Semper Fi: Detailed, 10-year, Hands-off AAR

[SpartanSoldier]

Introduction:

I wanted to run a hands off game to test the new expansion and see what has improved with the AI. I will share the results with you in the following AAR. It lasts from Jan. 1st, 1936 to Dec. 31, 1945. I ran the AAR with Semper Fi v 2.0 with default victory conditions and playing as Tibet. Fog of war was off.

Key:

-This color is general diplomatic or military information and observations
-This color is a big change from the HOI3 1.4 norm
-This color is a bug, possible bug, or oversight
-This color is a game crash
-This color explains the following screen shot

AAR:

-25, April 1936: Spanish Civil War begins
-29, October: Nationalists win SCW
-1, July 1937: Japan DOWs Nationalist China (and again on the same day after the CTD
-Mid July '37: I had a runtime error CTD (the only CTD throughout the 10 year game)
-1, Jan 1938: The Japanese-China war 6 months in.

-10, March 1938: Anschluss of Austria
-27, Sep 1938: Treaty of Munich, Sudetenland to Germany
-28, Sep 1938: France enters military alliance with Yugoslavia
-7, December: Denmark mobilizes
-16, Dec: France enters military alliance with Chechoslovakia
-Christmas Day, 1938: Netherlands mobilizes
-1, Jan 1939: The Japanese-China war 18 months in. Japan has stalled in Shangxi.

-14, March 1939: Belgium and the Netherlands enter military alliance with France
-27, March: First Vienna Award. Chechloslovakia annexed, Slovakia puppeted, Ruthenia to Hungary. United Kingdom guarentees Poland. Italy Annexes Albania. Italy enters military alliance with Hungary
-29, March: Italy joins Axis powers.
-30, March 1939: Lux. mobilizes.
-3, April: Belgium mobilizes. Lux. enters a military alliance with France.
-22, August 1939: "Danzig or War" fires. Germany DOWs Poland. "Finnish Winter War" fires but there is never any war between Soviet Union and Finnland. Bug. *As pointed out by Blitznor in post 24, the Soviet Union did get some of Finnland's land despite never being at war. I know for a fact that Finnland chose "Let them come if they dare!" and did not surrender outright. I would guess that the Soviets got the land for nothing from the "Finnish Winter War" event. I can't be sure as I don't have a save that far back. Either part of the same bug or a new bug.
-29, August: Bulgaria enters military alliance with Italy
-1, September: South Africa joins Allies.
-11, September: New Zeeland joins Allies.
-15, September: Canada joins Allies.
-28, September: Poland defeated in 37 days. Is divided between Germany and Soviet Union.
-1, October 1939: Germany DOWs Denmark even though they have been spending diplomatic points since day on influencing them. Oversight? Denmark joins Allies. Hungary joins Axis on this day as well.

Continued next post.

 

[SpartanSoldier]

Key:

-This color is general diplomatic or military information and observations
-This color is a big change from the HOI3 1.4 norm
-This color is a bug, possible bug, or oversight
-This color is a game crash
-This color explains the following screen shot

Continued from above post:

-28, October 1939: Denmark defeated. Germany Annexes.
-30, November: Sweden mobilizes.
-9, December: Finnland mobilizes.
-11, January 1940: Japan (and puppet Manchukuo) join Comintern (the Soviet Union had been influencing Japan from day one).
-1, February 1940: Germany Dows Norway. Norway joins Allies.
-18, February: Shanxi finally defeated. Japan Annexes.
-24, February: Ireland joins Allies.
-15, March: Netherlands joins Allies.
-27, March: Communist China defeated. Japan Annexes.
-1, April: Germany DOWs Lux.
-2, April 1940: Australia joins Allies.
-9, April: Luxumburg is defeated and annexed by Germany.
-12, April: Germany DOWs Belgium.
-Approx. Late April 1940: Netherlands in Europe is completly occupied.
-7, May: Sinkiang joins Comintern.
-By mid May 1940: Germany has pushed into France along two fronts: in the north through Belgium and to Calais and in the east by punching through the Maginot line.

-Approx Mid May: All of European Belgium is occupied
-22, May 1940: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia annexed in "Ultimatum to Baltic States" by Soviet Union.
-27, May: Bulgaria joins Axis.
-3, June 1940: Italy and puppet Ethiopia join Germany in the war against the Allies.
-1, July 1940: Japan's progress in East Asia after 3 years of war. Japan had landed in Guangxi Clique some months ago and took over half the country, before being stopped and pushed back. Although the naval incasion looks to be a failure, it diverted enough Chinese forces from the northern front and broke the stalemate there. Whether by accident or design, the invasion turned out to be a strategic success.

 

[SpartanSoldier]

Key:

-This color is general diplomatic or military information and observations
-This color is a big change from the HOI3 1.4 norm
-This color is a bug, possible bug, or oversight
-This color is a game crash
-This color explains the following screen shot

Continued from above post:

-2, July 1940: Germany's progress into France 2 months after first entering French territory. Italy bravely captures Corsica No, I kid. Italy actually contributed a fair deal. They sent 10 or so divisions into France through Germany, while invading through their border with France and taking Tsunisa all at the same time. I attribute this to AI improvement.

-2, July 1940: Germany did not send enough divisions into Norway and their invasion stalls.

-2, July 1940: Germany DOWs Sweden.
-19, July: Portugal enters a military alliance with France.
-12, August: United Kingdom defeates and annexes Ethiopia in East Africa. They have also taken most of Italy's E. African possessions by this time.
-17, August: Nationalist China defeated and annexed by Japan.
-15, October 1940: Xibei San Ma defeated and annexed by Japan.
-28, October: Guangxi Clique defeated and puppeted by Japan. Japan wins total victory in China in 3 years and 4 months.
-19, November 1940: France defeated. Vichy event fires. Corsica and Tsunisa go to Italy from occupation. Indochina does NOT go to Comintern Japan.
-14, December: Soviet Union mobilizes.
-19, December: Romania mobilizes.
-20, December: Germany defeats and annexes Sweden.
-29, December 1940: Greece mobilizes.
-Mid March, 1941: By this time, Italy has lost all African holdings (North and East Africa) to the United Kingdom.
-24, March 1941: Norway is defeated and annexed by Germany. Interestingly, half of the Scandinavian invasion force was comprised of Italian forces.
-9, April: Finnland grants transit rights to Germany.
-11, April 1941: So far, so good for the Axis powers.

 

[SpartanSoldier]

Key:

-This color is general diplomatic or military information and observations
-This color is a big change from the HOI3 1.4 norm
-This color is a bug, possible bug, or oversight
-This color is a game crash
-This color explains the following screen shot

Continued from above post:

-9, July 1941: Yugoslavia joins Axis powers.
-28, July: Italy DOWs Greece in limited war. Germany joins in anyway. Greece joins Allies.
-31, July: Yugoslavia and Bulgaria join the war against Greece aand the rest of the Allies.
-21, September: Greece falls to combined Axis assult and Italy puppets.
-Early October 1941: Germany lands small invasion force in Ireland. It fails by Jan 1 of '42
-13, November, 1941 Germany DOWs Soviet Union along with Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and puppets Slovakia and Greece. Hungary chooses this time to join the fray against the Cominterns and Allies as well. The Soviets have many allies in the east, but they are far away. The Soviets must face the combined Axis assult alone for the first year.
-15, May 1942: Liberia joins Allies.
-7, June 1942: Yunnan joins Comintern.
-Late July 1942: A large Allied invasion force lands in the low countries. It is not the United Kingdom, however. Even though they are Comintern, Japan has given Belgium and Netherlands about 25 divisions and they landed them in their home countries. Despite the large size, this invasion was premature and failed by the begining of October later that year.

-3, Spetember 1942: The United States finally joins the war much later than they typically did in 1.4.

-15, November, 1942: One year after they DOW, Germany and its allies has made only limited progress into the Soviet Union. This is almost the maximum extent of Germany's advance into the USSR. *This is HUGE! This is the single most important improvement in Semper Fi. The Soviets can finally put up real resistance against Germany. Kudos Paradox By now, significant numbers of the Soviet Union's eastern allies begin to arrive.

-27, February, 1943: Costa Rica jons Allies.
-12, March: Siam joins Comintern.
-18, May: Columbia joins Allies.
-4, June: Brazil joins Allies.
-Late September 1943: The United States lands a pathetic 5-division invasion force in the Netherlands. It quickly fails. This is to be the ONE AND ONLY military action from the United States in the entire game. If the staying power of the Soviet Union is Semper Fi's biggest success, then this is its biggest failure (according to this AAR. No broad conclucion can be made from a sample size of one). The United States had no enemy in the Pacific. They should have landed a massive force in Europe instead of sorry attempt.
-Early November 1943: Japan lands a 5 division force in N. France. It quickly fails.
-15, Jan 1944: Haiti joins Allies.
-11, February 1944: Soviet Union annexed Tannu Tuva.
-14, March 1944: 2 years and 4 months after the conflict began, the Soviet Union and friends have halted the German advance in the North around Novgorad and Smolensk. They have pushed past the start position in the south and into German Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Yugoslavia. The tide has turned.

 

[SpartanSoldier]

Key:

-This color is general diplomatic or military information and observations
-This color is a big change from the HOI3 1.4 norm
-This color is a bug, possible bug, or oversight
-This color is a game crash
-This color explains the following screen shot

Continued from above post:

-18, March 1944: Hungary defeated by Soviets, but chooses to continue to fight.
-Mid April, 1944: Soviet Union begins to push into Germany proper in West Prussia.
-2, May 1944: Yugoslavia defeated and refuses to surrender.
-4, May 1944: Slovakia defeated and refuses to surrender.
-10, May: Tibet (played by me but with AI diplomacy) joins Comintern.
-28, May: Poland liberated and joined Comintern as Soviet Puppet.
-4, June: Bulgaria defeated and refuses to surrender.
-14, June 1944: Greece defeated and refuses to surrender.
-15, June, 1944: 2 years and 7 months since Germany DOWed. Europe is turning red!

-17, June 1944: Mexico joins Allies.
-9, July: Saudi Arabia joins Allies.
-15, July 1944: The 3rd Reich is crumbling.

-31, July 1944: Soviets take Berlin
-6, August 1944: Event "Surrender" in Germany. DDR created from pre-war German border as Comintern member and Soviet puppet. Norway, Denmark, Austria, Luxumburg, and Chechoslovakia minus slovakia are released as neutral powers. Belgium and the Netherlands regain their European holdings. Nazi Germany retains non-Vichy France and Sweden. Rome also falls on this day. Italy is defeated, but refuses to surrender. *Two bugs/oversights resulted from the surrender event: 1) Germany gains a truce with Comintern and Allies. The truce with Comintern is fine, but as Nazi Germany still controls France, I don't see a truce with the Allies realistic. 2) The surrender event kicked Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, and Hungary out of Axis, but they remained at war and completely occupied with Comintern. They should be puppeted or annexed or released.

-7, August 1944: Nazi Germany DOWs Finnland but doesn't get far and stalls until game ends 31, Dec, '45.
-15, August: Honduras joins Allies.
-22, August: Nicaragua joins Allies.
-2, October 1944: Denmark rejoins Allies
-5, October: Panama joins Allies.
-11, Oct: El Salvador joins Allies.
-Christmas Day, 944: Nazi Germany DOWs Luxumburg and Cuba joins Allies.
-28, December: Nazi Germany defeats and annexes Lux. for the second time. Allies do nothing.
-4, Jan 1945: Dominican Republic joins Allies.
-9 Jan: Guatemala joins Allies.
-14, Jan: Ecuador joins Allies.
-15, Jan: Venezula joins Allies.
-14, March 1945: Portugal joins Allies.
-21, April: Peru joins Allies.
-9, June: Bolivia joins Allies.
-5, November 1945: Romania joins Comintern.
-2, December 1945: Persia joins Allies.
-31, December 1945: I end the game.

Victory points:
Axis: 7.4%
Allies: 31.7%
Comintern: 50.2%

Victory Conditions:
Axis: 2/15
Allies: 3/15
Comintern: 10/15

Comintern win Operational Victory!

Quick Summary of Semper Fi:

Whatever has been done to improve the Soviet Unions performance on the eastern front has worked succeeded with flying colors in this game. True, the Soviets did have Japan and company on their side, but while waiting for their allies, the Soviets held off the combined Axis forces single-handedly for a full year. Massive improvement. I was also pleased with the way that the lesser faction members helped out their leaders (in Axis and Comintern) such as the Italians in Scandinavia. Much better than the random running around they did in 1.4. Naval invasions is one area that did not seem to get any improvement at all. There were 5 naval invasions and none of them were successful. Worst of all, the United States and to a lesser degree the United Kingdom were very inactive. This still needs to be fixed, and it needs to be fixed with patches and not another paid expansion. Lastly, there are still some fairly obvious bugs and oversights that need to be addressed.

Overall, it is worth a buy. I would like to make a suggestion, however, that next time Paradox makes a game this large in scope, that they take a bit more time to develop it, get it right the first time instead of requiring an expansion pack, and just charge $50 for it.

 

[unmerged(54975)]

Nevermind.

 

[keanucange]

you should realize that with japan being in comintern that if they launch pearl harbor that the soviet union will be at war with the US / Allies (assuming US joins allies)

 

[Federkiel]

Agree, a pretty interesting insight into a hands-off game.

Why has AI GER DoWed Sweden? Or has Sweden deliberately joined ALLIES? I wonder with the Gerry BH in Norway while Sweden seems to be neutral...

 

[unperson]

Nicely written so far, but many of the bugs or oversights you mention are already solved in the beta patch.

 

[Sunfighter]

Still going after Sweden! I dont think Japan will do anything to the USA. The USA generally joins the allies just from time, not from a pearl harbor like deal. So i think nothing will happen in that ideal.

 

[Federkiel]

Still going after Sweden!

Well, i wonder. Someone explained that AI GER wouldn't go after SWE in Semper Fi if it has gained any form of access to Norway - and be it an invasion bridgehead.

 

[Timmetie]

Germany went straight through the maginot line?

However that could be smarter, in my current game I've had the maginot line surrounded for months now with 20 divisions in there and they're still in supply.

 

[Sunfighter]

Well, i wonder. Someone explained that AI GER wouldn't go after SWE in Semper Fi if it has gained any form of access to Norway - and be it an invasion bridgehead.

ive played 4 Ai games, sweden has gotten taken everytime. So i dunno..

 

[Federkiel]

ive played 4 Ai games, sweden has gotten taken everytime. So i dunno..

Sad story.

 

[AlbieDamned]

Just about everything you described happened nearly the same way in a hands-off game that I ran myself. Japan stalled for a long time in Shanxi, but eventually broke through after a couple years. (In particular Japan took forever to conquer the urban province Beiping despite controlling most of the provinces around it, just as in your first screen shot). France and Italy formed all kinds of direct alliances with other European countries. Japan was heavily influenced by and eventually joined the Comintern. The Winter War never actually happened despite a message about it on the same day the Germany DOW'd Poland. The Commonwealth nations (SA, Australia, NZ, Canada) slowly trickled into the Allies after the onset of war. Germany busted right through the Maginot Line as well as coming into France through Belgium.

 

[Diomedene]

Still going after Sweden! I dont think Japan will do anything to the USA. The USA generally joins the allies just from time, not from a pearl harbor like deal. So i think nothing will happen in that ideal.

In the three handsoff games that I ran with basic Semper Fi (before adding the bets LUA) Japan war decced the US in all three. If I recall correctly the US was in the Alliees in one of those and unaffliated in the other two.

 

[Darkrenown]

ive played 4 Ai games, sweden has gotten taken everytime. So i dunno..

It's an Axis VC IIRC.

 

[Sunfighter]

Does Operation Zet, Russian Aid to China still fire of Japan is in league with the Commies? Im looking at the event file and I see nothing on it that would stop it from firing if Japan was a Russian Ally...all the requirements are that Japan be at war with China.

 

[Darkrenown]

True, could probably use a "JAP = { not = { faction = comintern } }"

 

[SpartanSoldier]

you should realize that with japan being in comintern that if they launch pearl harbor that the soviet union will be at war with the US / Allies (assuming US joins allies)

They didn't launch Pearl Harbor, so I didn't get to see this happen.

Why has AI GER DoWed Sweden? Or has Sweden deliberately joined ALLIES? I wonder with the Gerry BH in Norway while Sweden seems to be neutral...

Sweden never joined Allies even after being invaded by Germany. Perhaps Germany DOWed them to get to Norway, perhaps they just saw an easy conquest.

Nicely written so far, but many of the bugs or oversights you mention are already solved in the beta patch.

I started the game days before the patch was released, and the patch is still in beta, so silly to test. I am interested in what has been solved though. Please inform if you know. Thanks.

Just about everything you described happened nearly the same way in a hands-off game that I ran myself. Japan stalled for a long time in Shanxi, but eventually broke through after a couple years. (In particular Japan took forever to conquer the urban province Beiping despite controlling most of the provinces around it, just as in your first screen shot). France and Italy formed all kinds of direct alliances with other European countries. Japan was heavily influenced by and eventually joined the Comintern. The Winter War never actually happened despite a message about it on the same day the Germany DOW'd Poland. The Commonwealth nations (SA, Australia, NZ, Canada) slowly trickled into the Allies after the onset of war. Germany busted right through the Maginot Line as well as coming into France through Belgium.

Wow! Thanks for mentioning this. Now we have a sample size of 2! BTW, How did Germany do against the Soviets in your game?

Does Operation Zet, Russian Aid to China still fire of Japan is in league with the Commies? Im looking at the event file and I see nothing on it that would stop it from firing if Japan was a Russian Ally...all the requirements are that Japan be at war with China.

Don't know. In my game, that event fired before Japan joined Comintern. The Soviets did not send aid to China in my game.