Battle Planner?!?!?

[HeroiK_RED]

Okay, let me start with saying that im coming from Hoi3 and im used to micro managing my units and having battle plans done my way. However, now that i'v been trying to play HOI4 i have to make battle plans for the computer and press a button to watch my lines fall and me lose the game.

Im not sure what im doing wrong. My german army is having a hard time marching into Czechoslovakia or even Yugoslavia for that matter. is there a way to not have the game run the war for you? this is so far the only thing making me not want to play

[Ваня]

Unfortunately, there's no in depth battle plan mechanics like with 3.

[N8mahr]

What? Simply don't use the crappy computer Generals and micro everything.

[HeroiK_RED]

Originally posted by N8mahr:

What? Simply don't use the crappy computer Generals and micro everything.

how do i do that, without the ai moving everything around when i try to micro.

[Talithar]

Originally posted by HeroiK_RED:

Originally posted by N8mahr:

What? Simply don't use the crappy computer Generals and micro everything.

how do i do that, without the ai moving everything around when i try to micro.

just dont make a battle plan?

[HeroiK_RED]

Originally posted by beatbox:

Originally posted by HeroiK_RED:

how do i do that, without the ai moving everything around when i try to micro.

just dont make a battle plan?

this also brings me to my next point. is there a way to get rid of all planning bonuses from ai? or is it not that big of a deal regarding AI

[Barry White]

The battleplan system is terrible and was a terrible idea. I dont know why you'd want the ai to control your men in a game all about war and I dont know why you'd let the awful ai control your men removing any advantage you might have over your opponent intellectually.

Whats ironic is that i'd make plans in HoI3 when I was building up and enjoyed it quite a bit but here i almost never draw plans and when i do they are nothing more than telling my entire army to march from one side of a country to the other.

In my opinion, the optimal way to play is to draw a battleplan prior to the war and build up the 50% planning bonus (which should be removed from the game or made to expire after 50 hours imo). Then, once war breaks out or you begin your assault, immediately delete the plan and manually control everything like you would in HoI3.

It is quite rare that you need the bonus unless your army is vastly inferior to your enemy's or you have no armoured divisions but it is still a bonus you, ideally, want. Often I will neglect to ever make a plan just because its easier to set up for the invasion and I generally play multiplayer so dont have the luxuary of pausing.

Originally posted by HeroiK_RED:

this also brings me to my next point. is there a way to get rid of all planning bonuses from ai? or is it not that big of a deal regarding AI

It can be done with a mod. When the game first game out i made a mod which did so but ive lost it now and my multiplayer friends wont play with it. Simply, I made a national spirit (called ideas in the files) which reduced planning speed by 1000% preventing any planning from taking place. Then, I made an event which simply said, in laymans terms, if a country does not have this spirit then fire and have only 1 option to add this spirit.

Now, the reason my friends give against using this, and it is one i fully understand, is that many nations have the "grand battleplan" doctrine which is centered around increasing the planning bonus and mass assault also has a bonus to it. Removing the planning bonus removes this doctrine as a viable choice (which it already isnt imo).

As an alternative, you could have the spirit reduce planning by 50% (the base) and so any technologies which increase it would, instead, result in having a planning bonus instead of none.

As to whether or not it is a big deal, well, it isnt. The AI is terrible anyway and you should be able to win regardless. Your issues with the Czechs will stem from their forts (level 7 iirc) and you may want to flank them, as you would the French, to avoid these annoying forts. That said, its entirely possible and, perhaps, not that hard to break their forts. Attack a singular province from as many directions as possible (the envelopment penalty is gone but it does reduce fort effectiveness) and concentrate all your tanks on 1 spot. The Czechs will almost certainly not be able to penetrate them and you will have air superiority as well. Once youve taken 1 province you can easily flood through into their soft center.

[HeartOfTheBrave]

If you build up your economy and army accordingly, it is impossible to lose autoresolved battles as Germany.