Hubert Cater
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Joined: 7/22/2013
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Kharkov
Hi
Just watched through the Youtube video series and why the game looks amazing the one thing thats worrying me is the lack of aggression in the AI. It seemed really passive putting little to no response against the Axis forces. The French units didnt put up much of a resistance to the German invasion, little movement, no attacks, British Engineers suiciding into the North African Italian units....whats going on?
Hi Kharkov,
The British Engineers is an odd one as normally they should be building Fortifications in North Africa so this is a possible bug. If you could point me in the direction of the video that shows this behavior, and the timestamp, I'd be happy to take a closer look.
As Bill mentioned above, the thread he linked to does explain a bit of the early war Allied AI and why it does it what it does, but I will add here more specifically that the Poles and the French are at a bit of a disadvantage (in the early war) and the AI understands this and shapes its behavior with this in mind.
For example, here are a few screenshots of some of the Polish combat options after the initial Axis turn of the game. Note, these examples are all extracted from an AI versus AI test so it also gives you an idea of what the Axis and Allied AI achieve on the battlefield after "X" number of turns.
Situation in Poland after initial Axis AI assault:
Various Polish Combat Options:
As you can see, none of them are favorable to the Polish forces and would only result in losses to them. The general AI behavior in this case, as it also understands the various combat predictions and potential losses, would be to withdraw to friendly resources or other more defensible positions. Reason being here is that this type of behavior has a better chance of increasing AI supply which improves readiness and morale and can give it the opportunity to withdraw and then reinforce if necessary if there is some respite for any weaker units in subsequent turns. However, in this theater we nudge the AI to collapse around Warsaw instead of just any friendly resource.
The summary here for this specific Allied AI example, is that despite the initial appearance of passivity, I would argue this is the correct play for the AI to make, and one that most human players would also make, as any over aggressiveness here by the AI only makes the Axis job easier as it drives to Warsaw.
Situation in Low Countries after initial Axis AI assault:
The Axis AI is coded to make extensive use of rail and operational movement as well as forced march and will typically shift from the victory over Poland towards the Low Countries as quickly as possible. As seen in the above screenshot, which is from early March, it was lined up and ready to assault by late February and had attacked under clear sky conditions (it will wait for clear skies before declaring war) but there was snow. As a result its initial drive was a bit less than ideal as Brussels, The Hague, Antwerp and Liege are still in Allied hands. But this will vary from game to game depending on weather conditions and the timing of the initial Axis AI assault.
What you'll also notice is the positioning of the Allied forces in France and how the Allied AI has lined itself up along the border and along optimal defensive positions behind rivers and so on.
However, as you can see below, the Allied AI is still at a disadvantage, due to less experience, lower readiness and morale and lower quality HQ support, that most if not all of its immediate potential attacks against the Axis forces will cause more damage to themselves than to the Axis side.
Despite this, and at this point of the Axis invasion, I lift the restrictions on UK/French AI positioning (other than the Maginot and Paris and a few others) and allow the UK/French AI to decide for itself if it should go on the OFFENSIVE or DEFENSIVE on a per unit basis. So what you'll typically see is the UK/French AI conduct some attacks, and/or withdraw, and you'll even see some British and French units rush in to fill in the gaps in Belgium if applicable.
This can be seen a little bit in the next image, i.e. the following Allied turn, where both sides have pushed forward. However, in some games the UK/French AI may only fall back and this is again because it is set to behave dynamically at this point and if the initial Axis assault is more successful and menacing, the Allied AI will respond accordingly.
April 3rd, 1940 - Weather improves, Axis AI continues to push forward
Situation April 25th, 1940 - Axis AI has driven through the Ardennes, Allied positions threatened
Situation May 17th, 1940 - BEF begins withdrawal, Brussels surrounded and the French may have overexposed themselves
Situation June 8th, 1940 - BEF completes evacuation, French armor arrives, French situation precarious
Situation June 30th, 1940 - French Army collapses around Paris via partial evacuation of Maginot
Situation July 14th, 1940 - French last ditch defensive effort move their armor into Paris, HQs retreat
Situation July 21th, 1940 - France has surrendered
In a final summary, and despite the appearance of AI passivity, the reality is that for the Allies this part of the war is very one sided. This will hold true for either the Allied AI or an Allied human player. However, and on the flipside, it will still be a tough slog for the Axis, AI or otherwise to defeat the Polish, French and Low Countries and near the historical timeline.
Hopefully this helps paint a better picture of both the Allied and Axis AI for this part of the war, and the fact that the AI is no slouch when it has the advantage. In this case the Axis AI was able to beat back the Allied AI near the key historical dates and in this particular test did quite well as shown in the loss table below. 35 total Allied losses to 0 Axis.
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Passive AI - 
Amen to that.
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