Barbarossa is too easy

[DerGrößteRitter]

I forgot to add this to my previous post, but there is one AI that is different. and that is Blum government France. Which will always be on defensive due to the leader modifier. It will literally never attack unless it feels it has overwhelming advantage.
This is why it always attacks through alps into Italy and murder its equipment trying to break into Savoy. But never attacks through Benelux because Italy is weak enough for AI to think it can win easy. But does not account for the terrain.

this is also why when a player plays historical Poland, the player can feel that the allies are doing nothing.

Well, it IS supposed to be HISTORICAL Poland, after all..

 

[blahmaster6k]

Still, if the AI could super efficiently coordinate focus tree choices/timing, with research, etc... it would be more competitive. Frankly, how is it that I am able to out produce an Intel i7 chip? The AI should at least make production a challenge to the player, even if it cannot figure out how to use the units it makes.

This is pretty much what Expert AI 4.0 does. It can't help the AI use its army much better aside from making it design meta templates, but it can help the AI optimize its production, research, and focus order. For example, expert AI UK can and will rush fighter 2 and have many factories producing +5 engine fighter 2 by the time world war 2 starts, which can make it really difficult for a single player Germany who doesn't blueprint steal said fighter 2's from the UK, since Germany doesn't have its own bonus for them and will have them anywhere from 1-3 years after EAI's UK depending on how the player prefers to research.

 

[PtY]

This is very interesting.

I loaded up my own save game from april 1941, about halfway into the war focus against USSR.

And I loaded up the USSR to see what they were doing.

They are making 9 inf / 3 artillery infantry units. Which is too much artillery. It's a terrible defensive unit perhaps.

Maybe that makes sense based on your thesis that they have basically programmed the USSR to act as like a zerg rush kinda country...but they need to be defensive at first.

While the vast majority of their existing infantry has support artillery only, that's it.View attachment 820290

But what I noticed is the AI has their battleplans set to activate before the war! So they will immediately lose their entrenchment and attack the attacking Germans?!

I'm actually impressed by AI battle plans (including an amphibious invasion into a Romanian port!), even though a lot of their army is guarding victory points.

Also USSR (sometimes china too) runs out of manpower because they have the wrong policy set!!! That shouldn't happen for majors, much less mass assault countries.

If you want the Soviets to have more of a chance in Barbarossa, at least take the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and give the Soviet Union eastern Poland. You're giving your armies a huge head-start on their drives toward Moscow and Leningrad, as well as putting any Soviet units in the Baltic states at serious risk of both encirclement and undersupply.

I never playing anything but normal. I prefer difficulty increase to buff my opponents, and not nerf me.

That's why I play harder settings in Expert AI.

To my eye, the biggest source of ahistorical outcomes in unmodded HOI4 is the industry balance. The Axis minors especially have more industry than they did historically, and the amount of equipment that can be produced by a single factory seems off, particularly for aircraft. Expert AI probably exacerbates this imbalance by making the minor countries better at utilizing their ahistorically large industrial bases.

If you're looking for a more historical game that stays fairly close to the feel of unmodded HOI4, I've had a few enjoyable but aborted games with World Ablaze.
(And if you don't mind seeing Romania field dozens of well-equipped 40-width divisions, then keep enjoying EAI. I used to play on the exact same settings as you in EAI until I got frustrated by the problems that weren't caused solely by AI mismanagement.)

 

[DebbieElla]

Thread moderated. Remember the rules folks! Criticism of the product is (within reason) fine, but any personal attack is unacceptable.

 

[ltccone]

If you want the Soviets to have more of a chance in Barbarossa, at least take the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and give the Soviet Union eastern Poland. You're giving your armies a huge head-start on their drives toward Moscow and Leningrad, as well as putting any Soviet units in the Baltic states at serious risk of both encirclement and undersupply.


To my eye, the biggest source of ahistorical outcomes in unmodded HOI4 is the industry balance. The Axis minors especially have more industry than they did historically, and the amount of equipment that can be produced by a single factory seems off, particularly for aircraft. Expert AI probably exacerbates this imbalance by making the minor countries better at utilizing their ahistorically large industrial bases.

If you're looking for a more historical game that stays fairly close to the feel of unmodded HOI4, I've had a few enjoyable but aborted games with World Ablaze.
(And if you don't mind seeing Romania field dozens of well-equipped 40-width divisions, then keep enjoying EAI. I used to play on the exact same settings as you in EAI until I got frustrated by the problems that weren't caused solely by AI mismanagement.)

I never call anyone into Barbarossa, not even Italy. So in my EAI games the Axis minors just sit there.

 

[PtY]

I never call anyone into Barbarossa, not even Italy. So in my EAI games the Axis minors just sit there.

I feel a little silly for not thinking of this myself. That probably evens things out quite a bit.