AI neutral USA sends large numbers of divisions to UK and Africa.

[CrasherZZ]

I'm sure this has been posted before but I'm unable to find any discussion about it.

Playing as Japan, historical, USA is still neutral in 1943. Through my military access and attache to the UK I see dozens of US divisions stationed in the UK's North Africa controlled land as well as in the UK. It looks as though the US is trying to help the UK without actually fighting? Whenever the Allied armies advance, the US divisions follow and just "hang out". When the Axis armies advance, the US divisions retreat - perhaps to stay in supply and not lose a retreat path? So both the Allied and Axis armies are sort of dancing around the dozens of US divisions just taking up space.

I saw that someone tried to report this as bug but there was no response. Is this working as designed, a flaw, a bug, or merely bad AI? It's a SP game so it may be combination of bad AI for both the USA and UK?

 

[PurpulaPhoenixum53]

This is actually working as designed. The USA on historical will get access to the UK to preemptively move divisions over to Europe and Africa, so when it joins the Allies there isn't a month or two delay, that could be used to severely strengthen Germany's position against Russia. The only difference here is the US AI expects to go to war with Japan in '41, so by not going to war w/ USA; you kinda threw it off balance.

 

[Anaraxes]

The US has military access to UK territory. Those divisions won't actually defend the territory they occupy (should you decide to attack) as long as they're neutral, nor support UK attacks. They might look intimidating, and they're in place and ready to go should the US actually join the Allies (or declare war on you on their own hook), but as long as the US is neutral, you only have to worry about the future, but not their present existence.

 

[goodcigar]

Yes I report it as bug. US sends troops all over UK and Africa before it at war. Very dumb and goofy and make no real life sense. And not fair for Axis country either. It like cheating.

 

[CrasherZZ]

Yes I report it as bug. US sends troops all over UK and Africa before it at war. Very dumb and goofy and make no real life sense. And not fair for Axis country either. It like cheating.

Yes, I agree. It's very strange and unrealistic, not to mention "cheating" and ahistorical. Maybe they think the AI needs to have an advantage because so it's so bad?

As Japan I am at war with the Axis but not as a member of the Allies. I declined to join the Allies because I want to keep my options open and be free to attack (betray) any country or faction I want to. I'm staying on good terms with Allies for now to ensure my flow of oil but if the Allies get too weak, I want the option available to attack them. So yes, I did mess up the flow of the events.

So If I did join the Allies and sent an army to North Africa, I would have to deal with all those US Divisions milling around the coastline of Egypt and Libya while trying to fight the Axis divisions. Pretty annoying.

 

[goodcigar]

I think there is mod that fixes this. I think it called 1939 Fixed or one of his other ones.

 

[kettyo]

US army chilling out in Western Europe isn't a problem as long as Mexico won't attack a barely defended USA. I've seen the USA AI lose half of it's territory to might Mexico AI by having vast majority of it's troops engaged in fighting in Europe (this was after USA entry to Allies). This could be prevented by USA AI having a higher weight for garrisoning at least in case Mexico (or Canada) isn't in the same faction or ideology as USA is.

 

[CrasherZZ]

US army chilling out in Western Europe isn't a problem as long as Mexico won't attack a barely defended USA. I've seen the USA AI lose half of it's territory to might Mexico AI by having vast majority of it's troops engaged in fighting in Europe (this was after USA entry to Allies). This could be prevented by USA AI having a higher weight for garrisoning at least in case Mexico (or Canada) isn't in the same faction or ideology as USA is.

In historical mode, US shouldn't have any military in foreign countries as long it's neutral, period. Otherwise, it's not "historical".

 

[Anaraxes]

The historical mode checkbox only refers to the order in which countries take national focuses. It doesn't guarantee that the game proceeds along exact historical actions, timing of invasions, and so on.

 

[Vlad123]

It's fun for me to see all those American tourists conquering the UK. I imagine the scene of US soldiers eating donuts on the lawn as Axis and UK fight each other and they eat quietly with the explosions around. And if a soldier falls near him he apologizes for the disturbance!

 

[Anaraxes]

Someone has to keep those French cafes open for business while the BEF and Waffen SS battle for the future of the baguette.

 

[kettyo]

Someone has to keep those French cafes open for business while the BEF and Waffen SS battle for the future of the baguette.

And the French whores need besiness too