Definately. Like you said, it's a narrow front, and recruiting too many units costs you yellow manpower, whereas upgrading units only costs you temporary effectiveness. Your assignment of objectives is fair; I completely forgot about Konigsberg.
In early 1807, the French have pretty much stopped attacking me. Is that because the AI doesn't feel it has enough local superiority to succeed? If that's the case, then it's great that they don't throw troops away uselessly. I'm just curious...I took one programming course in undergrad, and the final project was to make a Tetris program in Java. I think I almost keeled over and died trying to get it to work. Forgive my babbling; I'm just interested in how PC games work, even though I have no hope of ever truly understanding it
[quote="firepowerjohan"]@Bern:
Thanks, then it is probably the thresholds that need to increase in certain conditions (certain years) so that the primary objective (in this last case Vienna) can collect more units without distributing forces to the rear. When game is into 1807+ year then that threshold can be brought back to "normal" again since by then France would have several fronts (Austria, Prussia, Russia) to take care of and being sure that a silly "all-in" against one of them is not done on the cost of losing all the rest.
Absolutely agree. Austria must be crushed as early as possible so it would be well worth while to 'load' the threshold in the early phase of the game to this end. I can see no adverse effects of so doing. The next steps would be Saxony and Prussia and then you would be able to normalise. By that stage, I suspect that the Coalition would be on the back foot, particularly where playing with a French advantage. This should prove a challenge for anyone.
I'm convinced this is a great game - all your effort will make it so.
I am considering incing the Corps d Armee from 8% to 12%. this will make defending a bit tougher, easier to punch holes. Espcially this will also make France slightly stronger they are the only one having this tech in the early years.
Johan Persson - Firepower Entertainment
Lead Developer of CEAW, CNAW and World Empires Live (http://www.worldempireslive.com)
Something needs to be done to make France stronger/smarter. Continuing my game on large French advantage, I brought in more reinforcements than the French did, was able to overwhelm them. Berlin fell in September, 1807, and the entire 18+ unit French army was destroyed by Nov. 20. I stopped on Dec. 10, and French PP was 804 while manpower was 212. This suggests three things to me: 1) the French AI knows its low on manpower and doesn't want to purchase any more units, 2) they've maxed out their tech, and 3) they have surplus PP to build privateers, but don't want to.
Defense units around France = 13.
Defense units around Amsterdam = 10.
I think I figured out the problem with the 10 infantry units around Amsterdam. They want to join the fight in Prussia, but they can't march through the German States because they're still neutral. To test this theory I declared war on the German States, and sure enough here the French come. The AI needs to be programmed to go around the German States instead of massing near Amdsterdam and waiting for a gracious human player to declare war and open up the roadway.
One final thought: even with all those extra PP, the AI hasn't bought any new Generals, as in zero, none at all. Definately not historical or particulary smart.
I do think the initial French assault needs to be stronger. Would it not be possible to provide the starting French forces with another General, with good attacking rating?
When I agreed to beta-test the patch, I was especially interested in the behavior of the Coalition AI. So I played an 1805 game as the French with large Coalition advantage and FOW off, once again so I could report on what the AI was up to.
The British won Trafalgar (surprise, surprise), but I managed to save one ship and take three British ones with me. This was because the AI sailed Nelson and one other ship away from the battle to escort their first merchant ship. First priority for the British navy should be destroying their French counterpart.
Vienna fell on March 10, 1806, and Konigsburg fell in June, 1807. I stopped here, w/ my troops at the gates of Riga.
The Good:
1. I definately saw an improvement in the AI since the last time I played with these specifications. The AI was a litte more challenging, but still too easy for my tastes.
2. The British didn't build dozens of Frigates like they used to. In fact, they bought few new ships if any at all. I estimate their navy was 10-15 ships strong by 1807, and that's plenty.
3. Russia came to Prussia's aid with at least 10 units, which helped to defend Konigsburg. Slowed me up for a few turns, and it's good Russia is defending its ally.
The Bad:
1. By turn 3, the British had assembled a massive army of at least 20 units in Southern England. A foreboding presence to be sure, but for the remainder of the campaign, they just sat there doing nothing. If the British had decided to cross the channel early in the game, I would have probably been toast. Black, crispy, burnt toast. I kept hoping the British would leap into action once I captured a certain city, like Konigsburg, but it hasn't happened yet.
2. The AI still doesn't recruit any Generals
3. Russia gave no aid to Austria whatsoever, aside from occupying the Eastern-most horse farm. The only chance Austria has is to get timely Russian help.
4. Russians do not use railroad moves effectively to get to the front, though this might just be because of #3.
5. After Konigsburg fell, Russia doubled the size of its army around Moscow to 13, and appears content to simply wait for me to come get them. I'd like to see a little more aggressive defense on their part, maybe keeping only 6 units around the Capital.
I feel like I should lose this scenario. With French manpower only 140 to start with, dwarfed by all the other powers, and PP production only about 40 or so, the French are really vulnerable in the beginning, especially to a British assault across the channel. I feel like a more aggressive AI could really prove challenging for a French human player to overcome, especially on large or moderate Coalition advantage.
Thanks once again for trying to improve the AI. I look forward to a better gaming experience when the final patch comes out.
Just tried another game as Coalition, same conditions as the first one. Pretty much the same result, however a couple more thoughts.
Naval - in this game, the Batavian unit 'raided' a Br frigate unit in the port of London. It did considerable damage and escaped almost unscathed. This really should not happen - I thought the port defences were going to be bolstered a bit.
I may be completely wrong about this, but I got a sense that the Russian 'war machine' had been toned down a bit - is this the case?
This game again confirmed the need for priority to be given by the French AI to Vienna. I like the Corps d'Armee idea - couple these proposals to, perhaps, an attacking Leader and France would be well on the way to ahieving the required early targets which would make for a meaningful campaign.
Can I suggest a couple more things for your thoughts. Naval first - I'm assuming that a change in the initial set up of the navies - the 'turkey shoot' - would require a radical overhaul of the AI programming and so not possible. Consequently, I wonder if there would be mileage in having a French naval unit positionned to cover an attempted early and unwise GB invasion of North Europe. The Batavian unit could be used in support. I cant in any event see the point in using this latter unit for any other purpose - keep it 'lurking'.
Secondly can I mention the initial position of Napoleon. As things stand, the Art, unit can be a little exposed if the Coalition player is imaginative. I've 'killed' him two or three times. Of course this would not be an issue if additional forces are available to the French in this area.
I hope things are going OK and that you are not too stressed
Hi, I have been following the discussions on this forum and agree (for the greater part) with Johan's suggestion for increasing the technology benefits so that the French in 1805 have even more superior technology and more punching power.
Historically (if I am correct) the French army had superior tactics against the huge numbers of Prussian, Russian and Austrian armies (not the British) and therefore the upper hand. In this game some of the causes for the superiority can be researched (such as organisation). But perhaps it is also good to beef up the experience levels of leaders and troops. Reason: later on in history, the European armies copied the French army model and as such the French 'technological' advantage diminished (this was f.e. evident when France lost the majority of its experienced troops in Russia; the French army had thereafter no advantage whatsoever against the (overwhelming) allied armies).
If in this game only technology is tweaked, then it is also required to give the European powers a faster research rate. Otherwise, the French technological headstart will never be equalized by the other powers. If tweaking research rates is difficult (I am no expert on programming and tweaking) then perhaps a suggestion would be to tweak some of the technology and to beef up some of the experience level of French troops and generals.
soetekouwd wrote:
If in this game only technology is tweaked, then it is also required to give the European powers a faster research rate. Otherwise, the French technological headstart will never be equalized by the other powers. If tweaking research rates is difficult (I am no expert on programming and tweaking) then perhaps a suggestion would be to tweak some of the technology and to beef up some of the experience level of French troops and generals.
Cheers,
Dirk
One way is to not increase all technologies just some of them. For example if the level 1 of Organisation (called Corps d Armee) is increased that means France will start stronger than now since they are the only country in 1805 having reached it. But in the later years once other countries have reached it the game balance is restored.
Johan Persson - Firepower Entertainment
Lead Developer of CEAW, CNAW and World Empires Live (http://www.worldempireslive.com)
