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I have been playing now for about 3 weeks and I am a little frustrated with the AI.

I love the game but i am finding the ai dumb

OK the best illustration of this is if you play venezula on the South America map. The reason for this is the fact you have a line of sight treaty with everyone apart from Brazil so can see what they are doing.

The AI builts really stupid and from the start you can see that it places them all around their bases. After about one year you have big clumps of units sitting doing nothing. They do not protect their borders and do not response loses of terrority very well

Most of the time i have played this everybody gangs up on Brazil and attacks, but they don't really. They declare war and then attack with 2 units even though they have over 100 . These units just sit at the bases. the AI does not even create a defensive line .

So after about 1 1/2 year i declare on Brazil and manage to capture most of the rainforest without a fight ( over 50,000km2) as they appear to guard their bases and the pop centres which is right . However as i am taking all their resources they do not seem to suffer. I mean if i lost over half my electricty production it would have a severe impact on my ability to run the country.

Does this have an affect on an AI country? Does capturing resources affect a country

Two years into the game which is not a lot (I know that their is a problem with long games) Most of the borders have not moved which is not surprising as the AI has not moved their troops. Colombia in fact has built a very large navy mostly of AOE troop ships WHY? Chile has well over 300 units all sitting at bases apart from 2 which are attacking Brazil.


Also i have noticed that the WM gives out a lot of units but the majority are useless ( FROG missiles launchers even though the country has no missiles that it can fire) The AI takes these mainly I think because they are free, with no regard for maintaince costs


Please do not get me wrong i love the game i i think you guys have done an excellent job, I suppose i just want more of a challenge tactically, true the economy is very challenging I just wish that the batlles would be more so.

Thanks
RHood

I’m playing Venezuela in this scenario too, and I can confirm much of what you say. My game progressed much like yours until I loaded a save and the AI seemed to wake up. Little Uruguay started to kick a lot of butt and with a fairly large army, not just 2 units (but not its entire force either).

When war got underway in earnest, I DOWed Brazil. By that time nearly all the nations were allied but they wouldn’t let me join the dance.

I conquered Brazil after a surprisingly short campaign (they capitulated after their capital fell for the second time). Because I had no air force to speak of, as you no doubt know, I kept massive amounts of AA with my ground forces, which did the trick.

Now my neighbors alliances are still in place and I’m waiting to see what develops. With the might of Brazil’s economy and surviving military behind me, I’m a behemoth compared to the rest. I’ll probably just scrap the game.

As Belarus I watched as my ally Romania invaded Ukraine. They made a good initial raid but their older equipment was being worn down and soon they were on defensive. I joined in to help and declared war.

Ukraine AI withdrew most of its units from Romania to face me but here the first problem started: I had set up a line of emplacements, entrenched with masses of artillery behind and AA sites. Ukraine just sent waves of units at my defenses and they were shredded. Sure, few were totally destroyed(mostly infantry), but they withdrew in such bad shape that by casualties they were losing worse than 10:1. The thing that I will come to later is that the AI doesn't seem to count that well or examine what it faces. After this Somme like offensive, Ukraine calmed down a bit, but kept sending a trickle of units as available to get blasted.

Later on after attacking and taking Kiev, I left Ukraine base in west to watch Romania and Ukraine bleed each other. Ukraine built lots of artillery and the base protected a town. Romania would send 2 or 3 units to take town then sit there getting blasted by artillery till they withdrew. Then Ukraine would send a unit to re-take town, then Romania would send 3 units to re-take it etc. Now, around the capital Romania was making a 'blob' of masses of units, tanks, artillery, infantry. Instead of launching one decent attack, they just got worn down losing 100,000 men and 100 or more units doing this back and forth!

Like the first example, the AI just doesn't seem to even count force disparity or content. Surely there should be a routine where the AI goes 'Aha, I met 10 units, half artillery and got beaten so I need 15-20 units with high protection from artillery to counter' etc.It not real AI of course just a formula, so shouldn't be impossible.

Secondly, I'm sure you guys all know the 'Blob' tactic by now. The AI leaves his borders open more or less and sits around the capital and bases with ever larger blobs. Now the blobs can be tough, but if you just charge in with lots of heavy armour, then after the first line of tougher units, you tend to just rout the artillery and supply trucks by the hundred. Apart from silly build orders, the big problem is that defense isn't done realistically.
Maybe when designing a scenario, there should be invisible 'lines' set by the designer for the AI along with their direction, so that during the game the AI will be encouraged to build fortifications or deploy units in an intelligent manner, entrenching infantry and AT with artillery and AA behind and having armour around for counterattack and a mobile reserve. Sure, this is scripting, but isn't that what AI is in computer games in reality?And it would kill off the blob! You could also have a more dynamic AI for offensive, but if on his own land, then it would switch to a pre-planned defense as much as it could.

I have lots of complaints about the a.i. too, so I am entirely sympathetic -- I just wanted to add that I have never played any kind of sophisticated strategic game where the a.i. didn't start out pretty weak. So keep the comments coming & we can hope that the a.i. will gradually improve with subsequent upgrades.

Yah, the best way to see the problems with the AI is to be allied with a country that then attacks or is attacked by another AI.

The blob theory is definetely a good explanation. Its understandable that the AI would want to defend its major cities, but much of modern combat is based on mobility and manuever warfare.

The imaginery lines of defense for the AI to build is a good idea as well I think.

What also might be helpful is for the AI to place a greater emphasis on its borders than it does now. So, maybe it would shift more units forward and fight more effectively with the units it has.

I know people hate to cheat but if u put in the onedaybuild cheat and sit back for a month or so then attack an AI then u will see differnet results. I counted over 25 units attacking me at one area and try to encircle me too. I beat them back but the AI did it again when i got close to their capital. It took me nearly a year to finally take their capital and this was on the very first scenario in a campaign. Course it might help the AI if u set everything to the hardest settings too.

Bergsjaeger= mountain hunter

I have the same problem from the AI. It seems very inconsistant... I've played games where they rush me when war is declared with 50%+ of their units and it really hurts....

and I've played games where they send 3 units at a time until their army is all gone.

It seems like most of the AI in the game needs to be completely reworked, but I'm sure that BG is working on that, as it is likely the #1 issue most people seem to have with the game.

i like this game quite a bit but the ai tactics suck i wana be invaded for a change and be on the defencive but they just sit there in the damn unholy blobs of troops sitting on there fat asses i had an unbeatable force until i came across yep you geussed it a blob of units so my ivasion force launched a usual assult but was completely wiped out by sheer force of artillary and why do taking there resources not have an effect they sit there an sit there soemore and i spent 3 yars researching nukes to destroy the blobs wasing time while the blobs got bigger and the nukes only killled the center of the blob not all of it

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