Is there a way or a mod to get the AI to stop spamming naval invasions ?

[TheBaconIsPower]

I only recently got HOI4, and the amount of naval invasions is rather large, compared to the other HOI games I have. It's not that these are particularly critical for any war, but they are always annoying to put down, and I hate to be managing a front one second and then see that the AI just sent a division to capture my coastal cities without me noticing. Do I need to set up garrisons on all my coasts to stop the AI from doing monthly expeditions round my country ? Or is there a mod that makes the AI calm down with the invasions ?

 

[Alblaka]

Do I need to set up garrisons on all my coasts to stop the AI from doing monthly expeditions round my country ?

"Do I need to defend an open flank of mine against an AI that is actually intelligent enough to recognize an open, unguarded flank?"
Yes.
Take a couple of Infantry Divisions, set them to Guard Area, mark harbors (and VP/airfield/fortification, maybe). Just a few are enough, because if the AI tries to directly assault your manned harbours, they will take very long due to amphibious assault mali, meaning you can send a proper number of divisions to reinforce your garnison (if even necessary). If the AI were to land on non-harbor cost, it will run out of supply in a month or two and you can mop them up for free (or just encircle them).
From my experience, having a couple divisions guarding your coast usually makes the AI not run monthly invasions (albeit you might still, occasionally see either well-organized large invasions, or the occasional 'Venezuela can into Memel' suicide missions).

 

[wesleytj]

As majors with significant coastlines/islands to defend, I actually create a special, cheap "coastal defense" division, using 4 inf, an engineer, and downgraded equipment priority. Logistics too if you want. Drop them on all your ports, problem solved.

 

[Meglok]

I only recently got HOI4, and the amount of naval invasions is rather large, compared to the other HOI games I have. It's not that these are particularly critical for any war, but they are always annoying to put down, and I hate to be managing a front one second and then see that the AI just sent a division to capture my coastal cities without me noticing. Do I need to set up garrisons on all my coasts to stop the AI from doing monthly expeditions round my country ? Or is there a mod that makes the AI calm down with the invasions ?

Yes you need to guard your coasts from invasions. And yes, the ai will still spam suicidal invasions in the vanilla game. Hopefully the 1.5 patch will address this issue (again).

The mods Vanilla + and Expert AI both reduce the number of ai invasions. They also change other things, with EAI being a huge conversion of the vanilla game, so be aware before you play the mods.

 

[geckoman1011]

Take a couple of Infantry Divisions, set them to Guard Area, mark harbors (and VP/airfield/fortification, maybe).

The problem with guard area is that your AI that manages those units likes to shuffle them around and inopportune moments. What I like to do is use multiple fall back lines that are one province long on all the ports, cities, and airfields I want defended and then assign low priority units to those lines. the enemy can come ashore but they wont have any logistical support. then my weak tank units can come and mop them up after they have starved to death.

 

[wesleytj]

The problem with guard area is that your AI that manages those units likes to shuffle them around and inopportune moments. What I like to do is use multiple fall back lines that are one province long on all the ports, cities, and airfields I want defended and then assign low priority units to those lines. the enemy can come ashore but they wont have any logistical support. then my weak tank units can come and mop them up after they have starved to death.

Better yet, use the Garrison order to get the units to go to the right place, and then turn it off once they get there. Absent official orders, they will just stand there and dig in, which is exactly what you want them to do.

 

[XYN]

"Do I need to defend an open flank of mine against an AI that is actually intelligent enough to recognize an open, unguarded flank?"
Yes.
Take a couple of Infantry Divisions, set them to Guard Area, mark harbors (and VP/airfield/fortification, maybe). Just a few are enough, because if the AI tries to directly assault your manned harbours, they will take very long due to amphibious assault mali, meaning you can send a proper number of divisions to reinforce your garnison (if even necessary). If the AI were to land on non-harbor cost, it will run out of supply in a month or two and you can mop them up for free (or just encircle them).
From my experience, having a couple divisions guarding your coast usually makes the AI not run monthly invasions (albeit you might still, occasionally see either well-organized large invasions, or the occasional 'Venezuela can into Memel' suicide missions).

Plural of "malus" is "maluses".

 

[Alblaka]

Plural of "malus" is "maluses".

I know you are right, but as someone who picked up Latin in school, it sounds terribly wrong.

 

[spartansociety]

Oh Jesus, let's not have a rerun of THAT thread.

 

[Gyrvendal]

As majors with significant coastlines/islands to defend, I actually create a special, cheap "coastal defense" division, using 4 inf, an engineer, and downgraded equipment priority. Logistics too if you want. Drop them on all your ports, problem solved.

That's the worst division design I've ever heard of. Logistics are very expensive and they will be 200% useless on a garrison unit. For this I would advise either 10 or 20-width pure infantry with 1 support arty and 1 engineer. Use puppet manpower if you can get it.
Even better: use a puppet's own divisions for coast guard (request forces diplo action), that way you don't have to supply the equipment or the manpower and those divisions are rarely fit for real combat.

 

[Michel78]

In my current game as the Free American Empire I haven't had one single pop up for incoming naval invasions, no land was ever attacked over sea. This game has reached 1945 already. I think this is because I garrison every port in range of the enemy with special garrison units (4/5 infantry, 1 arty + engineers). And since I have plenty of IC they get sea forts level 3 over time as well.

 

[wesleytj]

That's the worst division design I've ever heard of. Logistics are very expensive and they will be 200% useless on a garrison unit. For this I would advise either 10 or 20-width pure infantry with 1 support arty and 1 engineer. Use puppet manpower if you can get it.
Even better: use a puppet's own divisions for coast guard (request forces diplo action), that way you don't have to supply the equipment or the manpower and those divisions are rarely fit for real combat.

I didn't think width mattered for single divisions that don't attack or defend together? I just want something cheap that will dig in and hold. To be fair, though, I don't really understand the width thing.

Why would logistics be a waste, though? Doesn't it cut down on supply usage? Wouldn't that mean that you can load them up all along a coastline and not have to worry about them being out of supply, even with bad infra? That's the only time I throw those in, if the infra is bad.

 

[aono]

As China I like to use militas with MP and Eng. After my coast is safe (because I landed on Hokkaido) I gradually put them in Home Islands to do anti-partizan duty.
When I have overflow of Art, I put Art to them as well, but actually I have it rarely.

 

[harley001]

While I do think the "Surcide" invasions need to stop. (AI dropping 1-4 divs on a random coastal province without access to a port) you should have to actually defend the ports. That makes sense.

Depending on your country and amount of M factory's. You should make a cheap inf division for coast defense. I use 6 cav, Log, MP, and engineer to defend my coast. I have a garrison version which removed the engineer and is used for suppression.

 

[geckoman1011]

Better yet, use the Garrison order to get the units to go to the right place, and then turn it off once they get there. Absent official orders, they will just stand there and dig in, which is exactly what you want them to do.

I tried that, but because of the way i manage my divisions i couldnt tell what had a role and what had been newly trained and needed an assignment. I guess a hybrid of both techniques could be used, but i find the way i do it currently is so easy that i dont use the garrison order at all. I know what tiles I want to lock down and put a line on it. the only real advantage to the garrison order is to prevent human error of missing a critical tile, but ill take my chances.

 

[BulgarianFocusTree]

Better yet, use the Garrison order to get the units to go to the right place, and then turn it off once they get there. Absent official orders, they will just stand there and dig in, which is exactly what you want them to do.

This is genius! I've been running garrison orders for ages, but I never thought 'hey, let's just turn them off once they're where I want them.

Thank you for improving my game play experience.