One of the things you will discover is that the a.i. in Semper Fi has become much, much better. Because I was one of those players who never used the a.i. to control anything in HOI3, I thought it might be interesting and useful for players in situations similar to mine to see an AAR that describes some of the basics of handling the a.i. The example I have chosen is a simple one -- the German attack on Poland in 1939. This example is not especially suited to illustrate the defensive capabilities of the a.i., but I hope it will give you some idea of how the a.i. can be used to direct your forces. In a subsequent AAR, I'll try to show how the a.i. can be used in a defensive situation.
First, let's see how the a.i. can be used to plan an assault. In the case I am describing, I placed a.i. control over all of my army HQ's. You can set the a.i. at any level you want (i.e., theatre, army group, etc). I find that army group control is just as effective as a.i. control over armie, using the same principles that I present here.
So, let's talk about planning. My pre-war positioning left something to be desired, with a hole in my front right in the middle, at Sensburg. Hoping to salvage the situation, I sent the previous commander of the 1. Armee on his way and replaced him with Guderian. Unsure of how the a.i. would handle the front, I assigned modest objectives to Guderian: Sensburg in the middle, Danzig in the west, and Suwalki in the east. I especially like the front indicator here, because it permits a rapid visual inspection of different units' responsibilities.
In the west, the 4. Armee was given two specific objectives, Danzig and Poznan. This means that Danzig was named as an objective by two armies operating under two different army groups, Heeresgruppe Nord for the 1. Armee, and Heeresgruppe Zentrum for the 4. Armee. We'll see how well they can coordinate their operations to produce a successful result.
To the south, the 5. Armee and the 3. Armee were assigned objectives aimed eventually at capturing the key VP city of Krakow. Note how objectives already assigned to other formations appear on the map to help orient the assignment of objectives using the current HQ.
At the outset of the war, my air assets were fairly modest, consisting of formations of tac bombers and interceptors in Königsberg (which were assigned directly to the 1. Armee), and similar formations of tac bombers and interceptors in Breslau, which were placed under the command of the 5. Armee. Using the new OOB tab, here's an overview of the assets assigned to the 5. Armee. To be honest, I haven't used this tab much, but for really big operations (think Barbarossa!) this should be useful for finding and reassigning assets conveniently. To move a unit or command from one higher-level HQ to another, all you need do is drag and drop. It's that simple.
First, let's see how the a.i. can be used to plan an assault. In the case I am describing, I placed a.i. control over all of my army HQ's. You can set the a.i. at any level you want (i.e., theatre, army group, etc). I find that army group control is just as effective as a.i. control over armie, using the same principles that I present here.
So, let's talk about planning. My pre-war positioning left something to be desired, with a hole in my front right in the middle, at Sensburg. Hoping to salvage the situation, I sent the previous commander of the 1. Armee on his way and replaced him with Guderian. Unsure of how the a.i. would handle the front, I assigned modest objectives to Guderian: Sensburg in the middle, Danzig in the west, and Suwalki in the east. I especially like the front indicator here, because it permits a rapid visual inspection of different units' responsibilities.
In the west, the 4. Armee was given two specific objectives, Danzig and Poznan. This means that Danzig was named as an objective by two armies operating under two different army groups, Heeresgruppe Nord for the 1. Armee, and Heeresgruppe Zentrum for the 4. Armee. We'll see how well they can coordinate their operations to produce a successful result.
To the south, the 5. Armee and the 3. Armee were assigned objectives aimed eventually at capturing the key VP city of Krakow. Note how objectives already assigned to other formations appear on the map to help orient the assignment of objectives using the current HQ.
At the outset of the war, my air assets were fairly modest, consisting of formations of tac bombers and interceptors in Königsberg (which were assigned directly to the 1. Armee), and similar formations of tac bombers and interceptors in Breslau, which were placed under the command of the 5. Armee. Using the new OOB tab, here's an overview of the assets assigned to the 5. Armee. To be honest, I haven't used this tab much, but for really big operations (think Barbarossa!) this should be useful for finding and reassigning assets conveniently. To move a unit or command from one higher-level HQ to another, all you need do is drag and drop. It's that simple.
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). I will leave Poznan among the list of the 4. Armee's objectives for the time being, to make sure the front stays coherent, but I usually remove objectives that have passed behind the front as a way of simplifying the a.i.'s task.
