I've been war gaming since I was 6, back in 1981, and part of what I love in the HOI series is controlling the troops - deciding where to attack, when to attack and which units to attack with. In HOI1 & 2 the base grouping was usually corps sized and with HOI3's expansion in the number of provinces controlling every division was great and in line with my WW2 board gaming preferences.
In HOI4 I've made do with the lack of an OB and the clunky battle plan system, mainly using more or less historically army sized groupings. I've done this because the designers placed great store in the planning bonus being a key feature of land warfare in the game and indeed there are doctrines that are useless research sinks without it. I suffered with the AI consistently making very poor decisions about where to position troops along a front line, and me having to override the AI by manually deciding where every division went. The AI would often try to override my placements but once I told a division to stay put it did. This even worked in low density areas where I may have a front line of say 4 provinces in Spain with only 2 German volunteer divisions - I could have both divisions stay in a single front line province leaving the other 3 completely empty and the AI would acquiesce. The AI would often try other stupid manoeuvres after an offensive had started as well. Probably the worst two were:
1. I have a province adjacent to a single enemy province and all my divisions in that province are attacking. I have another province where I have sufficient divisions dug in to hold it against counter attacks. The AI thinks that the province from which I'm attacking is empty and needs filling, so it takes one of the dug in divisions and orders it to move to the province which will no longer be in the front line once the divisions in it take the province they're attacking. So my defence at a key point is weakened, even if I picked up the move and ordered the division to stay as it just trashed its dig in bonus, and if the division reaches the province its moving to, it won't be adjacent to an enemy province and will need to move again.
2. I have a province adjacent to multiple enemy provinces and some of the divisions are attacking one of those provinces, but not all of them. The additional division/s in the province not attacking have been designated to hold the province once the attacking divisions have moved into the newly captured province. The AI thinks those dug in troops are surplus and orders them to move somewhere else where they're not needed, thus trashing the dig in bonus if I catch it, or leaving the province vacant after the attacking divisions move out.
Now I lived with these sort of problems because I wanted those divisions temporarily holding the line to rebuild their planning bonus, but with 1.4.0 this is no longer possible. This is because the AI keeps trying to override my positioning every hour. A division starts moving and I tell it to stay, then next hour the AI starts moving it again and I have to tell it to stay again. In order to play the couple of games I have so far with 1.4.0, which have only been with minors with small armies or German volunteer forces in Spain, I've had to frequently delete and redraw battle plans, countermand AI orders much more often and even order attacks earlier than I wanted to because I didn't want to delete and redraw. Needless to say my enjoyment from playing the game has plummeted greatly and if I take a major to war it will be even worse.
Some of you may say, why not just delete the battle plan just before you start the offensive, but doing that means I'm stuck with the absolutely horrible AI assignment of divisions to a front line. For example, as Germany I assigned 11 divisions to the front line in East Prussia, which is 8 provinces. I selected the 3 provinces in which I wanted 2 divisions, all being provinces adjacent to multiple enemy provinces. The AI kept ordering a division in one of those provinces to move to a province adjacent to only 1 enemy province. That enemy province was in fact adjacent to a total of 3 of my provinces and the divisions I had assigned were already overkill in terms of defeating the 1 enemy division positioned there. So instead of having one of the most vulnerable provinces, or alternatively one of the provinces with the most opportunities to attack the enemy, covered by 2 divisions, I have overkill off on the eastern flank. This sort of poor positioning occurs all the time in game. Now in the past I could overcome that as I said, but no longer with 1.4.0. It's as though whoever programmed that part of the AI has never played a war game in their life.
So my choices are as follows:
1. Let the AI exercise command of my troops, making its poor decisions and taking away the enjoyment of commanding them myself.
2. Use the battle plans to build up planning bonuses and delete them a few days before I want to start an offensive so that I can reposition the troops properly. This will probably only work for new declarations of war due to the reshuffling.
3. Stop using battle plans altogether, losing the bonuses and having to research useless doctrines.
4. Go back to playing HOI3 to wait and see if Paradox can improve things at least back to the point they were before 1.4.0.
I haven't made a final decision as of now, but HOI3 is looking good.
Before someone accuses me of just whinging and not offering a solution, this would fix all my problems:
Allow all divisions not moving, digging in, training, counting down for an amphibious assault or assigned to garrison orders to build up planning bonuses.
This would mean that I could choose to never use the battle plan mechanics again. It would mean that reserve divisions could be left behind the front lines to counter attack enemy break throughs, or to prepare for an offensive with a chance the enemy wouldn't realise they were there to give us a chance of simulating surprise offensives. It would also mean that amphibious assaults and attacks across straights could actually benefit from the planning bonus and may actually make the pacific war more viable.
In HOI4 I've made do with the lack of an OB and the clunky battle plan system, mainly using more or less historically army sized groupings. I've done this because the designers placed great store in the planning bonus being a key feature of land warfare in the game and indeed there are doctrines that are useless research sinks without it. I suffered with the AI consistently making very poor decisions about where to position troops along a front line, and me having to override the AI by manually deciding where every division went. The AI would often try to override my placements but once I told a division to stay put it did. This even worked in low density areas where I may have a front line of say 4 provinces in Spain with only 2 German volunteer divisions - I could have both divisions stay in a single front line province leaving the other 3 completely empty and the AI would acquiesce. The AI would often try other stupid manoeuvres after an offensive had started as well. Probably the worst two were:
1. I have a province adjacent to a single enemy province and all my divisions in that province are attacking. I have another province where I have sufficient divisions dug in to hold it against counter attacks. The AI thinks that the province from which I'm attacking is empty and needs filling, so it takes one of the dug in divisions and orders it to move to the province which will no longer be in the front line once the divisions in it take the province they're attacking. So my defence at a key point is weakened, even if I picked up the move and ordered the division to stay as it just trashed its dig in bonus, and if the division reaches the province its moving to, it won't be adjacent to an enemy province and will need to move again.
2. I have a province adjacent to multiple enemy provinces and some of the divisions are attacking one of those provinces, but not all of them. The additional division/s in the province not attacking have been designated to hold the province once the attacking divisions have moved into the newly captured province. The AI thinks those dug in troops are surplus and orders them to move somewhere else where they're not needed, thus trashing the dig in bonus if I catch it, or leaving the province vacant after the attacking divisions move out.
Now I lived with these sort of problems because I wanted those divisions temporarily holding the line to rebuild their planning bonus, but with 1.4.0 this is no longer possible. This is because the AI keeps trying to override my positioning every hour. A division starts moving and I tell it to stay, then next hour the AI starts moving it again and I have to tell it to stay again. In order to play the couple of games I have so far with 1.4.0, which have only been with minors with small armies or German volunteer forces in Spain, I've had to frequently delete and redraw battle plans, countermand AI orders much more often and even order attacks earlier than I wanted to because I didn't want to delete and redraw. Needless to say my enjoyment from playing the game has plummeted greatly and if I take a major to war it will be even worse.
Some of you may say, why not just delete the battle plan just before you start the offensive, but doing that means I'm stuck with the absolutely horrible AI assignment of divisions to a front line. For example, as Germany I assigned 11 divisions to the front line in East Prussia, which is 8 provinces. I selected the 3 provinces in which I wanted 2 divisions, all being provinces adjacent to multiple enemy provinces. The AI kept ordering a division in one of those provinces to move to a province adjacent to only 1 enemy province. That enemy province was in fact adjacent to a total of 3 of my provinces and the divisions I had assigned were already overkill in terms of defeating the 1 enemy division positioned there. So instead of having one of the most vulnerable provinces, or alternatively one of the provinces with the most opportunities to attack the enemy, covered by 2 divisions, I have overkill off on the eastern flank. This sort of poor positioning occurs all the time in game. Now in the past I could overcome that as I said, but no longer with 1.4.0. It's as though whoever programmed that part of the AI has never played a war game in their life.
So my choices are as follows:
1. Let the AI exercise command of my troops, making its poor decisions and taking away the enjoyment of commanding them myself.
2. Use the battle plans to build up planning bonuses and delete them a few days before I want to start an offensive so that I can reposition the troops properly. This will probably only work for new declarations of war due to the reshuffling.
3. Stop using battle plans altogether, losing the bonuses and having to research useless doctrines.
4. Go back to playing HOI3 to wait and see if Paradox can improve things at least back to the point they were before 1.4.0.
I haven't made a final decision as of now, but HOI3 is looking good.
Before someone accuses me of just whinging and not offering a solution, this would fix all my problems:
Allow all divisions not moving, digging in, training, counting down for an amphibious assault or assigned to garrison orders to build up planning bonuses.
This would mean that I could choose to never use the battle plan mechanics again. It would mean that reserve divisions could be left behind the front lines to counter attack enemy break throughs, or to prepare for an offensive with a chance the enemy wouldn't realise they were there to give us a chance of simulating surprise offensives. It would also mean that amphibious assaults and attacks across straights could actually benefit from the planning bonus and may actually make the pacific war more viable.
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