Suggestions: Improvements to AI and game rules

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I noticed a few things when I played against the AI that I would like to see improved.

1) The AI continues to fight units of a minor or major power AFTER the capital has been captured (but before the power has surrendered).

This is not necessary because all those units should surrender anyway and it's no need for the AI major power to have his units be inflicted with even more casualties than necessary. I think it would be an improvement if any power (major or minor) would get one turn to try to recapture their capital before they surrender. E. g. when Paris is captured then the French and British player should have 1 turn to try to recapture it. Then it's a good idea for the AI to try to kill even more units after they have captured the capital. Just so the capital can't be recaptured.

2) I used a nasty strategy as the French player against the German AI and he couldn't capture Paris unit November 1940.

I built garrisons every turn and repaired my losses. I built a double defense line against the Germans and even moved some of the garrisons into Belgium to make the Germans fight for every hex. What I did was to retreat damaged garrisons (those who can't be built back to 10 or those who were red) into the rear of my territory and letting other garrisons take their place. I used the French armor and corps units to fill holes that couldn't be reached with the garrisons because they had such low movement factors.

Germany attacked in the spring of 1940 (april I think), but they couldn't get very far. I even managed to keep Belgium in the war for some time with this tactics. So I kept Belgium alive for 5-6 turns I think. The german AI became frustrated because he only gained 1-3 hexes every turn (meaning the defender was destroyed or retreated). Often the defender survived with a few strength points and then I could replace it with a 10 strength unit from another hex.

Brussels fell eventually and it made the situation a little worse for the French, but it was manageable. It was only until Italy entered the war that the French were overexhausted. I had to send French reinforcements to the southern border, not only because the Italians attacked, but because the Germans sent lots of his units here. So I faced a serious invasion in the south. The Germans attacked frantically both in the south and the north. He even attacked the Maginot hexes a lot.l So the French had to repair so many casualties they simply couldn't put 10 strengh points in the front everywhere and have a double line. Only then did the front collapse and the French lost Paris.

But the Germans suffered lots of casualties and didn't manage to take Paris until november 1940. That meant he couldn't go to Yugoslavia and Greece before Barbarossa.

Is it possible to do something against the French building hordes of cheap garrison units to stall the German advance?

I think it could be possible to set the French manpower values lower so they start to receive low efficiency corps earlier. If their new garrisons are already red when they are built then they will retreat just by being attacked.

3) I noticed the AI units (both Axis and Allies) in good defensive positions (capitals, cities, fortresses etc.) often ATTACKED from those hexes thus receiving casualties themselves. That made it even easier to capture those hexes. I think it's better for the AI who are on the general defense (Poland, France, Russia in most of 1941) etc. to NOT attack so much, but rather defend (to get an extra entrenchment) or retreat to a better defense line.

4) The German AI was way too passive against Norway and Denmark. The AI didn't even try to attack. Not taking Denmark has strategic consequences. When Copenhagen is neutral it means that the German naval units can't enter the Atlantic. Only newly built naval units placed in the port near Wilhelmshafen can enter the Atlantic. Germany needs the port in Bergen to be able to have a German battleship there or use it to repair submarines.

This means that the Allies can use all their naval units as convoy escorts because they don't have to fear any German invasion into Britain. So it should be imperative for the German AI to invade Denmark and possibly Norway too. It's not to difficult to do and the Germans have time until they will attack France. The Germans should build another battleship so the Allies are faced with 2 German battleships being available to support possible German transports going to Britain. This should be done regardless of whether he wants to attack Britain or not. Just so the Allied player must keep naval forces in defense near the North Sea.

5) I also noticed the German AI submarines were very passive because I managed to escort every convoy. They never tried a single attack on the convoy. So I think the submarine warfare should be redesigned.

I think only destroyers should have a full capability to inflict casualties upon submarines. Britain starts only with 1 destroyer and with this destroyer he can't escort every convoy. So he must build more destroyers. Battleships were not very effective against submarines and carriers were only a bit effective due to their carrier planes.

I think the submarines should have a chance to automatically retreat from combat without being inflicted any casualties dependent upon which unit attacked them.
* Battleship: 80% chance of retreating before combat
* Carriers or other airplanes: 50% chance of retreating before combat
* Destroyers: 20% chance of retreating before combat

These chances should be modified by tech levels in submarines or ASW. With these changes the submarines should be able to make more convoy attacks and not be so passive all the time. It also means the Allied player should make escort groups with his destroyers so he can heavily defend the best convoys and let the Germans simply attack the lesser convoys unopposed. The reason for this is that 2-3 destroyers in a group has a chance to sink the destroyer when it's detected while a single destroyer can only damage the sub so it can retreat to port and be repaired.

6) I also noticed the submarines were way too effective as offensive weapons against battleships and carriers. If you make the subs having a chance to retreat before combat then the subs should have less offensive power against other ships except transports and convoys.

7) I used the French and British Mediterranean fleet to kill the Italian fleet one by one after Italy entered the war and it was nothing he could do about it. I had to use the French fleet for something before Paris was lost so I sailed to the Italian ports to bombard the battleships and destroyers being located there. It took some turns per battleship, but eventually the Italian fleet was destroyed except the submarine.

I therefore think that the rules should be changed so naval units being located in a port should NOT be possible to be attacked by other naval units. Only aircraft units should be able to bombard them. It was very dangerous for naval units to get close to cities and ports because of coastal batteries and enemy aircraft. Sailing into a harbor trying to locate the enemy naval vessels was not so easy either.

So I think a good strategy for countries with naval units being inferior at sea would be to place those units in port. That means they can't be attacked except from the air (carrier planes or tactical bombers). This is particularly important for the German, Italian and Russian battleships. They can survive if they're passive, but with just their presence they form a threat so the enemy must have some naval units to guard them.

This means the Italian naval units should remain in port at least until France has surrendered. This makes sure they survive and can challenge the British player in the Mediterranean. This means the British player has to build more battleships, especially if Germany built another battleship.

If the city next to the port is conquered then the naval unit in the port should no longer be protected by the port. E. g. if the German land units capture Leningrad then the Russian battleship in the Kronstadt port should be possible to fire upon by the German naval vessels.

8 ) The German AI didn't select which countries to attack very smart. E. g. he attacked Belgium first and Holland a few turns later. That made the attack of Belgium not very efficient and Brussels survived for several turns.

The German AI should attack Holland only FIRST. Then he should be able to wipe them out pretty quickly (1-2 turns only). This can be done during the winter of 1939 or very early 1940 dependent upon how fast he conquered Poland, Norway and Denmark.

One very good thing about only attacking Holland is that Belgium is then still neutral so the Allied player can't reinforce Holland except by sea. Let the Germans overrun Holland and place their units along the entire Belgian border before they declare war upon Belgium. With the extra hexes from the Belgian/Dutch border as a staging point for the German armor and infantry it should be a cakewalk to capture Brussels during the first 1-2 turns. At least some German units penetrate so far into Belgium that the French and British can't prevent Brussels from falling early.

When attacking Belgium the Germans should also attack the French border units (except the Maginot hexes) so they can't counterattack without a risk of being completely wiped out the next turn.

9) I noticed that tac air bombardment is vital before attacking strong enemy units. This is particularly important in the east.

Russia should build a few fighter units while still at peace and place them so he can defend against bombardments both near Moscow, Kiev and Odessa. This means the Germans must buy more fighters too. Britain should also buy 1-2 more fighters very early because the French fighter will be gone after Paris falls and the Germans can start to bombard the British land units in Britain if he has tac bombers and a fighter superiority. Just to prevent Britain from using resources to reinforce Egypt.

The German AI should give priority to destroy the Russian armor units if possible. At least make sure they're bombarded unless a city is possible to conquer. The reason is that the Russian armor units can be used to counterattack the Germans and it means depleted infantry units can be completely destroyed by these armor units. To counter this the Russians should retreat their armor units away from the front in reserve. It means they can counter attack with full strength if e. g. German infantry unit lost some steps trying to take a city. Then the armor can attack and maybe kill this unit and still have a chance to survive the German counter attack from other units the next turn.

I noticed in my game that the German AI didn't focus on my Russian armor units and when I concentrated several of them close to each other (you start with 4) then you could even try to attack depleted German armor spearheads and destroy them. Even more fun was to encircle them and put them out of supply after pounding on them. Then they couldn't be reinforced in the next turn. Russian doesn't have too many highly mobile units, but using them wisely can put many German units out of supply.

So the German AI should try asap to kill those pesky Russian armor and motorized corps units. They are so expensive the Russians can't expect to replace their losses at least during 1941.

10) I mentioned in another message somewhere that invasions with transports are too easy. I suggest the following:

* Invasion into an empty hex not in enemy ZOC: 16% repulse
* Invasion into an empty hex in enemy ZOC: 33% repulse
* Invasion into an empty city or resource hex: 50% repulse

Repulse means that you can't land and remain on the transport, you should also receive 0-1 strength points hit if not in ZOC or 0-3 strength points hit if in ZOC . This means you have to plan your invasions a little better because you never know where you will get ashore.

12) I also mentioned in another message that weather effects should be added to other areas than just Russian during the winter.

I propose to do something like this:

Weather zones:
Arctic: Russia (original borders including the Baltic states, Bessarabia and Eastern Poland), Norway, Sweden, Finland, Canada

Temperate: USA, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Western Poland, Hungary,
Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Persia

Desert: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Jordan, Iraq

Weather:
Clear: No effects

Mud: Movement halved, except to armor and motorized units who are reduced to 1 movement point. Efficiency reduced just like
the Russian winter. Aircraft factors reduced. Attack factors reduced.

Snow: Movement halved. Efficiency reduced just like the Russian winter. Aircraft factors reduced. Attack factors reduced (except
the Russian, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian units).

Weather in months:
Desert weather zone has clear weather every month.

January: Arctic (A): 100% snow, Temperate (T): 50% mud, 50% snow
February: A: 100% snow, T: 50% clear, 50% mud
March: A: 25% mud, 75% snow, T: 100% clear
April: A: 25% clear, 50% mud, 25% snow, T: 100% clear
May: A: 50% clear, 50% mud, T: 100% clear
June-September: A: 100% clear, T: 100% clear
October A: 25% clear, 50% mud, 25% snow, T: 100% clear
November: 50% mud, 50% snow, T: 50% clear, 50% mud
December: 100% snow, T: 50% mud, 50% snow

[ijontichy]

Easily the best set of suggestions to fix this game I have yet seen.

[stalins_organ]

Some good points, however a couple of them are unimportant of jsut pain incorrect...

1/ Units attacking enemy when the enemy's capital has been taken. you still can et experience for such attacks - often it's free experience since such units are already depleted. Also IIRC it's not a sure thing that a country will surrender immediately if it's capital is taken - if it has considerable forces left, hence killing them off ensures an immediate surrender.

2/ historically ships in port WERE bombarded - most notably of course the British attacks on eth French fleets in Nth Africa.

Otherwise good thinking IMO.