Eastern Theater AI

[Zoetermeer]

I was wondering what everyone's general experiences were like with the Union AI in the East, specifically Virginia...

The AI seems to have this propensity to concentrate all his forces near Harper's Ferry, continuously moving forces back and forth between there and Washington, DC. Occasionally he'll move on Winchester (which I control), leaving a lot of room between the main body of his armies and Washington. So I always end up overwhelming Alexandria and laying siege to Washington, but the AI never seems to react very strongly to this.

I've never seen the AI make a concentrated effort to move on Richmond. Maybe he's trying to draw my forces away from Fredericksburg by moving everything into the Shenandoah Valley...

I always get the impression that if I didn't instigate anything in the East, the two armies would just sit around watching each other for the whole scenario - which is definitely not the case in the West. I play with the AI aggressiveness setting on High, with FOW bonuses.

Anyone have similar experiences?

[Stonewall]

Eerily similar. Except that I always manage to hold Harper's Ferry and the critical supply depot that is there. My armies sit in Harpers and Frederiskcburg and we watch each other for the whole of the campaign.

[Jacek]

Well, I always thought that eastern AI just builds up forces to attack you when its numerical advantage is clear. Still, it may fail beacuse of bad leadership.

[Toten]

Same here, the rare instance that the Union goes on the offense in VA, it is usually with an inadequate force. I have never had a problem taking and holding Harper's Ferry as the Confederates. In my limited experience, the west is far more worrisome than the eastern theater.

[Levis]

The Union AI did the same thing to me, until the summer of 1863, then it came at me with massive forces.

[Montbrun]

I'm into early 1864, as the CSA, and it seems that the US is "stuck" with McClellan. Without some sort of scripting for the AI, we're kinda stuck with that. I've cranked up all of the FOW and AI routines, but the US is still timid, both East and West. I'm hoping that the new Division rules help this somewhat.

[Zoetermeer]

I hope we're not being too negative concerning the AI here. As a programmer I can appreciate the challenges in developing a good AI system for a game of this complexity. I'm not a game programmer, but sometimes I don't envy the amount of work that I'm sure is involved in this.

But I do think that all things aside, the AI is the most critical part of an immersive game experience (maybe this goes without saying). You can have every unit and geographical detail exactly right, and it all becomes moot if the other side isn't doing things it "would" have done in a historical sense. So here's hoping that our discussions here contribute to the developers' efforts in improving the game.

I've read in a couple of places here that there are some changes coming to the AI in the next patch (the division HQ patch) - what are these exactly? What are the long-term (relatively) goals for the AI, not just specifically with this next patch but with future ones?

[Queeg]

I've seen what you describe a few times (and have had to discipline myself not to take Washington just to keep the game going). But I have seen the Union AI adopt a different strategy, moving against either Manassas or Fredericksburg. So the AI does vary itself a bit and can act aggressively.

In general, though, I think the AI needs to do a better job of protecting Washington. And I think the AI will perform better when it "learns" (through upcoming patches) to make better use of command structure.

[Adam the VIth]

Pocus once said that the AI does what we would do...meaning it won't throw itself at a prepared position if it is going to get slaughtered. I think most human CSA players know where to hold the line against the USA Eastern Army and we basically make it impossible for it to successfully attack us.

So it is actually acting intelligently....unless it lets the CSA get to Washington...

I don't know about you guys, but with aggressiveness set to normal, and FOW bonuses and difficulty on hard....I'm holding the line as CSA, but my casualty ratio is 2to1 against me.....they're gonna wear me down at this rate. So if you give the AI some help....she may be able to whip you....we shall see if I can fend her off.

[Pocus]

The AI has still much room for improvements, and I do hope that the following weeks will provide me with much time for these. AACW being a rather rich game (I don't want to use 'complex' ), it needed during the first 2 months quite some tweaks to have the things perfectly right, but it came also at the expense of AI improvements. I was perhaps able to spend one week worth of my time in the AI during this time, which is notably insufficient to have 'her' do the things as I would like.

The next step is the removal of divisional HQ, thanks to a new rule, so command structure will improve. Then there are a bunch of little tweaks to do on Athena. Really, I firmly believe that you will get a major difference in efficiency between the current level and the level reached at the end of summer.

[Spruce]

to be honest. I think the AI does some interesting things =

- a few Union corps invaded Wilmington NC, I had to retreat 2/3 of the ANV to defeat that force. The remaining corps was used in an offensive way to keep the Union busy in VA. But at that moment I had nothing between the AOP and Richmond !

- from 1863 on, the Union will come upon you with more coordinated attacks and more punch.

However - a little more coordination would have been interesting. Sometimes I have the feeling the AI is attacking on a "wide front" instead of a "localised incursion". F.e. the Union attacked TN at 3 different places during one turn. The result was that I lost 2 of these provinces, but in the coming turns I was able to throw them back one by one.

[Adam the VIth]

to be honest. I think the AI does some interesting things =

- a few Union corps invaded Wilmington NC, I had to retreat 2/3 of the ANV to defeat that force. The remaining corps was used in an offensive way to keep the Union busy in VA. But at that moment I had nothing between the AOP and Richmond !

- from 1863 on, the Union will come upon you with more coordinated attacks and more punch.

However - a little more coordination would have been interesting. Sometimes I have the feeling the AI is attacking on a "wide front" instead of a "localised incursion". F.e. the Union attacked TN at 3 different places during one turn. The result was that I lost 2 of these provinces, but in the coming turns I was able to throw them back one by one.

Pocus is the expert, but I believe that if you give the AI those FOW bonuses, it will likely strike you where you are weakest .... but you're right, it might be beyond its ability to really coordinate an offensive.