Lucky1
Posts: 383
Joined: 10/30/2006 Status: offline
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Just a couple of comments on AI functioning. I was playing as Germany and sometimes Italy (F1 as needed). Minor countries Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary were all human controlled (otherwise they just get in my and each other's way). I took Poland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Luxomburg and installed Vichy France. Then, I invaded Yugo and Italy declared war on Greece. All is going fine. I declared war on Russia in June 1941 and placed all minor countries on AI control (the country is big - how could they get in each other's way?). Things were generally going well, but the minor country units were busy tripping over each other in the Crimea around Sevastopol. To my surprise, a couple of lonely units (Slovakia, I think) were headed slowly toward Moscow. I was busy with mop-up and just let the AI do its thing. To my surprise, Moscow was vacant and was taken by a lowly minor country (does the AI have fog of war?). This unit then stopped. Although I had few units to spare, I immediately sent two armour corps to Moscow and then blitzed East immediately. City after city was unoccupied. Ultimately, only Pern (I don't have the names in memory) and the two cities next to it (one by the intersection of rivers to the SouthWest and the other to the Southeast by the screen border) had any units in them (each was garrissoned by only one unit). In short, once my armor units were able to get behind enemy lines, most of the cities were not garrisoned. I was able to take each city (providing supply chain) and keep rolling unimpeded until I hit the three NorthEasternmost cities. Admittedly, Russia had her hands full, but it would have cost very little to place infantry divisions in cities in the line of advance of my armor units. Russia fell in summer 1942. I never realized it during the game, but Britain had invaded Greece / Albania (the unit colors look similar to Romania). Although they had only a couple of cities, Most of Greece was choked up with a jumble of minor axis power units. However, they did not know to surround a city completely. Similarly, I left Italy with AI once I started Barbarossa. Although the Italians were able to get a large number of units to Cairo / Alexandria, the AI never attempted to surround cities (and it could have, with the number of units available). Effectively, the siege function did not work with AI because the units did not know to surround a city when this was possible. Comment on minor units tripping over each other: I know that it runs counter to the 'attraction' of playing a minor country (whatever that might be), but might it be possible to control minor countries at the same time (rather than in sequence)? Otherwise, the units simply get in each other's way. Too, the countries generally have too few units (at least in the same vicinity) to mount any attacks unless in concert with other countries (not possible). So basically, they bog down into a swarming jumble of units (that serve to interedict counter-attacks at the very least). I presume the same problem occurs with US and UK units not being able to interact (despite frequent operational coordination historically). I am curious whether other players find this situation annoying as well. Comments on sea battles: While I was controlling Italy, I concentrated her shipts into 16 unit fleets and placed these (not as raiders) on patrol in the Central Med. Interestingly, when the numerous naval battles ensued, it never seemed that ALL the Italian ships were in the action - only a few ships would fight at a time (not as raiders, I would remind you). I was wondering whether the computer recognized the new fleets..... Thanks in advance to developers working to respond to bugs etc.
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