AI Russian Redeploying It's Troops Off The Front

[Otto]

I had thought Paradox fixed the really egregious random redeploying of the Russian divisions off the Western front. I play German SP. I do a lot of tagging and impose a bunch of house rules on myself to ensure a historically accurate/realistic game. I have been used to having to go in and TP Russian forces to their destinations when I create a major breach in their lines. That happens only so often and I get that it is very hard to program a good responsive AI when these types of things happen. I even can live with the lack of concentrated attack and the silly constant shuffling of their divisions (which I admit has been reduced some from the bad old days). HOWEVER, it is August of 42 and my attack has progressed historically and things have been tolerable up to early July. In early July the Soviet AI has decided that it makes sense to strip 50-60 divisions off the Western Front and put them on interior garrison duty along with taking 18 to go to the Turkish border, another 18 to Iran another 20 to Manchuria, 18 to Iraq and another 18 to Afghanistan. All these areas are neutral and are not conspiring to justify war against the Soviets.

Am I just unlucky or is this the new normal of Soviet AI idiocy. Each week I went in and TP the redeploying units back to the Western Front. They are fine for about a week then redeploy again. I have even left much smaller forces on the non fighting borders and in the interior garrison in the hopes that that would be enough for the AI. No luck. I am used to having to do a lot of tagging in and out to help the AI but it takes about 1 hour to TP these units back and the weekly frequency is too much. If this type of constant redeploying is normal then I guess I will revisit Combat Mission. Too bad as I have developed a ton of house rules for myself to make this game realistic and even challenging as the German. This however is a game breaker. Also I have not purchased the last expansion. I doubt that has anything to do with it as it seems to be just a country pack expansion. I did not see any mention of Soviet AI work with it.

Any thoughts on how to fix this? Am I just unlucky?

PS: Chrondite if you are out there, thanks for all your work creating Expert AI. It does help and given past games I have played I do not have any reason that this is due to your Mod. So no complaint here.

 

[BeauNiddle]

I think a lot of it depends on how Japan is doing. USSR really doesn't like a 2 front war. If Japan bogs down in China then USSR does slightly better.

The next DLC is meant to be focusing on the German-Soviet front so hopefully more improvements will be made

 

[Otto]

Part of my tagging is to ensure that there is a stalemate in China. Also EAI does a good job in that regard. Anyway, Japan is actually worst off than normal so Russia should not feel threatened by them.

 

[goodcigar]

I see Soviet send up to 16 Division Volunteers to all China nation every game. Very very bad.

 

[KubiG37]

I do a lot of tagging and impose a bunch of house rules on myself to ensure a historically accurate/realistic game. I have been used to having to go in and TP Russian forces to their destinations when I create a major breach in their lines.

Wow I really admire your sheer will to waste so much time on tagswitching just to 'fix' AI.

Sometimes I did it myself, but only for things like forcing the AI down certain Focus Tree paths, switching their manpower/economy laws, and usually only just for the worst offending major that played really horribly.

I'd point out that units suddenly being redeployed isn't purely bad AI play. It is the battleplanner 'AI' which your player units use as well.
If AI was actually capable of making breakthroughs more often than once in 4 games, you'd see these empty holes appear in your frontlines as well - and it has nothing to do with your control of the units.
Sometimes the front just "breaks" in two, or by becoming much 'longer' due to the breach the battleplanner forces a lot of units from all around the front to fill it, even when realistically just the nearby units would suffice and could even cut it off easily.

This is also the part of the game that no mod in the world can ever fix, just the devs.

 

[Otto]

Wow I really admire your sheer will to waste so much time on tagswitching just to 'fix' AI.

Sometimes I did it myself, but only for things like forcing the AI down certain Focus Tree paths, switching their manpower/economy laws, and usually only just for the worst offending major that played really horribly.

I'd point out that units suddenly being redeployed isn't purely bad AI play. It is the battleplanner 'AI' which your player units use as well.
If AI was actually capable of making breakthroughs more often than once in 4 games, you'd see these empty holes appear in your frontlines as well - and it has nothing to do with your control of the units.
Sometimes the front just "breaks" in two, or by becoming much 'longer' due to the breach the battleplanner forces a lot of units from all around the front to fill it, even when realistically just the nearby units would suffice and could even cut it off easily.

This is also the part of the game that no mod in the world can ever fix, just the devs.

I am OK with front shuffling. it is annoying but I get that that will never be fixed. I am even OK helping them fill in large gaps quicker when I make relatively large breakthoughs. It is the redeploying 70% of their units away from the front entirely that is a game breaker. Even if it did it just once every 3-4 months I am willing to waste time TP them back but it is weekly in this current game. Even for me it is too much to bother with. I remember this happening awhile back and it was supposedly fixed. I am just wondering if this is just bad luck or that this is still the expectation. If so, this game is pointless as German SP. Even with a long laundry list of self-imposed house rules.

 

[KubiG37]

I think I've encountered it once as well, I faced a pretty high resistance and defense effort (for an AI) from the Soviet AI while advancing towards Moscow, but at some point, this resistance just completely collapsed. And it wasn't me destroying half of their divisions, or making an invasion, or anything. Later I saw a lot of their units just moving away from the front *somwhere east*, then trying to return back. There wasn't any threat in the east either.

What the devs fixed (in 1.7?) wasn't this however, it was a problem of AI randomly deciding that Marshal Konev and his 120 divisions shouldn't be defending Moscow and the core of Russia, but instead go to Crimea and face the 30 mighty Italians/Romanians who randomly advanced there.