"Completed" 4 player scenario as Russia

[Oyvind]

I finished the game game in 1919. Germany had only a couple of colonies left, but did still not surrender. Greece kept surrendering though, so that might have been a bug.

I was using 1.0.5e.

Other comments/problems:

Only a few crashes, and resuming from a saved game kept me going. I saved after completing my moves in the military phase, but before doing the battles.

- Klausenburg: Romania joined Russia, but the game kept believing that this city was enemy controlled. Owner: Romania, controlled by Russia.
- Nancy: Same, but with owner France, and British control.
- I was unable to remove a rebellion in Azerbaijan, even with 6 full strength corps posted there. I was able to remove a rebellion in Finland.
- Many events have the text ".... in .", as if a empty string had been passed to it.
- The event that starts with "Following the unconditional surrender of major power X", had the wrong nation filled in for X.
- The central powers were able to do a lot with negative treasuries. At least research, but possibly more.
- Every time a power chose the inter-phase event "Form New Government", the parliament was always set the "Hard Liner" and National Will to 27. I think setting it to "Hard Liner" is a bug. It made it nearly impossible to make countries surrender.
- When Austria-Hungary surrendered. The Serbian cavalry unit was stuck in Trieste, and kept besieging the fortress for the rest of the game.

Based on where this game was before Christmas, it has come a long way and is now playable. The AI still needs a bit of work, France watched me roll over Germany without doing much, beyond rearranging its forces within France.

[Syagrius]

Indeed the AI need tweaking, in my A-H 4 player game:

-Germany after 1916 was quite inactive, no major offensives in West and East, in the East my A-H armies had to do all the work. In 1917 Germans let 3Russian corps besieging Danzig without doing anything about it.

-France same thing, no significant attacks past 1916, worsening in 1917 and 1918. British didnt do anything at all on the western front past 1915.

-Russian corps seems to get supply from thin air, they were all over the place behind my lines even if I was holding most of the cities. They however lost some corps because of isolation.

In the case of Germany it could have been be less of a problem if I played the 2 player game, however its not the case for France and UK.

[gbs]

Because I have never gotten that far in a game, reports such as these are somewhat troubling. This happened in War in the Pacific. The first several months were very active then as you got farther into the game the AI just went to sleep. Hope not the case here.

[AndrewKurtz]

Because I have never gotten that far in a game, reports such as these are somewhat troubling. This happened in War in the Pacific. The first several months were very active then as you got farther into the game the AI just went to sleep. Hope not the case here.

IMHO, as with all games, ultimately you need to play against a real opponent. Despite Athena, that holds true for AACW, WiA and NCP as well as WWI and other great titles like WitP.

[Clovis]

you should disable Fog of War for AI

[calvinus]

IMHO, as with all games, ultimately you need to play against a real opponent. Despite Athena, that holds true for AACW, WiA and NCP as well as WWI and other great titles like WitP.

As soon I will have completed the task on Combat Logs, I will move to AI improvements, of course.
But I agree with AndrewKurtz. AI will never become smart and perfidious like a human opponent!

[Syagrius]

you should disable Fog of War for AI

Interesting, will it give the AI any help Calvinus?

[calvinus]

Yes, so AI knows the exact content of all stacks and it's a big advantage when evaluating the chances for attacks...

[Syagrius]

Ok thanks, also what does increasing difficulty level does exactly, its not explained in the manual, does it give bonuses to the AI (production, manpower etc..)?

[Kaiser1918]

- The central powers were able to do a lot with negative treasuries. At least research, but possibly more.

Muahaha...this is what we will see in 2009 in real life. But you will also soon why it does not work in real life, unfortunately (Zimbabwean Dollars anyone?).

[calvinus]

Muahaha...this is what we will see in 2009 in real life. But you will also soon why it does not work in real life, unfortunately (Zimbabwean Dollars anyone?).

The difficulty level increases the chances of AI for cheating on the Fog of War.

[sval06]

The difficulty level increases the chances of AI for cheating on the Fog of War.

So if we disable the FOW for the AI, no need to increase the difficulty level?

Am I right ?

[calvinus]

You are right. Difficulty level is used in some other parts, but 90% is a matter for FoW.

[Syagrius]

Okay, good to know thanks calvinus

[gbs]

Yes, so AI knows the exact content of all stacks and it's a big advantage when evaluating the chances for attacks...

So, if I am attacked by the AI then I know that without some luck I will most likely lose, correct?

[calvinus]

Let's say the AI will find more easily the "holes" inside your Front line, so she will attack in better places. Or at least she will concentrate her efforts better, unless you build a robust and well equipped front.

Anyway, there's still a lot of "space" for improvement for AI:
- a better planning of Grand Offensives (massing of forces, usage of technos, combat doctrines researchs, all stuff that is to be improved);
- more aggressiveness in battles, mainly when being the defender (I noticed the retreats are a bit often);
- a better usage of tanks/stosstruppen/air support
- a more clever management of the Front (the GHQ is to be used more wisely, a continuous line of Front is to be better deployed)
- more care to supply stuff
etc. etc.

[Nial]

Well, I just finished a decent though rather quick game. Late 1915, Russia has capitulated, both Italy and Turkey are allied with the CP. Britain is still neutral. France will fall in two turns if I continue. But there is really no point unless they can get Britain involved right away. The Entente does have Romania, but they wont last long with the full might of AH arrayed against them I think. I'll finish it up tomorrow, but it will probably be anti-climatic at this point.

Nial