I just finished a game on the most difficult level playing Axis. Oil on, but fog of war off so I could see what mistakes it was doing.
It was a lot easier than I expected, because the AI didnt defend Moscow/Perm enough.
After I had taken Moscow (end of 1941) I just contunued toward Perm.
The AI built/moved most of its units to the south area. (Stalingrad, Rostov, Odessa Sevastopol).
So when I captured Perm (Oct 1942) it had lots and lots of units around Odessa.
Meanwhile the Allies never really bothered me. The US had most of the fleet/units in the US. The allies never really attacked with more than 2-3 units at a time in France. I think that after 1941 it never had more than 4 units in France at the same time. (It never tried to attack Italy which was pretty much undefended.)
I guess its pretty difficult to build a 'smart' AI, but after Moscow is captured it should start moving lots of units to Perm. Also it should move lots of units on the same turn to attack France and or Italy instead of sending 1-2 units at a time.
AI Problems for Allies
Moderators: firepowerjohan, Happycat, rkr1958, Slitherine Core
These shortcomings for the AI you are talking about is not what a smart AI would do if perfect. These are major faults I would say that even an average AI should be able to handle.
A smart AI should manage to
* avoid being surrounded
* try to cut the supply for the enemy
* use all available forces to achieve its goal
* react to player threats
* Try to split the enemies troops
* make unexpected operational and strategical moves depending on the situation and not repeat everything for every game
Now the AI is very passive. Just moving troops to UK. Don´t use the navy to at least harass coast cities with fortified units in. Don´t try to sneak invade anywhere else than in western france, and when it does it come 1 or 2 at at time which means they get eliminated quickly. I think we could expect more and I am looking forward to this being adressed in future patches. As it stands right now, the game is only suitable for multiplayer (which it is excellent at) or for novice players.
I am currently playing on a notch from max advantage for the AXIS and I am playing the ALLIES. I am having great trouble in russia now in march 1943 where Axis have taken Moscow and moves to Perm, while I have decided to defend Odessa and the south flank instead with a lot of tank corps. Though I´ve put everything I can into armour research the Axis have 17 level upgrades by now and I have 9 and a full strength Axis panzer takes easily out a full strength Russian Tank corps in one attack. It is impossible to destroy axis Panzers now unless I hit them with at least 6-8 full strength tank corps and that is not realistic at this stage of the war. The Axis is winning by pure strength and technology boost (by being given production bonuses).
A smart AI should manage to
* avoid being surrounded
* try to cut the supply for the enemy
* use all available forces to achieve its goal
* react to player threats
* Try to split the enemies troops
* make unexpected operational and strategical moves depending on the situation and not repeat everything for every game
Now the AI is very passive. Just moving troops to UK. Don´t use the navy to at least harass coast cities with fortified units in. Don´t try to sneak invade anywhere else than in western france, and when it does it come 1 or 2 at at time which means they get eliminated quickly. I think we could expect more and I am looking forward to this being adressed in future patches. As it stands right now, the game is only suitable for multiplayer (which it is excellent at) or for novice players.
I am currently playing on a notch from max advantage for the AXIS and I am playing the ALLIES. I am having great trouble in russia now in march 1943 where Axis have taken Moscow and moves to Perm, while I have decided to defend Odessa and the south flank instead with a lot of tank corps. Though I´ve put everything I can into armour research the Axis have 17 level upgrades by now and I have 9 and a full strength Axis panzer takes easily out a full strength Russian Tank corps in one attack. It is impossible to destroy axis Panzers now unless I hit them with at least 6-8 full strength tank corps and that is not realistic at this stage of the war. The Axis is winning by pure strength and technology boost (by being given production bonuses).
-
neilhammond
- Master Sergeant - Bf 109E
- Posts: 465
- Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:51 pm
- Location: Peterborough, UK
Re: AI Problems for Allies
It is difficult to write a smart AI. When playing an AI you're really playing against the programming team that developed the AI.marand wrote:I guess its pretty difficult to build a 'smart' AI, but after Moscow is captured it should start moving lots of units to Perm. Also it should move lots of units on the same turn to attack France and or Italy instead of sending 1-2 units at a time.
Marand has identified the current weaknesses in the Allied AI - i.e. the Russians don't defend Moscow / Perm well enough, and concentrate on building up forces and attacking in the south. The US/UK tends to land in France early and piecemeal. Other threads have identified a weakness in the Axis AI not defending France/Low country adequately.
I suppose a way around it is for the AI to "choose" a strategy in each theatre early and work towards that. The difficulty then become how does the AI then decide whether or not to abandon a strategy if it's unsuccessful. I suppose you could argue that actually, once a strategy was historically adopted you were pretty much locked in (ME & Italy, Normandy, Russia, etc). Therefore programming the AI to abandon an unsuccessful strategy may be irrelevent.
It doesn't negate the problem of programming the AI to recognise a threat and react to that (e.g. DDay in '42).
Most AIs do adopt the technique of numbers and speed to build/tech development to partly compensate for this deficit. Hence the emergence of powerful AI units mid-game.
I wonder how all earlier successfull strategy games since the mid 80s have managed to come up with very good AI:s from time to time. It seems the development of AI routines in games haven´t improved that much. Even Panzer General 2 had a much better AI. Sure it didn´t have to take care of several theatres but in its operational/tactical level it was quite good.
Second Front did also have quite a strong AI as I remember it. So it is not impossible at all.
If we look at more recent releases, the AI in TOAW III is also quite good to give a challenge. The napoleonic era game Crown of Glory also did have quite a good strategical AI as well as Europa Universalis III to a certain degree. So it is not impossible. Hopefully the developers of CEAW will not abandon the game now but instead trying to improve the AI in a future patch.
Second Front did also have quite a strong AI as I remember it. So it is not impossible at all.
If we look at more recent releases, the AI in TOAW III is also quite good to give a challenge. The napoleonic era game Crown of Glory also did have quite a good strategical AI as well as Europa Universalis III to a certain degree. So it is not impossible. Hopefully the developers of CEAW will not abandon the game now but instead trying to improve the AI in a future patch.