Militia are a disastrous waste of resources for any AI

[Kanitatlan]

It is interesting to compare the historical record with the HOI 'panic building of militia' problem. Specifically, during 1941 the soviet union raised som 280 infantry units - some called rifle divisions, some called rifle brigades. These were an essential part of their defence during this critical period and were the units that were later converted by a slow upgrade process to the main infantry force of later years. These units consisted almost entirely of units equipped with basic infantry weapons and minimal training. They match exactly the description of militia units and suggest that, for historical accuracy, the soviet ai should panic and build hordes of militia during 1941.

I'm not really to familiar with the problem being discussed because I am either playing a Mod were this panic build has been prevented or basic HOI where I make sure Russia doesn't last that long. It seems to me that a historically accurate solution is to make militia more effective and hence not such a waste of time.

A secondary issue is the ability to upgrade it. The Russians took a long time slowly upgrading their rifle divisions to reintegrate the various support services. Late in the war they ended up with the Russian equivalent of a western infantry division. Basically the same mix of armaments but with everything one level more centralised to cope with the shortage of skilled manpower.

 

[unmerged(15509)]

Those ideas sound like a good solution. If I am not mistaken, I believe that German Volkssturm was the recipient of some of the latest weapons, MP-44, etc, even before the regular troops got them.

Of course they may not be as as experienced in using them however.

How about a "Werewolf" event, that would improve the militia's stats some? I know that by the time this is triggered, it may too late, but it sure sounds neat to see though.

 

[Zebulba]

I think the best solution is to make them almost as good as infantry, the costs to. but make it alittle worser then inf, if we do that they be to bad for an human player to build but when the ai goes into panic mode they get divs that are almost infantry. maybe not the most historical soultion but it will work and it would greatly benefit nations like russia as they should do.

 

[unmerged(4436)]

I had a lot of ideas to make them better that don't really mess with the stats that much.

1. Give them super low supply costs in home proviences. Maybe even zero.

2. Give them a bonus to defence and maybe movement in all home proviences.

3. Make them very resistant to air attack.

In this game a millitia is NOT a bunch of old men armed with spears. It is fully trained British Colonial armies, the French Foreign Legion, and professional partisians DIVISIONS. Giving them 1 hard and 4 soft attack in 1946 is retarded.

As it is now having millitias causes you to lose. They are never helpful under any circumstances. Its just a waste of manpower, supplies and IC's.

 

[unmerged(19205)]

I don't think you can specific custom values that work only in home provinces

 

[unmerged(12303)]

maybe we can scrap militia as they are -change them to normal infantry units and upgrade the current infantry units as "elite" infantry forces???

F

 

[Cpack]

maybe we can scrap militia as they are -change them to normal infantry units and upgrade the current infantry units as "elite" infantry forces???
F

Hmmm, I downgraded the militia to regiment level.
Now they are like guerillias or partisans, or at the pacific like small garrisons.
I made them nearly untouchable against tactical_attack and give them better performance in rough terrain and bad weather conditions.

So they are a good cheap alternative for defending rough and minor important islands and terrains.

You can use them also as garrisons in the backside provinces as "national guard" or something.

I think using militia like this is a good supplement for infantry.

 

[Soapy Frog]

I made them nearly untouchable against tactical_attack and give them better performance in rough terrain and bad weather conditions.

How did you do this?

 

[unmerged(7708)]

Hmmm, I downgraded the militia to regiment level.
Now they are like guerillias or partisans, or at the pacific like small garrisons.
I made them nearly untouchable against tactical_attack and give them better performance in rough terrain and bad weather conditions.

Good idea that covers a lot of areas. But.. they also functioned in several campaigns as weak hurriedly produced infantry units that actually performed worse in adverse terrain than regular inf.

We might be asking a lot from one unit type.

Giving militia upgrades or better yet allowing them to upgrade to regular inf. Would allow them to play the role of emergency quick build units that can come in quickly. This way they arrive quickly and cheaper. So you get a unit initialy quicker but and at a time can get rid a almost useless unit by upgrading. The resulting unit would still arrive quicker the second time than scraping the militia and using the manpower to start over.

Helps you get around the problem of the AI not disbanding the militia after the emergency is past to recover manpowwer and save supplies. The AI seldom disbands but will upgrade. It might handle it's force mix better this way

 

[Cpack]

How did you do this?

First of all, tactical_attack was reduced for all planes, because it's a little bit hard, that tactical bombers are able to destroy a whole army corps !!!!
I also reduced surface_detection.

Then I give a high air_defence (already try to find the best value..started with 15).

It works fine, they don't take tooooooo much damage

Ok., they are not invisible, but harder to destroy.

 

[unmerged(24942)]

I agree militia are a waste and what worse is the horrible sprite. Militia needs a new sprite.

 

[Tamerlan]

I am not completely sure of the reason the AI starts to buld militia like mad.

1-Being at war a mandatory condition ?
2-Not controlling many claimed provinces. Typically the commies in China seem to build a lot of militia although they control all their owned territory.
3-Having a lot of MP.
4-The panic setting in the AI file ?

Maybe a kind of way to handle the militia crazzy building scheme would be to remove bundle of the claim over uncontrolled provinces and put the claim back when the bundle of provinces is taken back ? That migh require a lot of AI events, but if u group provinces by set of 4 provinces, that might reduce the load of work. Could be useful for the USSR-China.

 

[MegaPIMP]

Maybe it's possible to ad several TYPEs of militia, like tanks etc.
In the begining you would get to choose between techs that gives your country a type of milita(guerillas/partisans/old men and boys/poorly equiped divisons etc) and techs that speciffcaly effects militia the different types of milita(tunnel network for partisans, incurage bravery for rifle divisons etc).
And the AI got get to choose randomly...

 

[unmerged(12556)]

What about this, up the combat value of milita, but drastically lower the movement rate. This forces them into a very defensive role. It's not ideal, but it keeps Brazil from "helping" in out in western Europe by sending useless units that don't do much.

 

[unmerged(26901)]

yea about this whole militia/reserve/garrison unit thing, i think that tgw has got it right on the nose with light infantry/garrison troops and colinial militia or whatever. the units have pretty decent values/dont take long and in a formation can stand up to the test and actually win battles. i know that the german volkstrum, certain units wernt horrible and pulled off some amazing taks such as in berlin and even during the bulge some heavy militia spearheaded the assault. i also think militia dont get enough credit in the game at all because they really suck when they shouldnt, unless they are for minor countires such as tibet/persia/south american minors which were equipped with less than standard weapons but major country militia were pretty well equipped coparatively and could actually fight.