Axis AI Feedback

[pzgndr]

I recently joined beta to run the Axis AI and provide some comments. Just played some today with latest v2.01.26 through end of 1941. Default options and Axis moderate advantage. Overall pretty good. Poland fell in Oct 39, France in Oct 40, Yugoslavia blitzed in Mar 41, and Germans attacked Russia in May 41. I pushed hard on Tobruk in 1941, taking out the Italians, but got stopped by the Germans. Lost the Indian corps and fought a slow withdrawal until I reinforced with more air power. In Russia, the Axis advance was pretty good in North and Center but a little sluggish in South. I managed to kill a couple overextended panzer/mech corps but overall agressiveness was OK. Germans had taken Smolensk-Kiev line and were approaching Leningrad in north and Crimea in south. Not too bad and my Russian line was starting to get thin. I was ready for my Siberian transfers when they arrived.

A few comments from along the way.
1) Denmark and Norway ocupations in Apr 40 went well, but German units appear before the surrender message so that seems odd.
2) There was no Axis attack on Greece. Might want to check on this.
3) Partisan activity seemed fine. Nothing until Barbarossa and then only a few.
4) Germany DOWed Sweden in Aug 41? They did invade in Sept 41 with some naval landings, which surprised me because I started sending the Swedes against Norway.
5) Seemed like too many Axis air units and U-boats and not enough ground units. If this can be adjusted, maybe 10% less air/naval and 10% more ground?
6) Battle of the Atlantic with U-boats, convoys and destroyers was OK. Pretty good balance overall but like I said maybe too many U-boats.
7) Never saw much of the Italian navy in the Med after France surrendered, even though Royal Navy made some bombardments on Tobruk and units along the coast?

As I said, on moderate advantage the Axis AI did OK and I expect on large advantage it would be challenging. Basically good for early game. Looking ahead, I might suggest spawning the following:
- Reinforcing Italian corps in Libya in 1942 and reinforcing German corps in Tunisia in 1943.
- Reinforcing German panzer/mech corps (2-3) in Germany in 1944 after France is liberated.

I wanted to get in a quick game and provide some feedback. Good stuff.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

1. The German units in the cities of Norway and Denmark simulates the invasion of these countries. At the end of the turn Norway and Denmark will surrender. This is a simple way to make sure these countries are in fact invaded and have some defense troops to make it hard for the human Allied player to liberate these countries.

2. We've not done something about DoW upon other countries except prohibiting DoW's of Denmark and Norway because Germany will get them for free. We've also prevented DoW upon a country if the weather in the country is not fair. This way we make sure they get the surprise loss upon the country being DoW'ed. DoW works that you check the number of units near the country and also the date the country will join. That makes a number and you have a random roll to check if DoW will take place or not. So it's not a given that Germany will DoW Greece. Many human players keep Greece neutral so they don't have to garrison Crete and Greece.

5. We haven't done anything about how the AI builds. I guess that's also a random number you check against. I think that it's good in a way that they build many subs because it means the Human Allied player must build many new DD's, CV's and strategic bombers to deal with these subs. Germany will get many free extra ground and air units so it should make Barbarossa a bit more effective.

7. We haven't altered the AI behavior. We only wanted to let the Axis have more units so they could get a better chance to push the human Allied player.

What we have changed is that we lowered the at start (or time of DoW) strength of the Allied units except UK and USA. That's done to give the AI a chance to conquer the countries a bit faster. Do you have data about how fast the AI can conquer Poland, Belgium/Holland and France? Russia will also start a bit weakened at the start of Barbarossa (especially garrisons). Do you feel that this helps the AI to get further into Russia?

The main problem with the AI is that it's completely inept regarding strategy and how to make best use of units in an attack. So they need to have a big advantage in units to actually grind down the enemy front line. Before we made any changes the AI could actually fail to take Paris in 1940 if you defended well with the French. Now we hope the AI can take Paris no later than August/September because the French units start weakened.

[pzgndr]

Denmark and Norway are good. My concern is about German units appearing before the surrender message.

I understand about the randomness for Greece and Sweden, etc.. I do not have enough experience to really assess the balance for this randomness, nor the AI builds. It may be fine. Modders can always activate Greece early to prompt an Axis reaction. For now, it seems fine.

Overall, as I indicated, this played out pretty well at moderate difficulty level; hard would be more challenging. I expected Poland to fall a little sooner. Belgium/Holland held out through winter 39-40, not unexpected, and fell in early spring 40. France held on until late summer 40, which is OK; I deployed two British corps for support and lost one of them. Yugoslavia fell in a single turn, which was good; Germans redeployed east for Yugoslavia and Barbarossa and were not distracted by partisan activity (as reported by Bern). Barabarossa was a pleasant surprise, the Axis were actually more aggressive than I expeceted them to be. Again, overall, not bad. Much improved over before, thank you.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

The Germans need to land in the Danish and Norwegian cities to enforce the surrender. If they don't land then these countries won't surrender.

[dagtwo]

What we have changed is that we lowered the at start (or time of DoW) strength of the Allied units except UK and USA. That's done to give the AI a chance to conquer the countries a bit faster. Do you have data about how fast the AI can conquer Poland, Belgium/Holland and France? Russia will also start a bit weakened at the start of Barbarossa (especially garrisons). Do you feel that this helps the AI to get further into Russia?

Using the standard options and even strength the Axis took Warsaw on Nov 20 (with no reinforcements for the Poles). It attacked Holland and Belgium March 19 and they surrendered the following turn. France fell October 5 with two British units reinforcing the French.

The DOW on Russia occurred on June 22, 1941 and was fairly successful. In February 1942 we're at the Dnepr and Daugava rivers. There are at least six submarines wandering around the Atlantic causing havoc. The DAK was a help for the Italians but incompetently handled so I have Tobruk and am heading for Benghazi and Tripoli.

Which reminds me, has the attack on the ship in port been suspended? I couldn't attack the Italian destroyer in Tobruk's port except with Air.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Only subs and air units can attack ships in port.

[pzgndr]

Looking ahead, I might suggest spawning the following:
- Reinforcing Italian corps in Libya in 1942 and reinforcing German corps in Tunisia in 1943.
- Reinforcing German panzer/mech corps (2-3) in Germany in 1944 after France is liberated.

Any consideration about this? I haven't seen anything. I think it would help some.

How about Allied AI? An additional reinforcing British mech corps in Egypt in 1941 and perhaps a tank corps in 1942 would be good.

[pzgndr]

I got around to playing the latest RC17 this weekend. Axis AI on moderate advantage. Overall pretty good into 1943, which is as far as I got so far. Some observations for consideration:

1. Germany DOW on Belgium in October 1939 and then no action for a few months? Not sure if this ultimately helps with the DOW for Netherlands in spring 1940 or not, but it seems awkward. Denmark and Norway actions went well. Netherlands fell in one turn. Switzerland remained neutral throughout. All good. Suggestion - delay Belgium DOW until spring 1940.

2. Yugoslavia DOW in late 1940 but Greece DOW not until spring 1941. Again, seems awkward. I don't mind a variable early attack on Yugoslavia but Italy should DOW Greece in late 1940. Suggestion - move up Greece DOW and spawn an additional Italian corps in Albania if necessary.

3. U-boats don't make an appearance until late 1940 for some reason. Overall the Battle of the Atlantic gets going pretty good through 1941 and 1942, so no complaints there. Suggestion - start U-boats in the Atlantic or spawn some in French ports to get some action going sooner?

4. North Africa is much better, but there's no Axis push into Egypt. I made a push into Libya in 1940, killed a couple corps, stalled, and fell back. Tried again in 1941, killed a couple corps, stalled and fell back, and this time DAK killed a couple of my corps. Losing my armor plus losing a couple or reinforcement armor and mech corps enroute through U-boats hurt and delayed things. By late 1942 Tobruk was in UK hands and Axis routed. Suggestion - maybe spawn another Italian armor/mech in Libya to help Axis be more aggressive.

5. Barbarossa overall was pretty good. Axis AI did a good job achieving historical gains in 1941. 1942 summer offensives were also pretty good, but with more emphasis towards Moscow than towards Stalingrad/Caucasus. I managed to hold Leningrad and Moscow barely, and I suspect on max difficulty this would even more challenging but I also made some mistakes along the way so probably a wash. Even so, overall a pretty good fight. No suggestions here.

6. Germany launched transports into the Black Sea and Baltic Sea in 1942? Several were lined up along northeastern Turkish coast, perhaps to invade Batum? The Russian fleet is slowly picking them off. Several others are lined up along Swedish coast, again to perhaps invade Sweden or what? Suggestion - do something to fix the invasion plans to execute or don't bother wasting units on vulnerable transports.

7. I started noticing French partisans in 1942 but Russian partisans not until 1943? Seems awkward. Suggestion - consider changing this to be the other way around.

Additional comments (Not AI related).

I like the transport limits. I got caught by surprise sending too many U.S. transports to invade Morocco/Algeria. The game allows you to load excess units without much warning, until later when the bill comes due. Lesson learned I guess, but the limits and warnings could be made more clear somehow.

The Kura River appears to flow up and over the Caucasus Mountains? There is in fact quite a valley east of Batum so some of these hexsides could be recoded/redrawn for better accuracy. Just an observation.

[pzgndr]

One more follow-up. It's May 1943 and I'm hanging it up. Just lost Moscow and Voronezh in Russia. Allies have landed in Sicily and the war in the West is going OK. But not so in the East. I offer a couple of observations.

1. Regarding #7 above about partisans, French partisans continue to spawn like rabbits (like half a dozen now) and the Axis AI barely responds. I've only seen 3 Russian partisans total. Again, more Russian partisans sooner and fewer French partisans later would be better. A few more partisan distractions in Russia might help turn the tide in the east.

2. Regarding #6 above, Germany did finally make a landing at Batum but it was weak and repulsed. Other transports are sitting ducks. This may work on an unsuspecting player who strips away the garrisons too soon but it seems like too much. Germany also did DOW Sweden and invade. Not sure why the AI transports lingered so long but probably not a big deal in the Baltic Sea.

3. Whereas I had no suggestions for #5 above yesterday, today is different. Russia was getting by on a little more than 100 pp per turn plus a few convoys. I'm not seeing the Russian economy grow much and the convoys seem insufficient. As winter set in at the end of 1942, I felt like I was holding my own and gaining some momentum. That changed again when the weather cleared and the Germans began pushing. I fault myself somewhat for buying probably a few too many air units and not enough ground units early on. But like I said, the 1941 and 1942 offensives seemed ok so I wasn't too worried. Being starved of pp's in 1943 was a different story. It just didn't feel right at all with the Germans continuing to advance and Russia barely able to keep up with losses. April and May 1943 were the breakers. So suggestion - increase the Murmansk Convoys, both amounts and frequency chance a bit.

I figured on moderate advantage the Axis AI would be a pushover. Good news is apparently it's not. There are clearly a few things I could have done better (like focus research on industry rather than general) but still, the Axis seem quantitatively overpowered, at least in the East. And if all those extra corps on transports sent to invade the Caucasus and Sweden were sent to Russia instead, it would have been worse. Bottom line though it was a good game and much improved over the 2.0 version.