The AI constantly leaves holes in my offensive fronts.

[KelLorien]

I know that there were changes to font AI, but I feel like I'm getting screwed way more often now. I've started and restarted a game as Japan several times now because I keep getting absolutely screwed in China. It's pretty difficult now to handle the length of the China campaign (which is fine, it used to be too easy), but I'm finding it is virtually impossible to keep the AI from leaving giant holes in the front.

I've had landings annihilated because my armies all move out a province, and the enemy walks straight to the port with no contest from my own forces.

Several times, I've seen my armies abandon whole provinces, and the enemy just pours in through there with overwhelming numbers. I'm not doing anything differently from pre-patch, and I'm not sure what I can do beyond micromanaging constantly. Often when I see an obvious hole in the front, if I manually move divisions there, they immediately move back to where they were. It doesn't leave any time to focus on other things, which is pretty unfun.

 

[Less2]

Are you sure you have enough supply? AI will try to keep units out of a region if there isn't sufficient supply.

It's a bad idea usually, taking a 5% penalty is bettter than leaving huge holes, and if it's a much bigger penalty it's better to pull back entirely, but it's what it does.

 

[Death6]

I think you are supposed to use the Field Marshal frontline and let it equally split the armies on it. The field marshal prevents gaps from being created while if you only use army frontlines they are not capable of filling the gaps left in between when you move forward. Which the enemy AI exploits pretty well.

 

[KelLorien]

Hm, It does sound like I might not be utilizing the field marshal mechanics. I only just figured out how army groups work, and in at least on of the major "battle of the bulge" scenarios I had, I hadn't figured that out yet. I'll have to give it another look.

Do you still create offensive lines/spearheads using individual armies, and the field marshal just handles the front, or does the field marshal handle all of that?

 

[Yannizle]

Hm, It does sound like I might not be utilizing the field marshal mechanics. I only just figured out how army groups work, and in at least on of the major "battle of the bulge" scenarios I had, I hadn't figured that out yet. I'll have to give it another look.

Do you still create offensive lines/spearheads using individual armies, and the field marshal just handles the front, or does the field marshal handle all of that?

Yes, this is your problem. You use the Field Marshal to do your army fronts. Watch this video for more information:

 

[KelLorien]

Oh this is just the sort of video I was looking for. Thanks!

 

[Meglok]

Oh this is just the sort of video I was looking for. Thanks!

Just follow the video. The only caution is for landings the ai can still be quirky. Better to put the army landing under a seperate FM or alone so the ai doesnt shift divisions from port to port. And ALWAYS leave at least one detached division sitting in your captured port, just in case. Better to be safe than sorry.