Encirclements with Battleplanner

[Ruck]

Im a little bit surprised that we have never seen this in WWW´s.
Daniel showed us a few times how the Battleplanner works, in one of #Japan www´s he even promised to not micro, but to use only the battleplanner.

But the only battleplans he used are simple one or 2 arrow plans, straight forward.
I hope it will be possible to draw a plan with 2 arrows from the outside/flanks, meeting together behind the front, so that it will be possible to encircle the enemy.

Its also interesting for me, how the AI will position my troops if I draw f.e. 2 arrows. Will they put light and medium tanks there ? I hope so.

I can remember that in HOI-2 as Germany i had to use encirclements vs AI-France and for sure vs AI-Russia. Without encirclements it wasnt possible for me to win vs AI-Russia and this was on the normal difficulty level. ( Though might be that i was a bad player )

Daniel made it manually sometimes, but also not too often.

But my main question is: Can i draw such encirclement arrows with the battleplanner and will the AI use my tanks and motor/mech Inf to push through and follow the encirclement plan ?

Would be super cool to see it on the next WWW.

 

[JerkyJerry]

The AI will use whatever troops/armor/divisions etc. you assign the AI to use.

 

[GsusNSV]

You can choose (or better you have to) which Divisions should follow which arrow.
I think the whole Army gets assigned to the first arrow drawn. So nobody would use/follow the second one, if you don't assign anybody there.

 

[John Henry Eden]

I have also been a little worried about the encirclement AI and my best guess is to just make a more detailed battleplan for each the Inf and Tanks. I cant wait for this to be out so I can play around with it.

 

[Orlunu]

Daniel did briefly show it in the Polish WWW iirc. Certainly in one of them he drew out a rough strategic encirclement plan.

 

[Ruck]

Daniel did briefly show it in the Polish WWW iirc. Certainly in one of them he drew out a rough strategic encirclement plan.

He only drawed it, but didnt executed it, so he didnt showed us how the AI would handle such an plan, only that it is theoretically possible.

And thats why I worry a little bit, shouldnt the "best player in the world" use encirclement plans ? Everytime a Batteplan was executed in the www´s it was a very simple battleplan, never ever an more advanced plan with encirclements.

 

[JerkyJerry]

Yeah we have been discussing Daniel's play on the forum since it began. Daniel & Jake stated numerous times at the start of each session that Daniel is going to play fast. They don't have the time to show us every little detail. They only have an hour. So he attacks long before he would IRL just to show us the workings of the game.
I'm 100% confident that in a real game, Daniel does not play like he does in the videos. He is much smarter than that obviously.
Daniel is playing to show us things with the game. He is not playing it to conquer the world.

 

[LordOfWar16]

He only drawed it, but didnt executed it, so he didnt showed us how the AI would handle such an plan, only that it is theoretically possible.

And thats why I worry a little bit, shouldnt the "best player in the world" use encirclement plans ? Everytime a Batteplan was executed in the www´s it was a very simple battleplan, never ever an more advanced plan with encirclements.

You can exactly see how the AI would advance down the path if you hover over it. Daniel plays alot different than other people. He likes to have very simple battleplans and micro his troops here and there if he sees an oppertunity. Other than that due to the 1 hour limitation he didnt really wanted to tinker around with it for too long, since he wanted to show off stuff and because it also was multiplayer most of the time or simply not really worth it to invest much time in battleplans in the past streams.

 

[Sir Garnet]

The invasion of Spain with armor and motorized forces today was a perfect situation to to try envelopments (or at least one) against handy coastlines or borders. Pin the Spanish along the frontier with light engagement, break through with overwhelming strength mid-frontier and then one arrow cuts south and then east past Zaragoza from the south to seal off the enemy in Catalonia, another arrow wheels right to the Portuguese border to cut off the Spanish in the northwest, and a separate narrow thrust (maybe that needs to be under a different general) keeps going to Madrid and knocking off any moving targets on the way.

As it was, the Spanish campaign was more of a flood. Not that it didi't work given the correlation of forces, but not that educational. For the Soviet Union, it seems like one big arrow to the Urals would send a tide of Germans washing across to a victory line. Shortening the line is almost always a safe recommendation and wisely coded for the AI, but envelopments inherently create a more extensive line that becomes the boundary of a pocket, which closes tighter. Does the AI know how to seal and dissolve a pocket efficiently?

(I've been waiting since the last century for something like battleplanner that can give the operational feel of WW2. I hope this can deliver, if the right orders are given and executed the right way.

 

[Harrigarno]

I guess we'll just have to wait for another week and a half before we can try it ourselves. I'm quite sure that the battle plans will live up to expectations.

 

[Modestus]

I guess we'll just have to wait for another week and a half before we can try it ourselves. I'm quite sure that the battle plans will live up to expectations.

It will certainly live up to mine.

 

[Sir Garnet]

With the pockets I recall from the videos being heavily handcrafted, I'd rather it lives up to my hopes than expectations.

 

[Orlunu]

It will certainly live up to mine.

How is that possible without you knowing exactly how well it operates?

God, I'm an awful quibbler.

 

[blue_yonder]

It will certainly live up to mine.

I wish there was a 'that made me grin' button . . )

 

[Modestus]

How is that possible without you knowing exactly how well it operates?

God, I'm an awful quibbler.

Because I believe I understand how it works and what it can and cannot do well.