Welcome to another Tinto Talks. The Happy Wednesday where we talk about our rather secret game with the code name of Project Caesar.
This week we will talk about military objectives and how they work in Project Caesar.
As our games grow more complex as the decades go by, we have tried to alleviate some of the concerns about micromanagement of military aspects. Back in the days of Hearts of Iron III, we could set province objectives for parts of an army hierarchy and enable the AI for them, and the AI would try to fulfill them. In post release EU4 we added missions where navies could be assigned to patrol areas or blockade or an army could be set to siege an area. Hearts of Iron IV introduced the system of painting on the map how you wanted the armies to fight, and when we made Imperator we ended up with the system that I personally feel is best for our games, an objectives-based system, where you can give units objectives that they try to do.
So for Project Caesar this is the path we are taking. And as we have been developing a new core architecture for the game, our AI has also been written from scratch for this game, of course, based on decades of experience making AI for GSG’s. This means that the military AI is using the same building blocks as the player can use with the UI.
In the military view for your country there is a tab for your recruiting and overview of your units, and one for handling your objectives. You can also assign objectives directly to a unit you have selected of course, but that will also be shown in the objectives view.
Objectives can be assigned by selecting the target area, province, location or sea-zone in the UI, or by clicking directly on the map.
Any objective can easily be edited while active, and units can be added or removed from them at any time.
These are the objectives we currently have during wartime.
Blockade Ports
Any navy can be assigned to it, and you select which seazones they should be present in. It will then split ships up to attempt to blockade as many enemy ports as possible.
Carpet Siege
Here you can select which provinces should be sieged down, and the AI will split the armies you have assigned into smaller units and move them around to siege or occupy as much as possible as quickly as possible. It will attempt to flee with the armies if any hostile armies appear.
Defend Home Territory
This will attempt to protect the areas near the capital with the armies you assign, to make sure no hostile armies siege them down.
Hunt Armies
This objective will use the armies you have assigned to attempt to find enemy armies and engage them if it feels it can win.
We can see two smaller hostile armies in Przasnysz & Sierpc..
Patrol the Seas
This is an objective that can be useful at peace time as well, as it will use the assigned navies to attempt to build up the maritime presence as quickly as possible in the assigned seazones.
Army Logistics
This is something you may want to assign to a support army with Auxiliaries on big campaigns. They will gather food where it's possible nearby and move it forward to deposit in any Supply Depots you have set in the target area.
Navy Logistics
This will assign a navy to gather food at a nearby source and then go to the target seazone(s) and act as logistic support for the armies that may require it.
Supporting objectives
There are a lot of sub-objective and supporting objectives that are primarily used by the AI, like join units, maintain troop levels, etc..
However, there are a few important support objectives that the player can use directly.
Chase target
This can be done when you see an enemy unit and wish to follow it and engage it. The unit will attempt to follow, but if it runs out of morale from movement, or the enemy manages to escape into the Fog of War, it may be lost.
Automatic Fleet Transport
This objective is automatically used, and is very similar to mechanics in EU4 and Imperator when you have an army and give it order to go somewhere they need naval transport. If there are navies assigned to support fleet transports, and you give an army the order, it will automatically create the objective and perform it for you.
Repatriate Units
This is a quick action when you just want your armies or navies that are exiled after a war to get home as soon as possible.
Next week we will talk about our new and in-depth Union mechanics, and how Regencies work..
This week we will talk about military objectives and how they work in Project Caesar.
As our games grow more complex as the decades go by, we have tried to alleviate some of the concerns about micromanagement of military aspects. Back in the days of Hearts of Iron III, we could set province objectives for parts of an army hierarchy and enable the AI for them, and the AI would try to fulfill them. In post release EU4 we added missions where navies could be assigned to patrol areas or blockade or an army could be set to siege an area. Hearts of Iron IV introduced the system of painting on the map how you wanted the armies to fight, and when we made Imperator we ended up with the system that I personally feel is best for our games, an objectives-based system, where you can give units objectives that they try to do.
So for Project Caesar this is the path we are taking. And as we have been developing a new core architecture for the game, our AI has also been written from scratch for this game, of course, based on decades of experience making AI for GSG’s. This means that the military AI is using the same building blocks as the player can use with the UI.
In the military view for your country there is a tab for your recruiting and overview of your units, and one for handling your objectives. You can also assign objectives directly to a unit you have selected of course, but that will also be shown in the objectives view.
Objectives can be assigned by selecting the target area, province, location or sea-zone in the UI, or by clicking directly on the map.
Any objective can easily be edited while active, and units can be added or removed from them at any time.
These are the objectives we currently have during wartime.
Blockade Ports
Any navy can be assigned to it, and you select which seazones they should be present in. It will then split ships up to attempt to blockade as many enemy ports as possible.
Carpet Siege
Here you can select which provinces should be sieged down, and the AI will split the armies you have assigned into smaller units and move them around to siege or occupy as much as possible as quickly as possible. It will attempt to flee with the armies if any hostile armies appear.
Defend Home Territory
This will attempt to protect the areas near the capital with the armies you assign, to make sure no hostile armies siege them down.
Hunt Armies
This objective will use the armies you have assigned to attempt to find enemy armies and engage them if it feels it can win.
We can see two smaller hostile armies in Przasnysz & Sierpc..
Patrol the Seas
This is an objective that can be useful at peace time as well, as it will use the assigned navies to attempt to build up the maritime presence as quickly as possible in the assigned seazones.
Army Logistics
This is something you may want to assign to a support army with Auxiliaries on big campaigns. They will gather food where it's possible nearby and move it forward to deposit in any Supply Depots you have set in the target area.
Navy Logistics
This will assign a navy to gather food at a nearby source and then go to the target seazone(s) and act as logistic support for the armies that may require it.
Supporting objectives
There are a lot of sub-objective and supporting objectives that are primarily used by the AI, like join units, maintain troop levels, etc..
However, there are a few important support objectives that the player can use directly.
Chase target
This can be done when you see an enemy unit and wish to follow it and engage it. The unit will attempt to follow, but if it runs out of morale from movement, or the enemy manages to escape into the Fog of War, it may be lost.
Automatic Fleet Transport
This objective is automatically used, and is very similar to mechanics in EU4 and Imperator when you have an army and give it order to go somewhere they need naval transport. If there are navies assigned to support fleet transports, and you give an army the order, it will automatically create the objective and perform it for you.
Repatriate Units
This is a quick action when you just want your armies or navies that are exiled after a war to get home as soon as possible.
Next week we will talk about our new and in-depth Union mechanics, and how Regencies work..
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