AI Basics - A Semper Fi Primer

[nestorius]

I dont know quite what to make of this frankly I always use theatre ai for the Poland campaign and it was always a walkover in all patch versions of HOI3.

Has there been a change that it is now harder? did you have less men than with the 1936 start? What can you say is the big difference?

 

[Kirth Gersen]

Looking carefully at the screens you see that the HQs seem to move now and the border defence logic at least looks good - cannot say much about the "intermingling" of units, of course (which is indeed also one of my own concerns)!

To be fair, this scenario does not really challenge the AI, and create the issues we are talking about. I guess we would need a Barbarossa or Japanese invasion of China to really test it.

 

[jarmenia]

In HOI 3, if I assigned more units than a HQ thought it needed for the job assigned, it would just leave the "extra" units sitting in place. Does this still happen in SF?

For example, I give an army the objective to defend a certain port. The army says it needs three inf divisions so I give it five from my reserves instead. So what does the HQ do? It moves three to defend the port and leaves the other two sitting where they are.

While I can see the logic in only using the necessary force, shouldn't the AI at least position the "extra" units near the HQ as some form of tactical/strategic reserve?

 

[nestorius]

I have played several campaigns as germany in HOI3 using theatre AI control I found it only had issues in two cases 1. oversees provinces - the only way I found of doing them was by launching the initial beachhead myself and the battle of France, where the ai just liked to wait around.

I personally would love to have seen a defensive soviet ai on barbarossa something which has till now been impossible at least on a 1936 start as Germany.

 

[Sentinal 6]

Thanks for the AAR. Well done - clear and instructive.

 

[Kriegsspieler]

I dont know quite what to make of this frankly I always use theatre ai for the Poland campaign and it was always a walkover in all patch versions of HOI3.

Has there been a change that it is now harder? did you have less men than with the 1936 start? What can you say is the big difference?

I don't want to claim this was meant as a serious challenge to its capabilities, so in that respect I agree. The claim I made at the top of the post that the a,.i. has improved is based on the accumulated experience of myself and the other betas,; here, I just wanted to show how to use it and illustrate what it does. I'll try to post another AAR that does a better job of putting the a.i. through its paces in the Pacific.

 

[General War]

Thanks for the AAR. I almost never let the AI control my troops, but I will try in the future. Looking forward to see how it performs in Pacific.

 

[Markus Rabe]

Nice AAR.

One thing came into my mind while reading your posts: Wouldn't it be helpful to have another layer indicating the 'plans' of the AI. The image I have in mind is something like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kursk-1943-Plan-GE.svg

A first approximation of the 'plan' of the AI would be an arrow from the position of its troops to the "goal" location (which is of a different style than the movement arrow). If it exists, an abstract view of the internal plan of the AI would be even more helpful.

Just an idea.

Markus

 

[unmerged(187441)]

AI managed just fine to take Poland in 1.4. And has done so from the start.

This exp pack is named "Semper Fi" but all the dev, and aar talks 95% about Germany and Europa.

Ah, but the point is not that the new AI could take on the old Polish AI, but that even with an improved AI (As we can see by the fact that the Polish defense is a whole lot more sane than usual), the Germans still win. Not just that, but the AI actually wins intelligently, instead of just winning by sheer overwhelming force across the border, as it used to do. If you gave your armies objectives in 1.4, you might have seen how it spent a whole lot of time freelancing: I had an army group invading the Soviets through finland, and the AI decided that it really didn't believe in my objectives very much, and sent 3 of its divisions to France instead!

 

[Cybvep]

BTW will the AI utilise "Buy Licence" option now?

 

[unmerged(144305)]

I'm not generally a negative nay-sayer, but using the Poland campaign does not give me any confidence in the new AI.

Show me how an AI Soviet defends

Show me an AI USA attacking anything in the Pacific.

Show me an Italy AI that can hold Libya or attack Egypt.

Show me a France AI defending Benelux upon DoW...

 

[Kriegsspieler]

You want to see how the a.i. does in the West defending Belgium? How's this? (This is taken from a different saved game, obviously).

Here's a second image, zeroed in on the 2nd Corps in the north.
Unit coherence looks pretty good, I would say.

 

[Acesandeights]

I am working on a Japanese AAR now & hope to have it posted tomorrow.

Great news! Thank you for all the effort thus far. Things look very nice and I can't wait to see how things stand about a week after release.

 

[unmerged(187312)]

a question:history says belgium didn't let frenc troops in ther nation when germany invaded
will belgium be as B*tchy as history in semper fi ?
(will belgium not let france put troops on ther borders ?)

 

[Kriegsspieler]

a question:history says belgium didn't let frenc troops in ther nation when germany invaded
will belgium be as B*tchy as history in semper fi ?
(will belgium not let france put troops on ther borders ?)

If I understand you correctly, the answer to your question is above. The French have no limitations on taking up positions on the front in Belgium or in the Netherlands, either, for that matter. As to whether the Belgians allow the French to get in position before a German DOW, well, they were netural, so no.

However, sometimes it happens (less than 25% of the time, for sure) that with concentrated Allied influencing the Belgians can be induced to join up with the Allies before the Germans get around to attacking them in the spring of 1940. When that happens, then yes, the French can go in.

 

[Cavalry Scout]

I'm not generally a negative nay-sayer, but using the Poland campaign does not give me any confidence in the new AI.

Show me how an AI Soviet defends

Show me an AI USA attacking anything in the Pacific.

Show me an Italy AI that can hold Libya or attack Egypt.

Show me a France AI defending Benelux upon DoW...

Agree on all points. These would be more informative.

 

[Krilly]

Very interesting. Thanks.

Although it seemst he AI on 'defensive' is a little more aggresive then I would like it to be

Question, I thought I read somewhere that the AI now recognizes garrison/reserve divisions and uses them to hold objectives in the rear. Could we see some examples of that behaviour?

 

[oribiasi]

So, in a single-player game, does the AI controlling your units have the same powers/abilities as the AI of your opponent nations?

 

[joeenochs]

In your last screen shot the 42nd division is strategically redeploying to Wissembourg. That does not look like good news for the coherence of the 2nd corps.

 

[Kriegsspieler]

Question, I thought I read somewhere that the AI now recognizes garrison/reserve divisions and uses them to hold objectives in the rear. Could we see some examples of that behaviour?

Yes, it does. I'll try to remember to find some examples when I get my Japan AAR together.

So, in a single-player game, does the AI controlling your units have the same powers/abilities as the AI of your opponent nations?

Yes. It's exactly the same logic.

In your last screen shot the 42nd division is strategically redeploying to Wissembourg. That does not look like good news for the coherence of the 2nd corps.

Ah yes, good observation. The use of strat redeployment is not such a good idea in that situation. One thing to remember, though, is that the stat redeployment "penalty" is dependent on the distance traveled. So in this case, it's likely to be small.