Does AI Cheat

[Yogi the Great]

Getting kind of tired of this all looks like it is going well but as you get near objectives required or bonus, suddenly tanks and other units just keep appearing and they can mount massive attacks. Many of them very powerful as well outclassing even the best of the panzers.

Just wondering, this has happened on several different scenarios repeatedly. Perhaps a feature to make the Appear tough when all it is really doing is artificially creating units?

It does get frustrating I have to admit.

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Edit: I meant to mention that this is not because of difficulty level it even happens at the supposedly easiest level. Massive hiding Ghost armies I guess.

[Nalikill]

I can confirm - both from personal experience cheesing with paratroopers and recon planes and the UNDO button - and from looking at the editor - no, the AI doesn't cheat.

In my experience - the devs can correct me if I'm wrong - but all the units you'll face in the campaign start on the map somewhere.

Those weird, vast, empty sections of the map on some levels (like Moscow, Fall Blau, and across the Volga in Stalingrad) are filled to the brim with enemy reinforcements.

They seem to get triggered by specific events - e.g., the Moscow reinforcements seem to trigger to counterattack the first time you take a hex in Moscow.

This gives you the ability to read the map: if the game WANTS you to know about a counterattack, it will put a named city there or a supply hex there, to flag that a counterattack will come from that direction.

If the game DOESN'T want you to know about a counterattack, there will be a large and strangely empty out-of-the-way section of the map, so that you don't accidentally stumble across it and either die and/or destroy it before it can trigger.

Other than these scripted counterattacks, there are hexes across the map that have units in them and they seem to have a specific "aggro radius" - i.e., if you're within movement range and they see a favorable trade, they'll come out of their position to attack you. If you're not careful and scouting a lot, you can get your artillery or infantry savaged by some of these seemingly random attacks.

[Yogi the Great]

Thanks Nalikill, that is certainly possible. Although still a question in my mind of if on the map somewhere or not, should they be or are the numbers unreasonable? Also if you are taking important locations and they could possibly stop you, why do they just not respond until you get near them? Tobruk is an example, I took it, the game was nice to tell me I had all main objectives and should go on to take the rest for a resounding victory. Wish it had also told me there is a huge army there that was sitting and doing nothing just hoping you will go an objective too far.

Whatever, the game is fun.

[Nalikill]

I don't think there's any question you're grossly outnumbered in most if not all of the battles.

It does seem a little ridiculous to me... like it makes seizing supply points pointless. Supply points are normally where you reinforce from so for example in Moscow I committed hard to encircling the city and taking the back two supply points... only to realize that that was not going to prevent the counter-attack since the forces were already on the map. Similarly I can't paradrop over the volga to stop soviets from reinforcing Stalingrad since the forces are already in the queue waiting for their turn to get on the boat - which again in the campaign makes the mechanic of "units deploy only from supply hexes" pointless.

[Irrak]

You're not supposed to blitzkrieg. The enemy usually comes at you in waves, or activates when you get close enough. The idea is to generally keep your troops bunched up and take of one problem at a time. The AI might have ten times the forces compared to you, but usually, you are the one who has local superiority. Choose your position carefully and even the suicide attacks wont be able to deal damage.

[dalfrede]

In my experience - the devs can correct me if I'm wrong - but all the units you'll face in the campaign start on the map somewhere.

One of the complaints about the GC in PzC was the AI spamming hordes of random units.
The scenario designers have limited the number of units the AI can buy, not the game itself.

Both PzC and PzC2 allow scripted units to 'magically' appear.
As I recall only AK [supply dumps], and 'US Corp' [0-2 tigers in one scenario] actually used it for the AI.

I believe that in the present campaign the AI does not buy units, but don't depend on it for future DLCs and mods.

[Nalikill]

I agree in principle Irrak but local superiority leading to encirlement and destruction of a superior force was the whole point of Blitzkrieg. So you ARE supposed to Blitzkrieg, but an actual blitzkrieg, not the popular idea of just naruto running past everyone to the objective.