Review of CG with 1.06H Patch

[dougbush93]

I finished playing the CG as the Entente using the 1.06H patch. AH surrendered in April 1917, so I called it at that point. Overall, the game ran crash-free and better than ever.

Review of Major Events:

West Front

Germans choose Konprinz plan, so no invasion of Belgium. Germans are somewhat aggressive in 1914, but then don't do much of anything on the Western front, although the AI reacted much better to holes in its line this time around (i.e. actually did something to fill them). Without any British help, French ended up breaking through the center of the line (Metz) and ended up the game on the Rhine.

East Front

Germans, despite having an extra Army to use, don't do much of anything offensive. The Russians end up taking all of East Prussia up to the Vistula, and don't lose any of Poland. The AI launched maybe 1 or 2 attacks over 3 years, and those were with 1 or 2 corps at the most.

The AH also was very timid, and the Russians took Lemberg in 1914, then broke through over the mountains and into Hungary in 1916. When the war ended in 1917, the Russians were just 2 spaces from Budapest.

Italian Front

Italy joined the Entente in late 1915. AH was inactive, and the Italians and 3 British Armies eventually broke the line in 1916 and took Vienna, Trieste, and all of the Alps up to the German border.

Serbian Front

AH launched 1 attack on Serbs in 4 years of war. AH V and VI Armies held a solid line, but didn't do anything. Even when Bulgaria came into the war, the Bulgarians didn't advance more than 1 space across the border. Serbia should have been out of the war in 1915, but AI inactivity let them stay in.

Near East Fronts

Turkey entered the war on the CP side in August 1914 (much better diplomacy effort by the AI), but then only launched 1 or 2 attacks (against the Russians) for the rest of the war. The Turks did respond to the British VI Army landing in Kuwait and trying to move north to Baghdad. The AI also reacted (unsuccessfully) to a joint British / French series of attacks that secured Jerusalem and Damascus by the end of 1916.

Naval War

This was the one area where the game still has a few problems. The pathfinding still doesn't work quite right (can't move from Scotland to Dogger Bank w/o going along German coast). In the naval engagements, there is no requirement for either side to put any ships into the line (you can not commit any ships and still press "engage"), so a lot of battles were non-battles where nothing happened. Fleets can also stay at sea indefinitely, which led to the German raiders being at sea for almost 4 years straight w/o ever entering a port. Strategic warfare seemed to work correctly, with the German submarine warfare hitting England and the blockade starting to work by 1916.

Air War

No problems here. Lots of battles generated and resolved, along with quite a bit of strategic bombing by the AI.

Colonial War

Worked fine, but AI was completely inactive. French and British both captured some of the African colonies by 1917.

Review of Game Mechanics

Combat: The Obstination, RP system, and reserve systems are finally working correctly, so the battles played fine.

Grand Offensives: These finally seem to work they way they are supposed to. I was able to plan, launch, win, and get the benefits from GOs on all 3 fronts. I discovered 2 doctrines by game end (Heavy Bombardment, Gas).

Diplomacy: Appeared to work as intended. AI did a much better job this game. It targeted Turkey, and then Bulgaria as the CP.

Technology: No issues here either. I was able to get a lot of technologies, and sharing seemed to work.

Interphase: Everything seemed to work, although w/o some kind of summary at the end of each interphase it is impossible to audit all the NW changes.

Political Actions: Only one nit here - the "chances of success" shown for each political action still doesn't match what is in the manual. Since you can't see the "dice rolls", I'm not sure if the actual chances for success are being correctly calculated.

Events: Another huge improvement over the earlier versions of the game. All the events I played seemed to work fine. I also had the new "remix" event come up and I lost all the events I had stored up to that point.

Areas for Improvement:

At this point the mechanics of the game, with the exception of a few minor problems with naval movement / combat, are working. That is a big accomplishment given the complexity of this game.

There remains one issue, however, that needs a lot of work in the Gold Edition: the AI.

On the attack, the AI was completely ineffective. The AI hardly ever attacked in my game after 1914, and didn't even attack much in 1914. When it did, it often did so with 1 corps at a time. The AI also tended to break up its Armies into huge numbers of independent detachments, which then couldn't defend effectively. In one case the AI stacked up 15 independent detachments (in excess of stacking limits) in one space on the West Front. I had the fog of war completely off, hoping the AI would do more attacking, but to no avail. I also had the "aggressiveness" maxed out + "all AI actions" options selected. If the AI keeps its Armies intact, stacks correctly, and does a normal attack each turn on each front (i.e. a 7 round secondary attack w/ arty support) + a GO each year on each front, it would provide a good challenge for a human player. As it is, the AI's inactivity makes for kind of a boring game.

On the defense, the AI did a much better job than before in positioning units to fill gaps in the line. In battles, it would keep fighting on defense until it was forced to retreat, which was also a better performance than in earlier versions of the game. However, the problems noted earlier (such as the excessive detachments instead of solid Army stacks) somewhat negated its otherwise solid defensive play.

Overall, the team at AGEOD has done a ton of work to make this game as good as it promised to be when released. While I would have liked a better working original version, I am very grateful for all the work to fix the game since it came out. With the 1.06H patch it is already the best WW1 game out there, and just needs some more polish at this point to be a true gem. If the AI and those naval issues can be fixed in the Gold Edition (in addition to other changes on tap, like the map changes) then LGG will be, by far, the best WW1 computer game available.

Doug

[06 Maestro]

Doug

I started another 1914 campaign over a month ago. I recently upgraded the version with the I patch. I am playing as the CP in the 2 player mode. I chose the eastern front attack plan with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Armies being deployed on the eastern front.

The TE AI in my game is somewhat more active. It has actually launch quite a few attacks that had me momentarily worried-primarily by the French. The Russian AI launched some major attacks also, but where it was attacking was the problem. This game has the typical problem of a not being a very sharp operationally astute player.

I was able to breakthrough in the north and advance south to Brest-Litovsk while the Russian 2nd Army continued to hammer away on Southern E. Prussia. It continued to do so with great vigor for over half a year until I was finally able to put it in the bag. A human player would have withdrawn before I could have surrounded it in such a way.

At the rate it is going I don't see how Russia will last into 1917-but it might. I will be in Smolensk by late summer of '16 ( I think).

It sounds like the TE AI is better than the CP AI, but still not good enough. The true solution to this is to get some multi player games going. With 4 players it would be fantastic.

Although I can sympathize with the TE player's, the biggist problem for me with the current naval bugs is to not take advantage of raids on the English coast.

I do hope the improvements keep coming for this game. I also hope that some MP community can be built up to really take advantage of its unique system.

BTW, were you playing in the WEGO mode or turn based, army by army?
Also, were you using the 2 or 4 player mode?

I was using WEGO-next time it will be turn based.

[PhilThib]

Thanks for the precise and interesting report. We shall do our best to follow this path of improvement

[dougbush93]

Doug

BTW, were you playing in the WEGO mode or turn based, army by army?
Also, were you using the 2 or 4 player mode?

I was using WEGO-next time it will be turn based.

I was playing in 2 player, turn-based, but without army-by-army activation. I'm glad to hear the AI was more active in your game. Not sure why it was so passive in mine. And, as you point out, the current naval quirks also mean the Germans can't do any naval raids on England. Definitely an important fix.

Doug