German AI still declares war on everyone

[Misaka_Complex]

This issue has existed since the beginning of time, and its still present in this patch. In my game, the German AI declared war on Austria which was part of the Pact of Rome, then it demanded Sudetenland (which was refused) and went to war with the Allies. Despite doing a terrible job in the war, they decided to go Danzig or War and even declared on Denmark and the Netherlands all while getting beat very hard by the Allies and the Pact of Rome. To add to that, they even went down the National Focus of getting a War Goal on Switzerland all while losing the war. Its also worth mentioning that they still push across the Maginot line by force like there is no tomorrow.

 

[atredies]

In my historical game Germany declared war on fellow axis member fascist Yugoslavia in 1937 out of the blue.

I posted it in the bug report forum because it’s just nonsensical. No focus Germany had taken would cause this to happen. Especially not in 1937 well before Germany had border access to attack its own fascist ally.

 

[Rider_of_Doom]

Germany without historical focus on is mostly garbage imo. In my games, I have never saw them winning the war(s) in this game mode.

 

[Misaka_Complex]

I posted it in the bug report forum because it’s just nonsensical. No focus Germany had taken would cause this to happen. Especially not in 1937 well before Germany had border access to attack its own fascist ally.

At this point, its Germany has always declared war on everyone uncontrollably since Vanilla I'm not even sure if its a bug anymore, but I know for sure that it doesn't help to improve the gameplay experience with Germany suiciding against everyone when fighting losing wars. Hopefully this issue will finally get fixed eventually down the road. I think the problem is because Nazi Germany is scripted to go to war with the low countries, Poland and France regardless of what happens even if they are doing poorly against the Pact of Rome when Italy is not a German ally. Would be nice if the German AI reevaluate its ability to go to war with the Allies and Poland after their war with the Pact of Rome is finished and reevaluates whether if Italy is still going to be a potential ally before declaring wars.

 

[atredies]

In a nutshell the focus trees that are supposed to lock a sandbox AI into historical(ish) decisions are too complexly intertwined with other nations and the unpredictable nature of human players to produce outcomes you’d “expect”

I guess it’s better than hardcoding everything to a script so the game plays out like Ww2 in a day to day fashion.

The NF system is fun when it works though, it just seems that if you deviate from what the AI would’ve done if playing your country you run the risk of screwing something up. In my case turning Yugoslavia fascist made the German AI break its alliance and declare war on their own ally for no reason.

 

[Dsingis]

Well, there's a morphine junkie (Göring) in charge of Germany and you expect sensible foreign policies?

 

[Misaka_Complex]

Well, there's a morphine junkie (Göring) in charge of Germany and you expect sensible foreign policies?

It actually happens with any Fascist German leader but I get your point lol.

 

[leefnmajors]

Biggest problem is Germany will never try to finish a war before it starts the next one. Playing as Democratic Japan, in 1939 WT was only at 21% when Germany declared on Poland. Poland was freaking dead in the water with no majors guaranteeing it. So what did Germany do? Picked a fight with the Low Countries IMMEDIATELY before Poland surrendered despite them saying they addressed this directly. WT ratcheted up fast, and the Allies got going. Somehow, Germany still managed to beat Poland and annex them eventually AND capitulate France without Italy's help! Italy was tied up with the Pact of Rome and not participating in a war with the Soviets for some reason where neither of them shared a border. So, to celebrate, Germany declared war on Russia! Republican Spain (who I don't think Germany even had troops stationed on the border) joins in, and immediately steamrolls through France with an army half Germany's size while Germany keeps pushing deep into Russia. Long story short, Allies get a foothold back in Europe, Hitler's dead in a bunker AGAIN after declaring war on three factions.

 

[kettyo]

Germany has very few AI restrictions on war focuses in vanilla. You can mod it as i did but mine is for 1.4.2 currently.

I don't know why PDX thinks it's a good idea to let Germany attack everyone at the same time or e.g. Britain attacking Norway when just has lost London to Seelöwe.

 

[GothicEmperor]

Well, to be honest, that's kind-of what Germany did in WW2 historically. I get that it might need some tweaking so it doesn't go completely mad (the Soviet National Focus Tree has some good blocks on war with Germany/Japan/the UK, for example) but it's practically a nation-specific mechanic, too.

 

[kettyo]

Well, to be honest, that's kind-of what Germany did in WW2 historically. I get that it might need some tweaking so it doesn't go completely mad (the Soviet National Focus Tree has some good blocks on war with Germany/Japan/the UK, for example) but it's practically a nation-specific mechanic, too.

Not really. Historically they have pacified one area before moving on to the next.

 

[GothicEmperor]

Not really. Historically they have pacified one area before moving on to the next.

Someone tell the British.

 

[kettyo]

Someone tell the British.

They have considered the British are not an immediate threat before moving on to Barbarossa.

But in game they can do Barbarossa while at war in France or even worse, when they are fighting an Allied invasion in Germany

 

[Rashie]

Someone tell the British.

After the fall of France and Norway there were not multiple open continental europe land fronts with active fighting on land until the invasion of Sicily and Italy proper after the German invasion of the soviet union. Even then there were not much intensive fighting on the western front in between Poland and summer 1940 when the Germans took the initiative.

At any rate, the AI should not be declaring war on either Denmark/Norway or the Benelux until Poland is completely capitulated and occupied.

 

[Misaka_Complex]

This has been a longstanding issue since release and I feel that it finally needs to be addressed properly because despite promises for this to be fixed, the German AI still makes terrible war waging decision. @podcat please fix this once and for all so Germany doesn't die before 1940 in some games....

 

[Ibn_Solmyr]

I just fired 2 games till now. First one was China and it's only 38. But 2nd one is Yougoslavia and despite Germany's tendency to go at war like a snowball on steroïds, it managed quite well at the time ; we're december '40 and it just declared on USSR, but all previous wars have been won apart from the usual "I-declare-on-Norway-even-if-I-can't-get-in-there".. (Poland, Lux, Holland, Begium, France and both Italy and I aka Yougo just invaded Greece.)

 

[Broletariat90]

I just fired 2 games till now. First one was China and it's only 38. But 2nd one is Yougoslavia and despite Germany's tendency to go at war like a snowball on steroïds, it managed quite well at the time ; we're december '40 and it just declared on USSR, but all previous wars have been won apart from the usual "I-declare-on-Norway-even-if-I-can't-get-in-there".. (Poland, Lux, Holland, Begium, France and both Italy and I aka Yougo just invaded Greece.)

For some stupid reason its declaring war on the Soviets in 1940, and just getting stomped. Soviets took Warsaw in a 2 months. Before the patch they at least declared war on them in 1941...

 

[Misaka_Complex]

I just fired 2 games till now. First one was China and it's only 38. But 2nd one is Yougoslavia and despite Germany's tendency to go at war like a snowball on steroïds, it managed quite well at the time ; we're december '40 and it just declared on USSR, but all previous wars have been won apart from the usual "I-declare-on-Norway-even-if-I-can't-get-in-there".. (Poland, Lux, Holland, Begium, France and both Italy and I aka Yougo just invaded Greece.)

That's another issue, why are they declaring war on Norway without really having the means to get there? This makes no sense unless they have naval superiority (which they usually never have) in the region and have a naval plan that is ready to be executed just as they declare war. Unless the AI learns to use paratroopers to get to Norway they shouldn't be declaring war on Norway without securing the sea route to get there...

 

[Admiral Fischer]

Well, there's a morphine junkie (Göring) in charge of Germany and you expect sensible foreign policies?

You might be surprised to know that this morphine junkie had a more diplomatic insight than Hitler. He was smart enough to oppose the war against Czechoslovakia in 1938, against Poland in 1939, and again against Soviet Union in 1940. In all three cases he eventually folded to Hitler, and he with 100% certainty was highly belligerent as could be seen from his threat against President Hacha of the 'rump' state of Czechoslovakia in 1939, but it is also very certain that at least he had a common sense to see when to start war and when to stay in peace.

 

[Misaka_Complex]

He was smart enough to oppose the war against Czechoslovakia in 1938, against Poland in 1939, and again against Soviet Union in 1940.

Well for the Polish situation Hitler expected Poland to fold, and they were about to with foreign affairs minister Neville Henderson from Britain agreeing that Hitler's demands on Danzig were "reasonable" but the time frame given to Poland to respond was not, where Ribbentrop made the deadline for the Polish response impossible to meet and lied to Hitler that Poland had "refused" German demands.