How is the HQ AI in the TFH?

[Emren]

Hey guys,

I've been reading a lot about the HQ AI recently, but most threads on it are 2-3 years old. Can anyone give me a quick summary of how reliable the HQ AI works? What is it good at, what does it not do well? I want to get into HoI3, but I don't have time to micro the game, so I need assistance from the HQ AI. What will frustrate me, and what its strong points?

Thanks.

 

[yamato2cz]

Hey guys,

I've been reading a lot about the HQ AI recently, but most threads on it are 2-3 years old. Can anyone give me a quick summary of how reliable the HQ AI works? What is it good at, what does it not do well? I want to get into HoI3, but I don't have time to micro the game, so I need assistance from the HQ AI. What will frustrate me, and what its strong points?

Thanks.

its good at nothing, it sucks, its stupid, its not using units properly. you need to create really small theathers (i had 4 in total for france, GB scandinavia and germany, as germanym not counting those in conquered russia, level of micro you must do before you are set up is incredible and you cant even trust them with planes and ships, they fuck up both pretty quickly) you may give them orders to focus on province or two. i think its 3 for theather 3 for army group 2 for army and 1 for corps. IF you want to manage them this way. i just send to AI home defence theathers weak units that need to rest for a while and take back some fresh and do attacks by myself.

 

[Kovax]

The AI is adequate (not "good") at maintaining a solid line and making sure everything is defended, except when it sees something that freaks it out, like a stray Partisan unit. It's all but useless for encirclements and overruns, or anything else that's not a straight-up frontal assault. It doesn't use or locate HQs properly, so the units frequently don't benefit from the command chain bonuses. I've encountered more than one situation where it launched a campaign (one against Denmark, for example) with around 9 HQs, one 2xGarrison division, and one 3xINF division. Another time, the brilliant AI pulled all except ONE combat division and umpteen gazillion HQs off of the Eastern Front to feed the boondoggle in Norway (50+ divisions, half of them armored or motorized, already starving in the mountains, then it sent MORE!), and then thought it was the perfect moment to launch Barbarossa. Needless to say, the SU was in Berlin well before Christmas.

All of that being said, you can still beat the AI with the AI, but that takes a little more effort in the Strategic aspects.

 

[_karl_]

You should use the AI only at Army or Army Group Level. On a full theatre it can make a lot of weird things, too much strategic deployment, inadequate garrisons, and it's hard to keep a small group of units you want to lead by yourself (e.g. a spearhead of armours, or a few paradroppers, or a navy). Additionally you should allow for automatic reorganisation of the OOB, otherwise the AI won't be able to keep a tidy OOB with all units in range. Finally, while it's more of less OK (but very inefficient) to put your airforce under the AI command, you should absolutely not let the AI in command of your fleet: that's both where the AI does the weirdest things and where you units do not need an encirclement to get sunk.