I'm sure unknown x has noticed this, but it seems to me that for whatever reason the English just ignore their AI file. In fact, most nations seem to disregard it. This implies that a lot of the AI's decision making is hard coded somewhere and outside the player's control.
I have repeatedly played with limiting England's desired military size and with setting their priorities to relative build scheme. This doesn't seem to remotely change the English desire to build huge armies of land divisions and sit them in London. Nor does it effect their desire to only build new warships if they suffer losses. Even if you put England's army to like 30% of their total units, they will still build over 100 divisions b 1860, and quickly move towards 200 by 1880.
But England is not the only culprit. In my current game, Italy has nearly 200 divisions, as does the US. Germany and Austria have 150 each, while myself as France has 145 and Russia has 100.
The common thread is that all this building occurred in wartime.
Germany built its army when it was at war with the USA but not doing anything in the 1870's.
Italy built its army in its wars with Austria in the 1860's and the afore mentioned war with the USA as allies of the CSA.
Austria built its huge army right at the end of the Austro-Prussian War.
England's army is impossible to explain, but the others seem to be controlled by wartime building that is NOT DISBANDED AFTER THE WAR.
It all comes back to a disband AI that isn't working. The AI will never disband old ships to build new ones. The AI will never disband units to get back to its desired military size in its AI file (I have changed every AI file to include a desired military size, only to see it ignored).
On the issue of navy, once the English build their super-army, they are very reluctant to build modern ships of any kind, even if you disband their MW/FR fleet and later their IC's. In my current game, I have set 40% of English build priorities to army and 60% to just modern ships (not even IC's). I disbanded all their MW's and FR's and the English fleet in 1896 consists of 7 BB and 10 IC and nothing else. Something in the AI flags that huge army that England maintains (200 divisions) and counts it against its desired naval size.
Other nations during wartime will build huge amounts of transports and ignore the other ships listed in their AI files. For example, I set Italy to build 5 steamer transports in their AI file. They have 90 to go with their 200 divisions.
This is a major problem that I think 1.02 will fix. The point of this was to just state that my repeated tests (at least 10 GC's started and run through at least 1880) is that messing with the AI files will not cause the AI to build reasonable number of forces. Once they are in a war, they disregard their AI desired military size and they never, ever disband a unit.
I have repeatedly played with limiting England's desired military size and with setting their priorities to relative build scheme. This doesn't seem to remotely change the English desire to build huge armies of land divisions and sit them in London. Nor does it effect their desire to only build new warships if they suffer losses. Even if you put England's army to like 30% of their total units, they will still build over 100 divisions b 1860, and quickly move towards 200 by 1880.
But England is not the only culprit. In my current game, Italy has nearly 200 divisions, as does the US. Germany and Austria have 150 each, while myself as France has 145 and Russia has 100.
The common thread is that all this building occurred in wartime.
Germany built its army when it was at war with the USA but not doing anything in the 1870's.
Italy built its army in its wars with Austria in the 1860's and the afore mentioned war with the USA as allies of the CSA.
Austria built its huge army right at the end of the Austro-Prussian War.
England's army is impossible to explain, but the others seem to be controlled by wartime building that is NOT DISBANDED AFTER THE WAR.
It all comes back to a disband AI that isn't working. The AI will never disband old ships to build new ones. The AI will never disband units to get back to its desired military size in its AI file (I have changed every AI file to include a desired military size, only to see it ignored).
On the issue of navy, once the English build their super-army, they are very reluctant to build modern ships of any kind, even if you disband their MW/FR fleet and later their IC's. In my current game, I have set 40% of English build priorities to army and 60% to just modern ships (not even IC's). I disbanded all their MW's and FR's and the English fleet in 1896 consists of 7 BB and 10 IC and nothing else. Something in the AI flags that huge army that England maintains (200 divisions) and counts it against its desired naval size.
Other nations during wartime will build huge amounts of transports and ignore the other ships listed in their AI files. For example, I set Italy to build 5 steamer transports in their AI file. They have 90 to go with their 200 divisions.
This is a major problem that I think 1.02 will fix. The point of this was to just state that my repeated tests (at least 10 GC's started and run through at least 1880) is that messing with the AI files will not cause the AI to build reasonable number of forces. Once they are in a war, they disregard their AI desired military size and they never, ever disband a unit.
