Some remarks about gameplay

[Conanteacher]

I recently installed the 1.3 patch (IC over Arma) and am very satisfied, it really does feel great.

I don't know if there will be a future patch (which I doubt) but there are some few things that could be edited.

I will write down my remarks in this thread and hope that others will contribute as well over time.

In my first game as Germany I noticed that:

- As soon as I capture London after a successfull (and not that easy) Seelowe, July 1940, the English capital moves to Kufra (0% infra) for more than a week befor re-moving to Mombasa. I still wonder why Kufra is automatically captured by the English as soon as Italy joins the Axis, probably has to to with having 0% infra.

-When I choose to let the English surrender (just to see what happens, of course) they release India and annex it simultaneously.

These are my remarks so far. I will try to edit this thread if I get more feedback from the forum and as I play on with other countries.

 

[quintelosky]

Hi

Thanks. I will continue working, dont worry

 

[Conanteacher]

OK There are two more:

- When I choose to bomb a single province with allied mil.ctrl air wings, it doesn't work - Only bombardment of areas is possible.
- After the 1940 coup Iraq joins Axis - I mil.ctrl it and when I attack with synch.arrival All the units arrive at enemy province in one hour.

 

[Conanteacher]

Late 1942, long after Vichy and free france got annexed, I released (as GER) Vichy after a save to see what happens - Random half of France's provinces are not Vichy cores...?

Also at some points about once a month game is freezing for some seconds, but it continues w/o problems.

 

[Conanteacher]

Last game as USSR:

- I almost didn't need to use my air force, due to large stacks of German units and inexistent enemy air raids.
Seems like the AI does not use any bombers, happened in many games so far.
- After I beat the Germans I keep getting the choice event what to do with France. I was owning many provinces including Paris.
First time I chose do nothing. Second time I chose puppet but UK got the rest of continental France. Third time I chose annex and got a CTD.

 

[Conanteacher]

- When GPW event fires, I can build 1 Region HQ/Day but in the production screen the cost is 118.2 IC ???

 

[Conanteacher]

OK still playing as the USSR, I noticed these issues:

- Till early 1943 the front was about from Riga to Smolensk to Kharkov to Rostov.
I could not use my mighty airforce because of big enemy stacks - I only did some log.strikes.

- Enemy had no real airforce on my front, I only encountered some Italian and Hungarian Interceptors.

- Through my intel panel I can see that no other major country ever has more than 4-6 bombers.
Are they not producing any or are they losing them
because AI orders attack of a single bomber wing against a stack of 15 units in a 6 flak province?

- On June 1943 I managed to break through and capture Kiev. Once more, my mechanized Armies marched to Romania, the Balkans, Hungary and Warsaw unopposed.

I was facing about 5-20 divisions in whole Eastern Europe!

The Germans were attacking towards Moscow with their superstacks while I was marching around capturing Warsaw,
Hungary and even Konigsberg,surrounding their whole army - more than 150 divisions.
Not to mention that the Americans annexed Nat Spain and were at the outskirts of Paris facing no real resistance.

The entire redeplyment AI needs modification IMO as it always leaves the flanks or whole fronts empty.

- All the Axis minors offer almost all their divisions as exp.forces to Germany.
As a result I face dozens of Hungarian and Romanian units on the eastern front and Germany seems to be running out of manpower.
This even with all these 'foreign volunteers' events, which I felt were too much when I was playing on the german side.
My intel panel shows Germany 500+ divs, Hun & Rom no more than 5.

- I stopped advancing to wait for the USA reaching historical borders, then I attacked Berlin.
Germany chooses to fight to the end. I annex them only after Italy surrenders to the Allies.

As a result:
- Italy keeps Greece mainland, the adriatic coast and random (?) North African provinces.
There should be some events ceding all these territories.
- USA once puppeted France and I got a CTD.
- USA puppets Belgium every 3-10 days, some months later they end up with 500+ belligerence.
- Map on the west looks a mess, I don't know what happened to France but they own random French prvinces and Paris is a surrounded capital.
USA and UK own most of random French Provinces.
- I cannot release the DDR though I own all East and North Germany.
- Denmark got captured by all 3 of us - USSR, UK and USA - no Danish nation popped up.
- I had already released YU/BUL/HUN/POL/CSFR/ALB/GRE and had Romania switching to my side,
though the event Nation occupied fired for all of them - I chose do nothing and got my belligerence lowered, even though I had them as puppets already.

These for now... coming up with other nations soon!
PS= though th game seems a mess, it was my best Soviet game so far !! Keep up the good work Quintelosky!

 

[Conanteacher]

It's been a while and some games, but there are some more things to mention:

I played my Soviet game until 1951.

- When I captured the regions of India and Pakistan , I could only release one of these nations because of consequent cores in Kashmir.
- DDR choose 30% strenght. Sucks. Now I have hundreds of useless units, especially the airforce (same as i released Skandinavia in my German game).
- Brazil had a Leninist government, same as mine (I did not execute Kirov). When they DoWed Japan they Joined the Allies. Why?
- US sent some Exp. Divisions to Turkey, when I got them puppeted they ended up w/o supplies and oil. Most of them had no leaders.
- Bhutan, Egypt and Iceland end up captured by partisans in almost every game.
- Trade relations seem fixed. Even when Finland was my puppet, trade deals were VERY tough.

There are oc many awesome things to notice, such as:
- Amphibious landings everywhere - tough to guard everything.
- Intensive Carrier strikes. My CHC puppet could not field a navy, they got their ships destroyed at harbor.
- Very balanced gameplay and no delay even during the 50's.

Suggestions:
- Japan surrenders event: Why always an american puppet?
- Could there be a trigger that when JAP loses lots of provinces it surrenders and winners keep what they captured?
- This 30% strenght gets annoying. With Bhutan or Panama looks OK, but Siam and manchukuo suffer.
They can get their IC easily to 50 and have plenty of manpower. Having 25 low org INTerceptors and infantry is annoying, they don't have enough leaders also.
Not to mention 30% strenght for DDR, Skandinavia, Australia, Canada, S.Africa and other strong/medium powers.

I also had a great game with both France and the UK. Other suggestions:

Air war is not intensive. I really never need more than 2-3 Fighter Wings.
I also never get bombed for real. Only Naval bombers hurt me a lot.

No country focuses on big naval vessel building. Even Italy and Japan builds no new BBs.
Often I see a 60+ IC Brazil, Argentina or Canada not building anything but destroyers and light cruisers.
How about some CAs or BCs? Not even the UK has a lot to show.

I get tired of countries like Persia and Colombia building 30 or more interceptor squadrons...
I get also tired of Brazil and Argentina building 50 or more level II destroyers...

Some nations should be investing on IC buildup. It is interesting to have Indian empire with 90 base IC. Or even Venezuela or Persia with 50+ IC by 1941/42.

Some countries give too many exp. Forces. Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria give all their armies to Germany. There should be a limit at 1/4th, 1/3rd or half their units, the most.

Is research a bit too slow? try to have my % as high as possible researching plenty of doctrines, but I never go too far. A 10% boost would be Cool.

I really really hate this "research sabotaged" event.

As USSR I got "major worker strike" event more than once!

As a minor I got "Layoffs in the mining industry" early on, destroying my economy. Should it not destroy some percentage of resources instead?

...Keep up the good work!

 

[OLDTIMER]

Hi,

a contribution from me, playing N. Zealand over ARMA, 1933 start.

1. AI worked well on a strategic lvl until early 1944 where I`m now:

1.1 Italy does very well in N. Africa, They`ve taken control of Suez Canal twice and sent small naval detachements to the Pacific and Indian Ocean just as Spanish State did.
They also efficiently support Germany in the Europe. Suez was locked to the Allies most of the time as Axis were on one coast if not in control. I wonder how they can supply 45 divs in Suez and abt. 25 in N. Africa though.
Probably because Italian navy and navs have done extremely well all the time. Really impressive show.

1.2 Japan has been incredibly successful, probably because they made the correct decision to puppet N. China and that early on. After taking DEI they went for Burma, annexed Indian Empire, Iraq and Persia and are establishing common borders with Italy and Germany in M. East and Turkey(joined the Allies and became yet another headache for us). Luckily enough they turned down German alliance offer till now.
Jap AI made some mistakes though: prioritized army and ran out of troop transports. That`s why their attempts to invade Australia failed until now. They seem not to build many naval units and their navy is wearing down very noticeably. Still, it`s dangerous as they`ve 4-5 carriers left.

1.3 Germany has taken a vacation till Barbarossa after subduing most of Europe including Norway. After Barbarossa it was a stalemate/vacation for abt. 2 yrs. Then they broke the SU front and are now east of Ural. Lost Norway and Finland to UK meanwhile.

2. The Allies have taken lots of stick till late 1943:

2.1 UK has lost India, but still has Ceylon. Has had Gib and Singapore for the duration. Success, kind of. Keeps just a minimum of land units on the isle and tries to use what it has(acts logically at long last) but is stretched very thin and unable to achieve even local superiority for long enough anywhere. Kind of historical.
Destroying the 45 Italian divs in Suez is possible by blockade in theory. I see 2 reasons for UK not doing that: AI does not understand blockades or it does but fears(correctly) that the blockading force will be destroyed by Italian navy and navs.

2.2 USA: after abt. 2 yrs build up they implemented "Germany first" policy and have by now annexed Spanish state and have gone into Metropolitan France a little. Also invaded the Low Countries and probably can`t be dislodged from there by now. Germany must redeploy but does it understand that?

2.3 Other Allies: doing what they can. Very active as much as their resources permit. N. Zealand pulls more than its weight and is responsible for many Axis naval losses, Jap in particular.

3. Comintern has performed badly but plausibly, no easy walk to Berlin this time.

4. General conclusions:

- the enforced strengths choices for GP:s in particular detract from the game as AI just can`t handle that properly,

- AI is much better at garrisoning,

- AI seems to be able to prioritize strategic goals better. Or just was incredibly lucky in my playthrough here,

- AI responds well to blockades and amphib assaults,

- at least for me, I saw an active air war in Europe and whereever there were bases,

- AI is good at coordinating multiple direction attacks,

- AI does not attack attacking enemy units from adjacent provinces to help its own. Never did and perhaps it`s impossible to code that in,

- AI must be subjected to same overstacking(they can have more than 4 units in an air stack again) and range limitations as the player. P-dox said it`s impossible for naval units, I don`t believe them though. No air(or any other) attacks without proper rebasing and org loss/regain. Period.

- AI can`t still compose capitals/screens it seems, but I´ve observed some fleets properly composed, maybe by accident. Neither can it properly reshuffle units, naval in particular according to repair/org regain needs. But it never could so that is perhaps beyond engine limitations.

- it will be very interesting to see how post-war Europe will look. Will SU get half of it though they`re actually pushed out of it?

All in all IC 1.3 over ARMA is an improvement and very enjoyable to play.

BTW, Quintelosky, I have lots of saves from this playthrough and can send them to you if you think it useful.

Rgds, Oldtimer

 

[OLDTIMER]

Hi all,

summer 1944 USA annexed Germany. SU says "we`ll keep our conquests" though they are much closer to Vladivostok than Urals. They get back their 1941 border it seems.
But:

- I must say that with FDR behind the helm it`s quite plausible that SU would get half of Europe irrespectively of their performance. His goal was to destroy European empires(starting with UK) and establish an American world hegemony after all. Hirohito and Adolf just provided him with an opportunity to try that.
USA puppets Hungary though with dyed in the wool democrats like Horthy in power.
Nevertheless USA historically never acknowledged the annexation of Baltic countries "de jure" so they perhaps could be snatched out of Josefs clutches in current situation anyway.

- air war in Europe actually peters out with time. Germany did not build much air, no CAS at all! But they also have enormous fuel deficits in spite of all conquests. So they can`t fly even when they want to. The Allies have mastery of the air and use it.
Italy builds and uses air, 10 navs by 1944. I don`t know how they manage their fuel, but they fly and hit very hard when they do.
Japan does not have much air but at least uses what they have.

- build priorities seem historical for Germany, lots of panzers and mots, but it all stands still after some time as fuel deficits hit. Germany would be better off with leg inf/cav and use the fuel available in the air.

- german redeployment to the West after Allied invasion might be hampered by fuel shortages actually and not by them disregarding the danger. Spain joining Axis and opening a back door to Europe is still death for the Axis.I will watch what happens in Europe and report but 1.3 seems to improve "after V-day" decisions somewhat. A step in the right direction.

That`s all from me for today.

Rgds, Oldtimer

 

[Conanteacher]

Very good remarks, OLDTIMER.

Some Questions:

- Are you sure about German fuel shortages? As a German player I never face any resource shortages after 1939, with a large fleet and airforce always on patrol.
It could be because I only build about 20 Panzers and about the same number of mot/mech though.

- What do you think of Japanese, German and Soviet build priorities and AI?

My personal oppinion is that their main drawbacks are:

Germany= No effective redeployment after eastern front breakthrough or invasion from the West.
Japan= Focuses on land, easily conquers Asia but builds no ships, especially capitals. They don't even give the US fleet a hard time.
USSR= Gets its army wiped out and faces manpower shortages too often.

Sometimes this behaviour is fun and historical, but most of the times it is too predictable and annoys me.

 

[OLDTIMER]

@Conanteacher

- GER fuel could be scarce because I disabled conversion. If that applies to AI:s too, it`s a surefire way to Allied victory. I might look again at how much panzers/mechs they have but I`m quite sure GER AI builds much more than you did. I also disabled nuclear techs. Perhaps we should be able to disable A-bombs only so that reactors can be built and used for conversion.

- JAP builds were heavily biased towards army as you say. Worst mistake is not to start building troop transports after, say, there`s only ten left. By now they have one left and build none.
They do balanced research, but it`s a waste as they disregard air and naval builds. Do build naval attachments though.

- Havn`t looked at USSR builds.

- GER builds too much panzers/mechs, to little air. They almost always implement plan Z which gives them an OK-ish navy. But it gets whittled down to nothing with time.

If JAP built replacement troop transports in time, the game would be much better. German lack of redeployment is a catastrophy, but I`m not sure if it`s caused by dormant AI or fuel shortages.
USSR had grave mp problems by late 1943 so it`s kinda historic. The constantly excellent performance of Italy is a concern.
Axis and Allied minors are both doing very well but Axis ones often give their troops to GER as exp forces thus aggravating german supply problems.

Rgds, Oldtimer

 

[OLDTIMER]

Hi all,

by 27 Apr 1943 GER has:

- 91 mot, 5 mech, 21 L Arm, 2 Arm.

They build:

- 59 Mech, mostly with fuel consuming attachments. No air and very little(negligible) else.

They need abt. three times as much fuel as they get daily. Trades with Italy are not beneficial as they mostly concern energy exports.

Rgds, Oldtimer

 

[Conanteacher]

Wow, that explains a lot. I also always switch off conversion.

Axis minors give most of their army as exp.forces to Gremany, resulting in heavy mp losses which are ahistorically corrected via the foreign volunteers events.
Should keep 2/3 of their army and reduce the events for Germany.

 

[ifail]

- When GPW event fires, I can build 1 Region HQ/Day but in the production screen the cost is 118.2 IC ???

What is the GPW event i would like to build some hq at the game start but it takes so long and uses so much ic i wont have time to build the rest of my army

 

[OLDTIMER]

Hi all,

a little info from my later playthroughs:

- looks like disabling conversion only affects the player. I loaded as Ger and they convert, but still cover only abt. 1/3 of their needs.

- the Brits went back to their old ways keeping an insane amount of troops at home irrespectively of the strategical situation(read: losing India). And ARM garrisoning jungle provinces in time honoured fashion. But that maybe randomness, as they acted much better in other playthroughs.

Anyway, there must be a switch for the UK AI, say after 25% of India VP:s are lost they start to reinforce their presence there.

US Navy is fighting, but uses less forces than they could.

Rgds, Oldtimer

 

[ifail]

1.03 normal/normal germany player its 1940 conquered france and norway land battle and sea battles everywhere was nice the lack of air battles ( ai dont build air units) using my spies they only have 5 air units (fra) and around 7 (uk) russia (4) lol really need to dress about the airforce of ai.

i find the land battles nice and the naval ai contunally prodding but i really really want to see more investment in the airforce by the ai. I could only use the luftwaffe creation units and just spam land units to conquer the world. I would really like to see a balance approach by the ai to get some more air units and bomb germany but at this rate i can only use the units i got from the event and win

 

[OLDTIMER]

@ifail

I gather you play GER. Human GER can`t lose, it`s as simple as that. The balance problems are confined to AI:s, both Axis and Allies.

Rgds, Oldtimer

 

[ifail]

I mean I would really like for the ai to have some more investment in there airforce. At the moment it really lacks britain keep sending 3 bombers somewhere around paris to " bomb" which was dealt quickly by 4 for my interceptros whilst the other 20 or so parked waiting for another raid >< should it be more atleast?

its 1941 preparing to invade russia which has 9(bombers and fighters overall)

i made so many planes (20 int , 14 tac, 16 cas) i have 4 int in france doing the intercepting

what would make the ai a bit hard without using the complicate game much event ( i dont want them to have higher tech ( want it as historical pluasible) than me as i believe that using the event speeds up the ai research more than it should)

edit installed ic in dh ai has more planes whichi m happy but im sad i dont have any arma feature

 

[Robin187]

AI airforce could really use some love indeed.

However i think AI redeployment mabey even more cause that has created some wierd situations in the 10 or so games ive played during the last weeks and months, like Italy managing to steamroll all the way into the middle east (or even further) allmost every game without hardly any resistance and its not like Britain cant resist them they just dont react enough and when they finally do its to little to late, i think the Egypt puppet state might be a big part of this problem cause by the time that is gone and the British start to fight on their "own" provinces with their own troops rather then that of a puppet they usually do start to react in good numbers and send in enough forces but as said by that time its often to little to late.

Then i also had some wierd situations with the German AI, in 1 game paying as the Soviets i pushed the Germans back to more or less the 1941 starting borders by the end of 1944 and the German forces were anything but fully broken by that time cause every advance i made required massive effort but by that same time the allies had allready steamrolled all of Italy and were moving into Southern France and the Balkans allmost unopposed and even when they moved as far as southern Germany/Austria there was still hardly any reaction from the German AI, basiclly 99% of their forces sticked to the Soviet frontline dispite what was happening arround them.

And another game playing as the USA i made an invasion of Italy in early 1943 and i must say i actually did face some good German resistance there and by the time i reached northern Italy the resistance had become so strong i coundt advance further so i went for the D-day landing next arround spring 1944 and by that time the Germans where extremly close to the bitter peace event in the east (dispite me being in northern Italy) i actually launched my d-day invasion much earlier then i planned in the hope it would halt their advance in the east enough for the bitter peace not to fire, now in France i really faced very little resistance so little that i was able to march allmost unopposed towards my other front in northern Italy and meet up there and thereby also encircling 35-40 German divisions that again simply sticked to their front in Italy rather then reacting to what was happening arround them in France, afther that i was able to march towards Germany again allmost unopposed while at the same time the bulk of the German forces where still deep inside Russia still very close to reaching the bitter peace event and that basiclly didnt change even when i marched as far as Poland.

I could name a few more wierd situations but i think these tell enough, for whatever reason the AI has a very hard time reacting to any new front opening and sticks to the positions they initially set out for regardless of what is happening elsewhere.
Now i dont know if anybody has tried to increase AI agressiveness to improve this? I allways keep this on normall cause from what i can remember of HoI2 Arma that only made the AI more suicidal.