Some thoughts on the new patch (longish)
Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 12:29 pm
I tried out the patch by playing the Axis and setting the difficulty level to Challenging.
First, I want to compliment Matrix on a great patch. The WA AI has been improved dramatically. The WA put planes in England to close down the English Channel and then formed two large carrier groups which it used to close down the GIUK gap, thus preventing my German subs from breaking out into the Atlantic! Excellent play. If the AI had defended Gibralter properly then I would probably never have been able to get at any of his transports. I also liked how the WA researched ASW on their heavy bombers, which it has always done, but now the WA used some heavies combined with fighter cover to fly CAP over the Bay of Biscay to keep my U-boats penned in. The AI also did a good job of tracking my U-Boats (I played without FoW in order to see what the Allies were doing in the new patch). When there were no U-boats in Germany, it opened up the GIUK gap and used the fleets elsewhere, but closed the gap again when it saw U-Boats in Germany. Most impressive.
The WA AI defended the British Isles well and still managed to put a sizeable force in Cairo. I eventually took Cairo, of course, but it took longer than usual. In prior games, once I took Cairo I was able to march my Germans over to India and conquer it easily. Not this time. The WA built a number of infantry, and shipped in others, as well as a fighter and a tac and defended India well. The WA even threw out a line of transports to connect Australia to India/Africa. I had never seen that before.
Just about the only errors I saw in the WA AI was its failure to properly garrison Gibralter (though it is tough enough for a human to try and defend England, Scotland, Gibralter and Cairo - something has got to give), and the continuation of the AI's strange proclivity of piling up large numbers of transports just west of Gibralter, even when there are no warships to protect them.
The new Russian placement in Siberia is very good, especially using the armor to shut down the paradrop on Central Siberia exploit. My Japanese were able to easily take Irkutsk and Vladivostok, but the Russians quickly reinforced Central Siberia and penned the Japanese in. Additionally, the extra fuel cost rule really put a damper on Japanese agression in Russia. Given that huge cost, my efforts left the Japanese so low on supply, combined with the standard bombing of China, that they were unable to repair any of the resources they took in the DEI once the war with the WA started.
This fuel cost rule is a great addition and will slow down the Japanese. I have, however, found a bug with it. If you situate your supply so that a unit crossing a 2MP boundry can only draw on one supply, then the game will still allow the unit to cross the boundry and consume just the one supply. It may take a little fiddling, but the fuel cost rule can be circumvented. Something Matrix may want to take a look at in the future.
The Soviet AI was more competent than before the new patch, but not much more so, and not as much improved as the WA. The Soviets protected the Caucuses and did not feel the need to overload Moscow. The Soviet AI also seemed more aggressive, being willing to counterattack and whittle down my forces.
On that note, the change to the WS for armor evasion has really had an impact. I am used to my German armor killing with abandon while only occasionally suffering a damage result. In this post patch game, I was losing tanks like flies. I may need to now spend more German effort on building up artillery and tac air, which is a good thing.
One major gripe. The combat resolution column pop-up does not do so. In order to get it to come up, I have to left click a unit in the combat and then right click to drop it back into the combat. That will usually bring up the combat pop-up. This is a pain and it was so much better before the patch.
Also, I thought that moving supply over transports was supposed to generate op fire with this patch? Was I incorrect? I moved tons of supply (and troops) right past Malta without taking a single op fire. Does an aircraft need to be present to trigger the op fire?
Overall, I would grant this patch an A. Excellent improvements to the AI with only minor annoyances. Keep up the good work, Matrix.
Edit: I also noticed something another poster complained about. While Tripoli and Italian East Africa start with 5 supply each, at some point in my turn those supplies disappeared. I have no idea why. In my next game I will look more closely to see if I can localize when it disappears.
First, I want to compliment Matrix on a great patch. The WA AI has been improved dramatically. The WA put planes in England to close down the English Channel and then formed two large carrier groups which it used to close down the GIUK gap, thus preventing my German subs from breaking out into the Atlantic! Excellent play. If the AI had defended Gibralter properly then I would probably never have been able to get at any of his transports. I also liked how the WA researched ASW on their heavy bombers, which it has always done, but now the WA used some heavies combined with fighter cover to fly CAP over the Bay of Biscay to keep my U-boats penned in. The AI also did a good job of tracking my U-Boats (I played without FoW in order to see what the Allies were doing in the new patch). When there were no U-boats in Germany, it opened up the GIUK gap and used the fleets elsewhere, but closed the gap again when it saw U-Boats in Germany. Most impressive.
The WA AI defended the British Isles well and still managed to put a sizeable force in Cairo. I eventually took Cairo, of course, but it took longer than usual. In prior games, once I took Cairo I was able to march my Germans over to India and conquer it easily. Not this time. The WA built a number of infantry, and shipped in others, as well as a fighter and a tac and defended India well. The WA even threw out a line of transports to connect Australia to India/Africa. I had never seen that before.
Just about the only errors I saw in the WA AI was its failure to properly garrison Gibralter (though it is tough enough for a human to try and defend England, Scotland, Gibralter and Cairo - something has got to give), and the continuation of the AI's strange proclivity of piling up large numbers of transports just west of Gibralter, even when there are no warships to protect them.
The new Russian placement in Siberia is very good, especially using the armor to shut down the paradrop on Central Siberia exploit. My Japanese were able to easily take Irkutsk and Vladivostok, but the Russians quickly reinforced Central Siberia and penned the Japanese in. Additionally, the extra fuel cost rule really put a damper on Japanese agression in Russia. Given that huge cost, my efforts left the Japanese so low on supply, combined with the standard bombing of China, that they were unable to repair any of the resources they took in the DEI once the war with the WA started.
This fuel cost rule is a great addition and will slow down the Japanese. I have, however, found a bug with it. If you situate your supply so that a unit crossing a 2MP boundry can only draw on one supply, then the game will still allow the unit to cross the boundry and consume just the one supply. It may take a little fiddling, but the fuel cost rule can be circumvented. Something Matrix may want to take a look at in the future.
The Soviet AI was more competent than before the new patch, but not much more so, and not as much improved as the WA. The Soviets protected the Caucuses and did not feel the need to overload Moscow. The Soviet AI also seemed more aggressive, being willing to counterattack and whittle down my forces.
On that note, the change to the WS for armor evasion has really had an impact. I am used to my German armor killing with abandon while only occasionally suffering a damage result. In this post patch game, I was losing tanks like flies. I may need to now spend more German effort on building up artillery and tac air, which is a good thing.
One major gripe. The combat resolution column pop-up does not do so. In order to get it to come up, I have to left click a unit in the combat and then right click to drop it back into the combat. That will usually bring up the combat pop-up. This is a pain and it was so much better before the patch.
Also, I thought that moving supply over transports was supposed to generate op fire with this patch? Was I incorrect? I moved tons of supply (and troops) right past Malta without taking a single op fire. Does an aircraft need to be present to trigger the op fire?
Overall, I would grant this patch an A. Excellent improvements to the AI with only minor annoyances. Keep up the good work, Matrix.
Edit: I also noticed something another poster complained about. While Tripoli and Italian East Africa start with 5 supply each, at some point in my turn those supplies disappeared. I have no idea why. In my next game I will look more closely to see if I can localize when it disappears.