First Game Complete; End Game Bug

[jimwinsor]

I just finished my first game; I took St. Louis and D.C. as the CSA in summer 1862, on the same turn.

And that shoulda done it. My NW will was 185, the USA got pummeled down to 15 on that fateful turn. Their defeat threashold is 40.

But nooo...I got a message that said the game was a Stalemate! leure:

I've attached the save file "end" if you guys wanna see...

[PhilThib]

Yes, because we recently changed the Victory level to be 200...you fell short by 15 points of the Total Victory....let's say you have a very "favorable" stalemate...

[jimwinsor]

Oh yeah there was another little problem with the game too...Lee did not activate. The event fired, and I got the message saying he was now available for army command...but he remained locked in Richmond (not that I needed him, but still).

There was another weird problem with the Alabama and Semmes events too. First, they came in (can't remember exactly when). Then, months later I got the event saying the Alabama was being launched in England...which was odd because it had been sailing with Semmes for a while. Same thing with the Semmes event...said he was now available even though he was already in the game.

At one point when these events fired, the Alabama and Semmes were actually locked (with the lock symbol and everything) in the Shipping Box. Only lasted a turn though, then they were unlocked.

This game was patched over, so this may explain the problems.

[jimwinsor]

One last comment on my first full game...the main reason for the easy, early CSA win (grrr, ok, "favorable stalemate") was the USA AI seemed really bad at force organization. Again, taking a look at the end game save will confirm this; the USA stacks were typically "x command" hoards, 20-40 units piled under leaders with little or no army/corps/division organization. Thus with a 35% penalty.

While I spent the winter meticulously compacting my troops into divisions (I actually ran out of divs...used all 24) and corps, the Union usually just formed these huge Command hoards. Tou can see this too, in the endgame file.

While I was sieging Washington with AoNV and AoV, McDowell sat with 30-40 brigades in a huge Command hoard in Baltimore, watching me. Never tried to break the siege. Then again, with leadership and command penalties, I doubt he could have.

I guess I can't be too hard on the AI here; I spent HOURS thinking/building/sending/organizing forces; the AI just a few minutes! Force organization can be a complex task in this game.

The bright spots for the AI IMO was that it did aggressively make use of it's sea command, launching two major invasions (one landed directly east of Richmond under McClellan, another took Norfolk). I eventually crushed them both, but only after some difficulty. AI perhaps needs work on knowing when to evacuate an invasion...but as far as the actual launching, very clever.

It also loves to send cavalry deep into my territory, to rattle around a bit. It'll do that at practically every good opportunity.

[Spharv2]

One last comment on my first full game...the main reason for the easy, early CSA win (grrr, ok, "favorable stalemate") was the USA AI seemed really bad at force organization. Again, taking a look at the end game save will confirm this; the USA stacks were typically "x command" hoards, 20-40 units piled under leaders with little or no army/corps/division organization. Thus with a 35% penalty.

That's one area that they know about and will be working to improve. The AI is definitely "smart" enough to provide a good challenge, but it's lack of use of the command structure at times will lead to some of the really lopsided results in battles. I've gotten the impression from Pocus that this is one of the harder areas to optimize the AI in, but I have faith that they'll be able to get it done...though, we may regret it when it does.

[jimwinsor]

Yep...it took me days to optimize myself to the command rules, so I know it must be a tall order to do so for an AI!

[Hinkel]

Yes, because we recently changed the Victory level to be 200...you fell short by 15 points of the Total Victory....let's say you have a very "favorable" stalemate...

I reached 200 NM but the game still tell me, that i won the game with a stalement..
So there is no Total Victory with 200 NM?

[JohnB]

I had similar problems with "Alabama" and Semmes. In fact I'm not sure what happened to "Alabama". She disappeared for about a year, then the "event" came up for her being sunk off Cherbourg as happened historically. I believe the patch may have fixed the Semmes problem, though.

[PhilThib]

It should... The fix for Alabama is that Semmes leaves the map in end spring 1862, to go to England and take her command. Then the Alabama, upon being commissioned (event) is 'removed' from England and created in the Shipping box, with Semmes at the helm..

[Pocus]

I reached 200 NM but the game still tell me, that i won the game with a stalement..
So there is no Total Victory with 200 NM?

this should trigger the automatic victory yes, unless if the last turn perhaps... Do you have the save around?