Do you guys even let AI control your armies with battle plans ?

[Maxim M1910/30 enjoyer]

I am asking because i am relatively new and noticed that manual control is more efficient most of the time, however i was wondering if there are situations where battleplans are just better

[drewbstar]

Originally posted by Redhammer:

I am asking because i am relatively new and noticed that manual control is more efficient most of the time, however i was wondering if there are situations where battleplans are just better

Grand Battle Plan.
Big attack buffs.
Highly skilled generals/FMs.

Just keep it small. The 3 volunteers you send to Nationalist Spain as Germany is small, but benefits from it greatly. Not only does it reduce loses, it helps you push through mountains. You lose the attack bonuses pretty easily, but whatever. Split up your front lines so it doesn try to send your troops near Finland to Romania.

[GeneralMacNut]

While it can't to anything beyond "Attack Attack Attack", but it did reduce micro, espacially when you have to both fight in 2 place at the same time.

[Ryan]

I usually start with battle plans and then micro manage at the same time or fully after it gets going. If there is a lot of bad terrain, then I control it all manually if I want to conserve manpower.

[Amon Sapkowski]

I most definetely let the AI control my armies. It is not as efficient as micromanagement, but even I am a potato, so it has to be done. If you want the AI to make a breakthrough, use spearhead orders. It will eventually force it's way through. The AI is not exactly.....smart......but it works fine. Sometimes you will struggle....A LOT. Training. Grand Strategy Games are lots of training.

[Antearz]

Originally posted by Redhammer:

I am asking because i am relatively new and noticed that manual control is more efficient most of the time, however i was wondering if there are situations where battleplans are just better

I am always letting the AI Control almost all of my Armies.

How Effective the AI is depends heavily on what Plans you Drew up for the AI.
And how you Manage the Situation above.

If you just add a Frontline with all your Armies and then tell em to Attack.
Its not Surprising that your Armies wont exactly do much.


I will normally use 1 Army Group.
2 Defensive Armies which get Orders to move Carefully.
Which are Equipped with lots of Artillery and Infantry.
2 Offensive Armies which get Orders to Attack Moderately.
Which are Equipped with Motorized/Mechanized Infantry and lots of Light/Medium Tanks.
and 1 Heavy Army. which gets Orders to Focus on the Attack.
Usually Equipped with Heavy Tanks and Mechanized Infantry.


If you want the AI to work for you Efficiently.
You need to make sure that you give it the proper Orders.

Make sure that you add Offensive Units with lots of Breakthrough and Armor to the Army thats supposed to Attack.
And Make sure that the Bulk of your Armies which are likely Infantry. And thus Sqishy Targets. Are in Defensive Armies which dont run against Enemy Dfenses and instead only move into the Province once the Tanks have taken it. So they can then Hold the Frontline as your Tanks continue the Attack.

Make sure that your Armies have the Right Orders.
Infantry Armies should not have Aggressive Offensive Orders or they will waste themselves.
And Tank Armies need a Second Army behind them that Fills the Provinces they Conquer because they are Weak in Defenses.

Make sure your Armies have Fighters Attached that have Air Superiority Orders.
So your Armies can Defend themselves against Air Attacks.


You also need to Draw Proper Battle Plans.
If you just add a Frontline and then add an Offensive Arrow on Enemy Capital.
The your Armies will do just that.
Attack on the Entire Front and Rush for Enemy Capital.


If for my Part will have my Armies run Step by Step.
Using my Heavy Army to Create a Bridgehead and then try with the 2 Offensive Armies to Cut Off Enemy Forces while my Defensive Armies pretty much have no Offensive Plans at all and just Continue Filling the Frontline after my Offensive Armies.



If you manage this right.
The AI is actually way more Powerful than you controlling the Units.
Because it can Instantly counter and use chances on the Enemy Line when they arise.
Much faster than you can even press Pause to even check.
And much more reliable than you as well because you wont be able to really spot such weakspots in a Larger Frontline anymore.

[glythe]

I came to this game from EUIV. With that in mind I usually manually move my troops except when the outcome is beyond trivial (fighting a minor nation who is incredibly outnumbered).

Originally posted by Sunleader:

I am always letting the AI Control almost all of my Armies.

How Effective the AI is depends heavily on what Plans you Drew up for the AI.
And how you Manage the Situation above.

If you just add a Frontline with all your Armies and then tell em to Attack.
Its not Surprising that your Armies wont exactly do much.

This part is correct in that it actually takes a lot of effort to make the automated lines work. You probably won't be making good battle planes for quite some time.

Originally posted by Sunleader:

If you manage this right.
The AI is actually way more Powerful than you controlling the Units.
Because it can Instantly counter and use chances on the Enemy Line when they arise.
Much faster than you can even press Pause to even check.
And much more reliable than you as well because you wont be able to really spot such weakspots in a Larger Frontline anymore.

The AI is not better than a skilled player carefully monotiroing the battle. Watch some of the big HoI youtube players and you will hear them say things like, "I could do this manually but in the interest of time lets just speed five this war".


If you get used to playing battles at speed 1-2 (depending on size) you can have incredibly low mortality rates for your side. Why?

The AI often has a good plan right in front of him and instead of attacking shuffles troops around via railroading. This wastes tremendous amounts of time. Over and over again you will see the AI move troops to cover a front line square. This is good in theory except in many situations if you do a full attack down the line you just advance and cover the gaps manually.

This means that when I order the manual attack the enemy had no time to rest as they just retreated. Compare this to the AI who let the enemy rest and build up some defensive bonus as well as had time to recover organization (railroading requires he rebuild org too).

In essence this is like starting a boxing match where you feel bad for winning the first round and let your opponent rest so he can start over fresh tomorrow. Don't do that. Beat him up the first round and then keep pounding him in the face till he is unable to fight back. In game terms once you have beaten a division and they are on the run they are more or less a pushover because they never get the chance to entrench or recover full organization.

If you want I can show you just how amazing manual battles can be with an old Ironman game or two.

[HacaPotato]

Originally posted by avantech:

I find it baffling that players will let the AI do so much for them. This AI is hideous, so it's twice as odd, but even if it were competent I wouldn't get it.

Most of the fun from previous HOI was setting up and managing your attacks, especially in a huge front like Barbarossa. It's laborious, yes, but rewarding. It's the whole point.

If all you do is go through some half-baked production and research system, drag some shiny arrows and leave the actual war to the AI, why play at all?

Because it is a stratagy game not an RTS.

[Maxim M1910/30 enjoyer]

I should have also said that i dont have any DLC so i dont have access to things like spearhead order. Also does attaching an airwing to an army boosts the damage they can do ? because i read somewhere that it's just a button to remove the micromanagement of sending planes to different airfields when your armies advance over large distances.

[Shade-O]

Usually i let the AI do the frontline for me with the occasional manual interference in the interest of saving time especially with the lack of hotkeys. Most of the time a human-player could do a better job probably, especially with the ''Grand battleplan'' land doctirine.

edit:

Originally posted by Redhammer:

I should have also said that i dont have any DLC so i dont have access to things like spearhead order. Also does attaching an airwing to an army boosts the damage they can do ? because i read somewhere that it's just a button to remove the micromanagement of sending planes to different airfields when your armies advance over large distances.

The airforce will follow your general's army around, great if you're too lazy to split all the airforces amongst your forces, less great if you want to concentrate your airforces to a specified location like ordering fighters and naval bombars to wrestle sea control.
Generally speaking having air superiority can make every battle a little bit easier and can even break stalemates.

[drewbstar]

Originally posted by Redhammer:

I should have also said that i dont have any DLC so i dont have access to things like spearhead order. Also does attaching an airwing to an army boosts the damage they can do ? because i read somewhere that it's just a button to remove the micromanagement of sending planes to different airfields when your armies advance over large distances.

It really is a button to reduce micro. But, with the better micro, odds are you're doing better management anyway.

[GoldenTalon]

As @avantech said, don't let the AI control your units. It's doesn't work well and takes away a key part of the game which is controlling your units.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

North Africa & Italy are the only places where I feel comfortable to let the AI carry out battleplans with minimal aide. Frontline AI struggles to mess up a 5 tile front.

I'll also allow Armoured Spearheads to go about automated on large fronts but i'll keep an eye on them just in case.

But otherwise no, I don't rely on the battle planner. Fronts expand in shonky ways all the time

[SupremeLeaderPie]

Micro will prevent silly battle ai mistakes

[glythe]

Originally posted by Redhammer:

Also does attaching an airwing to an army boosts the damage they can do ? because i read somewhere that it's just a button to remove the micromanagement of sending planes to different airfields when your armies advance over large distances.

Attaching airwings to armies is less efficient than doing it manually. But this comes with strings attached because sometimes you forget to move some planes. Especially when certain countries do not follow the boundries well for airspace.

When you assign planes to armies they sometimes waste a lot of planes to cover areas where they have troops but are not being attacked.

It is exactly what you said: a button to remove micro.

[MagnusCerebrum]

Depends, if I can afford the manpower loss or if I'm at a great advantage I'll just let the AI do its thing. I only micro early game and encirclements.