Strange things and a few questions

[ViribusUnitis]

Hi guys!

I'm currently playing a game as Nat. China in TFH 4.02 Vanilla (no console or side-switching or things like that) and have some questions.

First, during the war against Japan I noticed that the AI is doing strange things with my troops (Peking HQ was set to auto) - sending nearly 70 % of my brigades with full ORG to one of the most far away province in China (was one at the south coast). I nearly lost the battle because they didn't send them back to the frontline. Is this a known bug?

Second thing is, I managed to join Comintern in mid 39' or so, some time later, I think it was late 40' suddenly USA joined Comintern - WTF ???
I checked everything, Democrats are ruling, and on the Diplomacy-Screen I never saw them drifting out of the Allied-Corner, until they joined - how is that possible??

But it makes the game way more fun - shortly after they invaded Japan and declared war on Canada and crushed them xD

My third question is, is there an event or something for reuniting China? I am holding all of the provinces where Nat. and Com. China have a claim on.


Thank you in advance!

 

[zezeb]

I can only answer the last question since I don't own the last expansions for it: No, there is no event to unite China. There might be a mod for it.

 

[Pro_Consul]

First, during the war against Japan I noticed that the AI is doing strange things with my troops (Peking HQ was set to auto) - sending nearly 70 % of my brigades with full ORG to one of the most far away province in China (was one at the south coast). I nearly lost the battle because they didn't send them back to the frontline. Is this a known bug?

It's not really a bug, just a quirk in the way the AI views theater and front responsibilities. Basically they get all in a dither about undefended borders, even with dedicated neutrals like Switzerland or whomever, and they also sometimes put too much emphasis on what they think is a vulnerable area just because it has something worrisome in it like a high VP province or major port that it feels needs a lot of defending. It is easily dealt with by simply assigning appropriate boundaries to the theater HQs where the fighting is going to be taking place, so that they do not include backwater areas. Instead assign such areas to one or more idle theaters (manual control) with perhaps a few wimply static defenders like MIL parked in them until they are needed elsewhere. And of course never neglect to defend your ports with manually controlled static defenders. The fighting theaters work best if they are relatively narrow strips along the front, no more than 3 or at most 4 provinces deep.

There are several detailed threads about how to optimize the AI's performance and curb its less desirable tendencies. I can provide some links if you want more info on this. Just holler.

Second thing is, I managed to join Comintern in mid 39' or so, some time later, I think it was late 40' suddenly USA joined Comintern - WTF ???
I checked everything, Democrats are ruling, and on the Diplomacy-Screen I never saw them drifting out of the Allied-Corner, until they joined - how is that possible??

I don't remember the exact mechanics for how this happens, but there is a certain mechanism for how the game handles faction membership when a nation is drawn into the war in an unexpected fashion, from an historial standpoint. If I remember correctly, which is highly suspect, if a country is already at war with someone in a particular faction, then if they declare another war on a neutral, that neutral will join the faction of their current enemy. Or some such. I probably hacked that up, but it's something vaguely like that I think. It is something that some players like to exploit when trying to get odd, ahistorial faction alignments for purposes of changing things up, but I have never deliberately done it myself.

My third question is, is there an event or something for reuniting China? I am holding all of the provinces where Nat. and Com. China have a claim on.

If you are at war with them and they have not surrendered, just add a conquest wargoal for them and then force their surrender in the normal manner. You have cores on the entirety of China already, so there is no real downside to it except that it raises your threat.

 

[Opanashc]

Second thing is, I managed to join Comintern in mid 39' or so, some time later, I think it was late 40' suddenly USA joined Comintern - WTF ???

Japan was at war with Comintern, then declared war on a third nation (USA), that nation automatically joins the Comintern. If Japan was at war with the Allies and declared war on USA - then USA would join the Allies. Fun part is, if Japan was at war with the Axis and declared war on USA, then USA would join the Axis.

 

[ViribusUnitis]

It's not really a bug, just a quirk in the way the AI views theater and front responsibilities. Basically they get all in a dither about undefended borders, even with dedicated neutrals like Switzerland or whomever, and they also sometimes put too much emphasis on what they think is a vulnerable area just because it has something worrisome in it like a high VP province or major port that it feels needs a lot of defending. It is easily dealt with by simply assigning appropriate boundaries to the theater HQs where the fighting is going to be taking place, so that they do not include backwater areas. Instead assign such areas to one or more idle theaters (manual control) with perhaps a few wimply static defenders like MIL parked in them until they are needed elsewhere. And of course never neglect to defend your ports with manually controlled static defenders. The fighting theaters work best if they are relatively narrow strips along the front, no more than 3 or at most 4 provinces deep.

There are several detailed threads about how to optimize the AI's performance and curb its less desirable tendencies. I can provide some links if you want more info on this. Just holler.

Big THX! I already thought about something like that, so the best thing is to have a second manually controlled HQ which manages the main land and only assign a few frontline provinces to the automatically controlled Theater?

If you could post the links, would be really cool


Also thx, for the other replies, now it makes sense to me

 

[Pro_Consul]

I already thought about something like that, so the best thing is to have a second manually controlled HQ which manages the main land and only assign a few frontline provinces to the automatically controlled Theater?

Not quite; that is necessary, but it is only half the solution. The other half is to place some idle forces under the command of that theater covering those backwater objectives and/or "safe" borders, probably just loose MIL or GAR or whatever that are not yet needed on the fighting fronts.

As for other links, here is a two-stage starting place. The link below is a thread that has a lot of discussion of details on the very topics you have been asking about. And in the very first reply within that thread are three other links to other detailed discussions that contain a lot of other useful info on the general topic of optimizing your army's efficiency when using AI delegation.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?777446-Organising-A.I.-Advice-sought

Have a shifty at those and then post back here if you have any other questions or need clarification on anything. (Don't post your replies to those threads, because that is thread necromancy and not allowed.)