my hearts content, but when the
battle ends some turns later, I notice the AI only had between 15 to
30 units in play and I overwhelm the AI with 200!!. When I play
SPWWII and SPMBT, I have a fight on my hands when it seems the AI
outnumbers me 2/1 or 3/1! Is it something I'm doing, or not doing.
Thankyou in advance for any help anyone can give me. Nice day here
in W-B PA... I think it hit 50 today, not bad for the end of
Feburary.

I believe there is a limit to the number of units the game can handle. I know there is a limit to the number of units/formations you the player can have; pretty sure I heard somewhere that there is an upper limit for both sides total. If so, this might explain why you buy 200+ units, leaving the AI with only 50 or so units available. It has plenty of points, but not enough empty slots to fill.

Hope this helps....and if this info is FUBAR, hope someone corrects me.[8|]

No, this is absolutely correct.
I belive that there are a 400 unit limit to a battle that the two sides have to share between them. An issue I discovered in a PBEM as a russian assault and 13000 points to spend on a maximum of 300 units. I had to buy elite units only, but even that left me with 1000 points.

Other issues of this is that if the unit maximum is reached, abandoned/destroyed equipment and vehicles might have their crewmen evaporated as there are no unit slots left to hold them. Very inconvenient in a campaign. Second, there are no possibility to get reinforcement if the unit max is reached.

Mormegill

ORIGINAL: Mormegill

No, this is absolutely correct.
I belive that there are a 400 unit limit to a battle that the two sides have to share between them.

Hmm, dunno.
There is a limit for sure but must be higher.

Some of Steve "Warrior" Avery scenarios showing in Spwaw 8.0, are 800+ units large [X(][:D]

There is also the formation limit. Did a search and found some mentions about 100 formations and 400 units. As for Warrior's scenarios it may be that the limits are higher when you are making a 'canned' scenario...I think these limits were originally higher but they were reduced. Guess the AI purchase or whatever did not cope well with huge numbers of units?

Voriax

Sometimes the AI has problems buying units period. It's lot better than it used to be when the edge of the map would be a long line of transportation-less ATG's. but I still see the odd battle here or there where the German AI buys 20-30 81mm mortors. Nothing will make you turn "Fast Artillery" on faster than sitting through a massive 81mm AI bombardment on a single hex. In those cases I like to sneak a couple of Greyhounds or a platoon of halftracks behind enemy lines and kill as many as I can before they turn their tubes to direct fire.

You mentioned a problem with purchase points, giving the AI only 15
units or so. What contry is the AI playing, and does this happen
every time? Also, you want to stay at less than 200 formations, so
the AI can purchase also, there are only allowed 400 formations
TOTAL, between you and the AI!! Hope this helps?

Warhorse

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My responce to Warhorse;

Thanks for the response.

It's not so much a purchase point problem, I give both side the max (20,000 I think, in the preference menu), I'm only allowed to purchase a max of 200 units and I always have less than 100 formations, around 60-80 most of the time. I usually try to buy company formations when possible. I'm playing Germany in a WWII campaign against, well, everyone else (Poland, France, Britain, ect'). Between battles, I get the choice of Northern Europe, Middle East or Eastern Europe. So far, everytime I try to generate a campaign, this happens. I tried it USMC (me) against Japan, I buy 200 units (60-80 formations) and the AI ends up with 20 or so units. I know I don't have this problem with SPMBT and SPWW2. Thanks again for your response. I have an e-mail out to WBW (Wild Bill Wilder) and is looking into it. Thanks...

What you are describing has been around for years, even before SP:WAW. I first experienced this phenomenon while playing SP3, six or seven years ago. Apparently, there is a numeric overflow when the computer tries to buy units in certain battle types. For instance, if you are playing a Defend battle, the computer wants to buy 2 or 3 times the forces that you have purchased. If you have a force points value of 20,000, then the resulting numeric overflow as the computer tries to purchase the units the battle demands creates ridiculous situations.

Unit limits and formation limits have absolutely nothing to do with what is going on in these cases. My advice to you: avoid creating situations where the computer wants to spend more points than 20,000. Therefore, only play medium or easy (and avoid hard) battles where you are advancing or assaulting if you have a force value near 20,000. Also, remember that if you have true troop costs turned on, then as you upgrade your force during a long campaign you can easily create a force points value exceeding 20,000 (for instance, you start with 10,000 points of Pz IIIs and upgrade them all to Tiger 2s) which will cause the computer to go into numeric overflow when trying to purchase troops to fight you.

I have a general rule when I play campaigns with my friends: we fight only advance and assault battles whenever we suspect that our force points value is getting close to 20,000.