[1.0.1] AI Germany becomes passive after the fronts merge with Player Finland

[Aldahen]

(this Bug-report contains the important parts of my thread in the general forums: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/ai-germany-stops-everything-after-the-fronts-merge-with-finland.950846/)

TLDR: When the AI Germany's front merges with the player Finland's, the AI Germany becomes passive and gives Europe away despite being in fairly good position to defend it and conquer more.

---

I'm playing as Finland and after a long and eventful war, I'm in the Axis and pushing deep in to Russia. Moscow has already fallen. Germany was attacked by USSR earlier and was pushed back to Germany's original eastern border. After a long trench-war, they got to an offensive and started to steamroll Soviets. Steamrolling is important word here as they were doing very well, untill...

When our fronts merged, they stopped their advance completely.
They sent most of their army to Finnish conquered Russia, but just hang on the front or deep in territory controlled by my Finland. They follow the front, but do not attack nor reinforce.

The Germans have also their front in the Eastern Poland where I have no troops.
They stopped their advance completely (note that they were steamrolling before this).

The also stopped attacking on other fronts and ignore the tiny landings in Brittany and Belgium, which they could swat easily with their 500 division army.

Apparently the AI is programmed to support and follow the player, but minor like Finland shouldn't need to show the way for a major like Germany, even when there is a player on the steering wheel. Also the AI's passiveness and ignorance on other fronts is ruining the game.

more posts coming for more details and how the situation evolved...

 

[Aldahen]

Situation a bit later in the same game

The Europe

The main Axis powers are Germany, Turkey, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Finland.
Italy, Hungary and Romania have given most of their troops to German command, so Germany has almost 500 divisions while they have very little or nothing.
Italy still has few and Turkey has plenty. Finland has about 50 infantry divisions and then 25 MP and small AT divisions.
All attacks on the map are executed either by the allies, Comintern or Finland.
The axis position is not so strong that I initially thought, but never the less, AI Germany is playing very badly now that we have a unified front in the east. Or to be more precise: it is no longer playing, but just hanging around.

Eastern front and Balkans

Germany has sent 133 divisions to Russian territory occupied by Finland. I don't really need help.
She has another 30 divisions in Wilno (the most NE part of Germany occupied territory, next to Finnish occupation zone).
This is a total of 163 divisions positioned to do nothing in areas where they are not needed. It's 1/3 of Germany's forces wasted.

Handling Germany's own eastern border there are 64 Divisions facing an inferior Soviet force, but the Germans are just standing.
The only attack you see there is by the 3 tiny Finnish AT-divisions (total combat width is 30). German's do not care to reinforce.

Facing the Chinese in Romania, they have about 36 divisions and the opposition has about the same.

In Yugoslavia they have 42 Divisions against the combined Chinese-Soviet force of 105 Divisions. They are holding the line.

Spain and Italy

In Spain they have 115 Divisions facing the Spanish 103 Divisions. No actions from either side. I'd expect Germany to easily push further, if it tried.

Moving on to the other fronts, and it starts to go down hill...

Italians have 9 Divisions supported by 1 Turkey's division in their homeland. They are facing an US and British invasion force of 102 Divisions.
Germany seems to acknowledge the dire situation and 1 (yes a total on one!) German division is walking towards the front-line to support their ally. They have more troops in Savoy (mountains in the original Italo-French-border), but these are not moving in.

Brittany and Belgium

Australians have landed in Brittany. I see 2 divisions lazily painting the map. Also Belgium is liberated, donno if there are even forces.
Germany has nothing even nearby to swat these little expeditions away. It would probably need only 5 divisions to handle the whole thing.


The Summary
Germany has strong enough force to keep pushing into Soviet territory from it's own front in eastern Poland.
It also is reasonable well positioned in Spain to continue it's offensive.
The Yugoslavia and Romania fronts could use a bit more troops.
It's completely ignoring the Italian front and the 2 landings from English Channel.

Meanwhile it has about 40-50 Divisions chilling around Europe and has sent 163 Divisions to see the northern lights.
The largest concentration of force it has anywhere and it's used for nothing.

Quick fix
At this point, I'd just wish the AI would handle it's own battles and not come to "support" the player who needs no support and then not actually supporting.

 

[Aldahen]

Well.... I continued playing and sent 11 Finnish Divisions to deal with the invasions on English Channel.
Couldn't spare more and these were mostly support divisions. I managed to contain them and will eventually push them back.
My plan was to go to Italy next to support there, but Italy capitulated before I got there.

Again the Germans just handed everything to allies.
As you can see in the earlier pictures, they had some troops in Savoy (The mountains on the original Italy-French border).
But I think it moved them away before the capitulation. After Italy capitulated, the southern France became French again (apart the one province where there was one German division).

What does the German AI do next?

It marches 70 divisions from Spain to Southern Germany. Not taking the shortest route through Southern France and conquering it back,
but it carefully takes the longer route around the French territory to avoid capturing it for free as there are no enemy troops there.

 

[Aldahen]

When the Allies brought some troops in to the newly acquired SE-France, the Germans brought their army on the border.
They even make some attacks! Also there is one attack in the Russian front.

This is an Ironman game, so I can't do any "rebooting" of the AI or rebuilding the fronts with the console commands as some people suggested on the forums.
However I have sometimes quit the game and continued later, which may run some AI logic again. Unfortunately, I have no records of those.
But I can say that after the original halt of the German steamrolling-machine, I have quit and restarted many times and there hasn't been any real change apart from this defense on the SE-French.

 

[Aldahen]

Eventually the Germans started to do at least something. As in the previous post they contained the area given to allies after Italy capitulated and then started to push in.
They also brought some troops to the Brittany landing, but only after I had cleared Belgium for them and was preparing the attack on Brittany.
In the Russian front their weird behavior continued:
- When the spring time came, they withdraw all their troops in the Finnish held territory (they never did anything there)
- They still do not advance their own front, but keep enough troops there so that it would be easy.

The Russian front is now probably even harder for the AI to comprehend. I have left Germans their Eastern Poland front with USSR, but in the meantime have pushed down to the Black Sea. This creates a large Soviet pocket. Germany doesn't wish to take it. At one point I had one Finnish division just painting it as there was nothing happening, but I'm still waiting for the Germans to take some action there. (I'll upload a picture once I'm with the game).