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It should take a month at best. I know IRL it took Germany just over a month, but a human player can annex Poland in 7 days in vanilla AoD.

This may have been a fluke (I can't remember from previous games). You'd need to run multiple AI-only games to find out how Germany really performs against Poland with CORE. If this is the real result, perhaps the AI balancing in CORE sacrifices some realism in Fall Weiss for other benefits elsewhere. You'd have to ask the CORE team.

My patrol bomber fiasco - I assumed this was what did the sinking, as it was present in the area and the "sunk by" column for HMS Eagle was blank. I couldn't think of anything else that could be responsible. Maybe I'm missing something though?
 
My patrol bomber fiasco - I assumed this was what did the sinking, as it was present in the area and the "sunk by" column for HMS Eagle was blank. I couldn't think of anything else that could be responsible. Maybe I'm missing something though?
Ah, well sometimes the "sunk by" column does get it wrong. So looks like NAV friendly fire is not possible in AoD, IMO.

Quite suprising Italy had troops in Ethiopia when declaring war. I guess CORE really wanted to go down the historical route. But what makes even less sense to me is that Italy declared war and yet the British are straight away on the (successful) offensive. The AI never ceases to disappoint me.
 
Ah, well sometimes the "sunk by" column does get it wrong. So looks like NAV friendly fire is not possible in AoD, IMO.

It may actually have been a German patrol bomber that swept through the region during the conflict. It all got a bit messy, so I'm not sure.

Quite suprising Italy had troops in Ethiopia when declaring war. I guess CORE really wanted to go down the historical route. But what makes even less sense to me is that Italy declared war and yet the British are straight away on the (successful) offensive. The AI never ceases to disappoint me.

I'm happy with the historical aspect; that's how it happened, so why not? As far as my quick response is concerned, that's historical foreknowledge really. I could have made an extra fluff setting banning myself from reinforcing East Africa until Italy declared war, which would have delayed my response by at least a couple of months I guess. Historically, the Italians got wholloped in Ethiopia though, so I don't feel that there's too much amiss. The tough fight will be in North Africa, although it won't be as tough as reality due to the Africacorps not existing in AoD.

As to them declaring war so early, that's another matter...
 
I'm happy with the historical aspect; that's how it happened, so why not?
Rather then explaining why not in my own words, I'll use yours:
Historically, the Italians got wholloped in Ethiopia

As far as my quick response is concerned, that's historical foreknowledge really. I could have made an extra fluff setting banning myself from reinforcing East Africa until Italy declared war, which would have delayed my response by at least a couple of months I guess. , so I don't feel that there's too much amiss.
True, which is why the AI should also go on the basis of historical hindsight (and thus Italy shouldn't have sent/kept troops in Eastern Africa).
The tough fight will be in North Africa, although it won't be as tough as reality due to the Africacorps not existing in AoD.
Ah, so CORE didn't make events for it then? That's a shame. But yeah, 30 or so Italian divisions against 9 Allied ones should be a tough fight!

As to them declaring war so early, that's another matter...
Indeed, the AI works in mysterious ways! Some might even calls those ways broken or nonsensical.
 
Rather then explaining why not in my own words, I'll use yours:

True, which is why the AI should also go on the basis of historical hindsight (and thus Italy shouldn't have sent/kept troops in Eastern Africa).
Ah, so CORE didn't make events for it then? That's a shame. But yeah, 30 or so Italian divisions against 9 Allied ones should be a tough fight!

Indeed, the AI works in mysterious ways! Some might even calls those ways broken or nonsensical.

Well, I prefer to play a historical game, even if some decisions from back then were clearly folly. If you have the AI as much hindsight as the player, the Second World War would never even have started. Then there are things such as Operation Barbarossa - clearly a bad idea in anyone's book. Given that the player has historical knowledge, it would be nice to give the AI a bit of an advantage in other areas though. In the case of Ethiopia, it would make no sense historically for the Italians to have conquered it if they didn't intend at least to try to defend it... and even if I know I'm going to win, it does make a difference to the game, as I'm having to deploy divisions there that I'd rather have elsewhere.

Africacorps - we did discuss this in another thread in fact. The difficulty is that although it's easy to write an event to send the divisions out there, the AI will just bring them back again unless they're locked. Apparently there's something hardcoded in the AI that means that if two allied powers have the same target provinecs, one of them will just ignore them. Maybe it would be possible to give Africacorps different targets, or maybe that would break in some other way. Worth testing...
 
Well, I prefer to play a historical game,
I guess you don't play as any Axis country then!

If you have the AI as much hindsight as the player, the Second World War would never even have started.
Then AoD would be pointless! What I mean is the AI should prepare for the Second World War as much as it can. This would involve conserving troops and using them where they are best to be used, not where they were used historically.
Then there are things such as Operation Barbarossa - clearly a bad idea in anyone's book.
As Pang said, with a few changes it would've have been a success. I would go so far as-to say that it would have been even more of a success. It wasn't as if Germany was in a weak position by 1942, it was it's zenith.
Given that the player has historical knowledge, it would be nice to give the AI a bit of an advantage in other areas though. In the case of Ethiopia, it would make no sense historically for the Italians to have conquered it if they didn't intend at least to try to defend it... and even if I know I'm going to win, it does make a difference to the game, as I'm having to deploy divisions there that I'd rather have elsewhere.
Well it would make more sense for Italy to puppet Ethiopia then to annex it (in-game, I imagine it wasn't possible IRL). So Ethiopian troops can have the suicidal job of defending themselves against the UK. AFAIK, IRL Italians used many askaris and 'native'/'local' troops to defend the area anyway, something that can't be modelled in AoD so Italy has to waste (even more of) its' own troops there.

IfAfricacorps - we did discuss this in another thread in fact. The difficulty is that although it's easy to write an event to send the divisions out there, the AI will just bring them back again unless they're locked. Apparently there's something hardcoded in the AI that means that if two allied powers have the same target provinecs, one of them will just ignore them. Maybe it would be possible to give Africacorps different targets, or maybe that would break in some other way. Worth testing...
Ah ok. Maybe they could EXP the Afrika Korps to Italy, although I don't though if that's possible via event.
 
No, I've only played as the UK so far. I'm planning on playing as Japan at some point though (as you can probably tell, I like the naval aspect).

Yes, that was my point as well, about AoD being pointless if you made the AI avoid all situations that were folly in hindsight (I think Barbarossa would have needed major rethinking to be a success, but that's a debate for another thread). Unless you want to play a completely alternate version of '36-'53 (which is fine if that's what you want and probably makes sense in multiplayer), I think it's a good idea to keep the major strategic operations and dispositions the same, but it would be good if the AI operated better at the tactical level and offered the player more surprises that way. It does happen - in my last game, Japan amphibbed Sri Lanka and Germany dropped paratroopers in Birmingham. both attacks were repelled (I had some blind luck that helped me with the second one or I'd have been in deep trouble), but both caused serious disruption.

Ethiopia - it was actually became a puppet in my last game, instead of being annexed. There's a random event that can cause this to happen (I don't know what the probability is).
 
No, I've only played as the UK so far. I'm planning on playing as Japan at some point though (as you can probably tell, I like the naval aspect).
Naval warfare can be good fun, mainly because it's hard to loose to the AI at it! :p

Yes, that was my point as well, about AoD being pointless if you made the AI avoid all situations that were folly in hindsight
I just meant to the AI should be given all the hindsight it needed, in preparation for the Second World War. I.e it should prepare for a war that breaks out in 30th August 1939 (June/July 1937 for Japan and China, and so on).

Unless you want to play a completely alternate version of '36-'53 (which is fine if that's what you want and probably makes sense in multiplayer)
I am not saying that should happen on single-player.
I think it's a good idea to keep the major strategic operations and dispositions the same, but it would be good if the AI operated better at the tactical level and offered the player more surprises that way.
Well that's where our main disagreement is. I would say the AI should avoid any stupid/suicidal campaign that failed in real life, and clearly would in the game too (i.e. Italy and the East African Campaign).
It does happen - in my last game, Japan amphibbed Sri Lanka and Germany dropped paratroopers in Birmingham. both attacks were repelled (I had some blind luck that helped me with the second one or I'd have been in deep trouble), but both caused serious disruption.
That's great, there's just one major downside to that, the AI does not or cannot (at least properly) reinforce amphibious/overseas invasions.

Ethiopia - it was actually became a puppet in my last game, instead of being annexed. There's a random event that can cause this to happen (I don't know what the probability is).
Ah ok, well IMO it should happen all the time. It actually makes the invasion of Ethiopia worthwhile for Italy (game-play wise, I don't know if it was possible in real life).
 
Well, I'm not so much bothered about the winning or losing aspect. I just like the naval stuff. Having said that, the AI is a lot better at it in CORE. In my last report I gave figures for losses on both sides, and I'm definitely not winning so far (or maybe that's just me).

And yes, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about the historical operations stuff! It's not that I think there's anything wrong with giving the AI the same hindsight as the player, I just prefer to play a more historical game personally. Making the AI tougher in other areas to compensate would be good though.
 
Very good AAR. I wonder how the campaign in Asia will go, as well as any later campaign on mainland Europe.
 
Very good AAR. I wonder how the campaign in Asia will go, as well as any later campaign on mainland Europe.

Thanks! I think the Far East will be difficult, largely due to my fluff settings and the delicacy of the supply situation there. Europe will be a grind, but I predict being able to annex and release Poland before the Russians get a look in.
 
Didn't Germany annex Poland? :confused:
 
The idea is to annex germany and release poland in whatever sequenze.

Indeed, this is what I meant. One of my fluff goals is to lock the USSR out of Poland by the end of the war, which means making deep inroads into Germany and German-held provinces well ahead of the Russians. I don't think it will be too difficult, but will provide more of a challenge than simply beating Germany.