AI army control

[Charles Reeps]

Heh, even then there is room for AI psychosis. I have seen a German theater HQ on AI control orders more than 3/4 of its total ground troops to leave their AO in the Caucasus region in Turkey and march west then north trying to go all the way around the flippin'' Black Sea so that they could attack the enemy from the north. In effect they turned a 200km approach march into a 2000km (or so) flanking maneuver. It was possibly the single most absurd thing I have ever seen the AI do. And it was not only repeatable; it took a fair bit of experimentation to figure out how to tweak the AI's objectives and theater boundaries to make it NOT do that every single time. While I do grant that the theater AI has fewer such crazy hangups that the lower HQ levels, when it does do something crazy the nutty effects are hugely magnified.

Oh, yes, I've seen this bad behavior, but it is greatly reduced in TFH. Plus, you have to take care to prevent these problems before they occur; i.e., you have to straight-jacket the theater AI well in advance of letting it out on the streets by itself.

 

[Pro_Consul]

Plus, you have to take care to prevent these problems before they occur; i.e., you have to straight-jacket the theater AI well in advance of letting it out on the streets by itself.

...or just activate the AI at a lower level, and make different adjustments. It's mostly a question of individual style in the end.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I don't see how that helps you, as sooner or later you're going to play as huge countries, unable to control every single unit.

It helps you to come to terms in how to organize your armies and control them. Then, when you're comfortable with that, you can shift to majors. Babysteps. And yes, it is very possible to control every single unit even as Germany or USSR.

 

[Pro_Consul]

It helps you to come to terms in how to organize your armies and control them. Then, when you're comfortable with that, you can shift to majors. Babysteps. And yes, it is very possible to control every single unit even as Germany or USSR.

I have never understood this advice in this context. When someone asks, "How do I set a puppet wargoal?", we tell them. When they ask, "How do I build nukes?", we tell them. But whenever someone asks "How do I use AI control and keep it working the way I want?", there are always some people who say, "Go full manual." I really, truly think he knew that the manual control option was there well before he asked his question. And telling somone, "Don't do XYZ" is really about as unhelpful as it gets when that person's only question was "What is the most effective way to do XYZ?"