The Allies: Please don't make me fight WW2 by myself

[Nilmerf]

In honour of D-Day I decided to load up a UK game of HOI3 I had saved. As someone who usually plays Allies and always plays single player, the problems with having any sort of help from the AI during war have always been there. Obviously this is most readily apparent with the Allies, because we have lots of ocean between us and tons of different fronts.

Having fought and mostly won in Africa, Italy, the Balkans, Southeast Asia, and Northern France, the only contribution from other Allies has been a single Marine division gifted as expedition from Australia. One division. The rest of their armies sit around at home despite any wistful attempts to use the Allied Objective button. A human USA or UK can mostly do alright by themselves, but that's neither fun nor historical. Nevermind playing someone like Canada. It always ends up being you versus the entire Axis, and time is of the essence as the Soviets close in on the other side. That ties into another point as the Allies, where you ironically want Germany to do its very best against the Soviets, never daring to hurt them in any (non-naval) way or distract their units until Barbarossa is deep.

I hope HOI4 will have a better Allied experience that feels like WW2. If the AI is unable to cope, or even send a healthy number of expeditions forces, we need the option to take control of allied units again.

 

[Darkshadows]

If the AI is unable to cope, or even send a healthy number of expeditions forces, we need the option to take control of allied units again.

Personally hoping for this...I have high doubts about the competence of the AI, especially if they're nations half the world away.

 

[DPKdebator]

In a 1940-startdate game as the UK, and for some weird reason the Americans joined the.... COMINTERN?!?!?!

 

[SFSLovenought]

In a 1940-startdate game as the UK, and for some weird reason the Americans joined the.... COMINTERN?!?!?!

That's a known bug.
I can't remember the explanation, but the reasons why it happens have been discovered.

 

[Alex_brunius]

That's a known bug.
I can't remember the explanation, but the reasons why it happens have been discovered.

IIRC it happens if Japan is unaligned and attacks them, since USA will join the faction which Japan is most threatening against ( Comintern due to them being neighbors ).

 

[Vasili1097]

In a 1940-startdate game as the UK, and for some weird reason the Americans joined the.... COMINTERN?!?!?!

I didn't know 80's Cold War movies were that popular in Sweden, I guess after you've watched WarGames and Red Dawn enough it starts to become indistinguishable from fact.

 

[fabius]

Taking control of Ally to some degree of confidence in mission planning is essential to take it to the next level. Also more diplo and better supply system- as at the moment I find myself deciding to take Latvia, Lithuania and others just because I can't be bothered with the supply and ally issues.

 

[Mannstien]

Personally hoping for this...I have high doubts about the competence of the AI, especially if they're nations half the world away.

Me too

 

[-Toni82-]

Maybe not the correct place, but now in my first HOI3 Black Ice game, I have to fight against plenty south-african, australian, kiwi's and canadian, polish, belgian, free-french and even norwegian Divisions.
The AI seems to move them all over the globe and its great!

But even in my former played version, HOI3 Semper Fi with no AI mods, the AI send several Divisions to the Brits. Hmmm....maybe you are unlucky?


In this thread http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...wealth-and-different-states-of-colonies/page2
I made somewhere the propasal for some international and unique Commonwealth command chain.
Also some other propasals for some better immersion of the British Empire and his Colonies and Dominions.

But I really think a Commonwealth Command Chain would make it more realistic and maybe also for the AI better to handle.

 

[FOARP]

Personally hoping for this...I have high doubts about the competence of the AI, especially if they're nations half the world away.

This is obviously the best solution. It's just bizarre to see people go on about how taking control of at least puppet armies is "ahistorical" when it's exactly what historically happened.

Maybe not the correct place, but now in my first HOI3 Black Ice game, I have to fight against plenty south-african, australian, kiwi's and canadian, polish, belgian, free-french and even norwegian Divisions.
The AI seems to move them all over the globe and its great!

But even in my former played version, HOI3 Semper Fi with no AI mods, the AI send several Divisions to the Brits. Hmmm....maybe you are unlucky?


In this thread http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...wealth-and-different-states-of-colonies/page2
I made somewhere the propasal for some international and unique Commonwealth command chain.
Also some other propasals for some better immersion of the British Empire and his Colonies and Dominions.

But I really think a Commonwealth Command Chain would make it more realistic and maybe also for the AI better to handle.

AI control sucks. Full stop. Stop inflicting it on players.

 

[-Toni82-]

AI control sucks. Full stop. Stop inflicting it on players.

No to your full stop. No to your tried order to me
The opener said that the AI now also sucks. So, a try for a 2nd Command Chain what includes Commonwealth at all, could work better. Beside, that it reflect the British Empire also better.
Not fixed things, but for example that the Dominions attach 20% in peace and up to 50% to the Commonwealth Command Chain, which UK controls.
Something what is needed to discuss imo, specially about the Empire.

A full player control over allied armies will only be a cheap solution, back from 2005.
So stop inflicting players with old things

 

[Dalwin]

Maybe this would be a decent compromise. Instead of being stuck with lack of participation of allies, or a system where they spam you with expeditionary forces that you might not want, or total control of allies; we could do the following.

Have some cap, either set arbitrarily or perhaps involving relations, to how many units you are allowed to "borrow" from a given nation. Then instead of them assigning units to you as in the past, you take the ones you want, up to your limit.

 

[Solaxe]

It's funny because I could ALWAYS count on other Allies in HoI 1, HoI 2 as well I think. HoI 3 however was total disaster, as US I saw UK not building any troops and keeping maybe 7 divisions in Egypt, Australia getting owned by japanese micro invasions consisting of maybe 3 divisions..

 

[degen83]

This would be great. In several games as the USA Germany steam rolls over everyone and before I join the war the UK and USSR surrender (in AOD games), so this makes it so I have to fight the UK/Germany/Italian/French navy to ferry troops to Greenland to then ferry them to invade the British islands to then ferry them across to invade France/Germany. And with Germany as victors the whole Axis military is at their disposal to react to any invasion.

So in that regard it does a great job at simulating D day, but the problem is its essentially just you (the player) vs the whole of Axis, which can be all of Europe in some games.

I would love for the Allies to actually coordinate and be useful. I would like to make a joint battleplan and have the Allies offer troops and deploy them to areas where we could carry out this joint battle plan. If they lack the transports, perhaps you could send your transports to help ferry their troops around to help make this happen.

 

[Maple Nukem]

I hate when I play Germany and my allies don't fight along my front, thanks for all the help there Italy, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, you really are great for helping fight the Soviet Union....useless idiots.

 

[Dalwin]

I hate when I play Germany and my allies don't fight along my front, thanks for all the help there Italy, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, you really are great for helping fight the Soviet Union....useless idiots.

Not having the southern portion of the line made up with significant portions of Germany's minor allies is, for me, a major factor in losing that WWII flavor. It might, in fact, be easier to win without them there, but that is not really the point. I'd rathr see the game such that Germany does need them and that they are actually participating.

 

[plasticpanzers]

Its a heck of a lot easier getting the axis allied forces at least fighting on your side in combat than it is for the UK. The AI has not
been created yet that will allow the Allied command swing from UK leadership to US leadership as it did and allow for the asking of
EXP forces. You still can pretty much dismiss any help from minor Allied forces. I did once in 1943 see New Zealand stick a single
brigade of forces on a single transport, wander thru the bombs and bloodshed of numerous naval and air attacks in the med without
a single scratch and up the coast thru Uboat country to drop the brigade in Scotland. it sat there and never became a real UK force
but simply wandered down to London (where I had asked for help from the Commonweath) then back up to Scotland where lo and
behold the transport staggered into harbor and took it back to New Zealand without a scratch. Bizzare and I DON'T like having to
use the 'tag' to cheat to get forces. It should be worked out by PI how to properly assign forces as Exp forces for the Allies depending
on who at the moment is leading the Allies, Britain or the US.

 

[Dalwin]

Its a heck of a lot easier getting the axis allied forces at least fighting on your side in combat than it is for the UK. The AI has not
been created yet that will allow the Allied command swing from UK leadership to US leadership as it did and allow for the asking of
EXP forces. You still can pretty much dismiss any help from minor Allied forces. I did once in 1943 see New Zealand stick a single
brigade of forces on a single transport, wander thru the bombs and bloodshed of numerous naval and air attacks in the med without
a single scratch and up the coast thru Uboat country to drop the brigade in Scotland. it sat there and never became a real UK force
but simply wandered down to London (where I had asked for help from the Commonweath) then back up to Scotland where lo and
behold the transport staggered into harbor and took it back to New Zealand without a scratch. Bizzare and I DON'T like having to
use the 'tag' to cheat to get forces. It should be worked out by PI how to properly assign forces as Exp forces for the Allies depending
on who at the moment is leading the Allies, Britain or the US.

It would be simplest and I think most realistic if the alliance leader were allowed to control a certain number of allied units from each nation. When the US takes over as the alliance leader, control of these units should simply pass to them. This would allow the minors to hold back a portion of their forces for home defense but still get coordinated participation.

The exception would be if a human is playing a subordinate role in the alliance, in which case we don't want the AI stealing his units. We trust the player himself to actively participate in the war.

 

[Nilmerf]

It would be simplest and I think most realistic if the alliance leader were allowed to control a certain number of allied units from each nation. When the US takes over as the alliance leader, control of these units should simply pass to them. This would allow the minors to hold back a portion of their forces for home defense but still get coordinated participation.

Agree, it would be some sort of game system to represent SHAEF.

I have some hope that HOI4 AI will be better than 3. Wiz wasn't on board then, and he's pretty good. Paradox needs to give him a lot of time on HOI4, the military AI is so crucial in this game above all others.

 

[plasticpanzers]

SHAEF created by event and the leader of the Allies (either UK or US) would automatically receive a number of units inc air for combat
on the continent. The only problem is that when the US takes control of the Allies some ports and airfields on the UKs' Southern coast
must become US territory or you run the absolute risk of an AI US not doing anything in England towards the continent. Simply change
the of US forces as an EXP to the UK when the UK runs the Alliance (inc some being constructed thru 1945-some determined percentage)
and then when the US becomes the Alliance leader the US units revert to the US control and then automatically a number of UK units inc
air are EXP to the US in England. Also some naval assets inc transports/LC/BBs and escorts.