Does AI rush divisions?

[flyboymb]

So playing as Russia. I purge on day 1, declare on Poland as soon as I build up the points. Slaughter my cavalry and NKVD to rapidly make up for initial equipment shortfalls, start buffing infantry to 38 strength with 3 ART and the rest INF (Plan to eventually add AA once all the ART is built. ENG, REC, MED, LOG, and ART as support).

Switch to war economy as soon as I'm up to 150 and declare on Poland before purge is completed so that I can rush lessons of war. Start punping out civilan factories until I have 75 for production then start spamming military factories.

Poland is mine, I have training going non-stop to add in more INF armies. Use research bonuses to get to T-34 by 1937. Start converting light tank divisions one by one to medium tank with 8 tank 8 MOT. Going real slow due to shared equipment with infantry.

I declare on Germany in 1938 just as they declare on Western Europe. I look at the war tab and see that we're nearly matched in divisons. I march in and take Berlin and advance to nearly the edge of Checkoslovakia. Then Belgium, Netherlanda, and France decide to carry out a suicide pact.

I'm encircling and destroying small pockets of division. Germany is losing on average 10,000 men per day. Italy joins the war but focuses on Africa. I should be able to arch around Checkoslovakia and capitulate if I play my cards right.

Nope, suddenly it is WW1. My units suddenly instantly lose org when they attack. Even 4 divisions attacking 1 from 2 fronts will get up to 60 before turning red and eventually giving up.

More and more Germans show up at the front line. I thought at first that these must be the troops from the West but they continue to flood on. I look at the war tab and Germany now has double my divisions! Mostly 8 INF, some ART, and some other support.

I had air superiority, was beginning CAS, and infrastructure was adequate. I was still losing equipment to attacks to the point that I needed 30k rifles to reinforce. Germany took advantage of a gap in my line due to my genius general moving guys around and 10 German divisions popped through and fanned out in all directions. After seeing that it would take a year to catch all of them and seeing dozens more pouring through the reinforced gap, I called GG on the cheap AI and quit.

So does the AI have cloning facilities that start up for whichever nation I go to war with? Seems that Japan can take China on easily enough, but if I play, suddenly China acts like the 50% nerf isn't in place and I lose a millon men just to conquer the regions.

[El Berl]

the AI doesn't rush divisions, they get small buffs that add up over time so they don't get crushed by a competent player. The worst is when they "two-turn", or get a few divisions teleported in to a region they're withdrawing from so you have to defeat them twice to take one state.

[MamaJem]

AI cheats. It's to give AI a chance and competent players a challenge. But this is not the worst case of AI cheating in games. In the original (not steam version) of Age of Empires 2, the AI would get resources every time it advances to the next age.

[Super Fegelein]

What? Every time they advance to the next age?

My whole childhood is a lie.

[firestar587]

Originally posted by Super Fegelein:

What? Every time they advance to the next age?

My whole childhood is a lie.

lol i wondered why the steam version felt easier


and @OP
1. divs no NOT teleport even the AIs

2. in rts games the has to cheat abit or other wise you could just learn what the ai is going to do and have a counter ready every time (stronghold cursader extreme has this problem the ai has few to no cheats and does the same thing every time meaning if you have the rss and skill to build up you can counter any attack the ai can send and even worse their castles are always 100% the same so they are very easy to attack)

[spike2071]

@OP: AI and the player can deploy divisions when they have at least 20% equipment and are at least 20% trained. I would guess you're seeing poorly trained and/or equipped divisions flooding the area.

Originally posted by V. Berlioz:

the AI doesn't rush divisions, they get small buffs that add up over time so they don't get crushed by a competent player.

Do you have proof? I'm not denying it's true, and fully suspect that it is, but I haven't seen anything concrete for HOI4. And if it is true, they need more buffs. :)

[fakemon64]

the ai just tends to deploy recruits before they are fully trained. I never even thought it was a viable option until i noticed how much the ai does it.

[Mack]

Hoi4's AI is too stupid to properly produce equipment and armies. There's no way it could remotely hope to counter a human who has even a basic understand of the game's production & supply mechanics without massive buffs.

[fakemon64]

Originally posted by mack:

Hoi4's AI is too stupid to properly produce equipment and armies. There's no way it could remotely hope to counter a human who has even a basic understand of the game's production & supply mechanics without massive buffs.

yea... pretty much every strategy game ai relies on 'cheats' or whatever.

[firestar587]

Originally posted by mack:

Hoi4's AI is too stupid to properly produce equipment and armies. There's no way it could remotely hope to counter a human who has even a basic understand of the game's production & supply mechanics without massive buffs.

1. it doesn't get massive buffs
2. if your loseing this is a very good idea that i do all the time they aren't the best but they can slow the enemy down

[76561198859928956]

The AI doesn't cheat with units or manpower unless you're playing on high difficulty or with specific buffs to nations. The AI "cheats" with things like fog of war to some degree, but even then there has been some effort to make it respect the limits.

The AI tends to (over)produce low quality infantry divisions and to stockpile huge ammounts of infantry equipment, and seems to do so more when it's losing. The Soviet Union has a large starting army, but its starting industry is not actually very good and Germany can build up a huge military industry quickly, so it's likely they just had a huge stockpile of infantry equipment when the war began, and started spamming out cheap infantry divisions as soon as you declared war. The AI will also use extreme manpower laws when it needs to, such as service by requirement or even scraping the barrel, to ensure it can keep producing more of these divisions.

Generally, you shouldn't be attacking with infantry, even large infantry divisions, unless there is some huge advantage, otherwise you will just take massive casualties and it will turn into world war 1. Air superiority alone is not enough. Finally, check that the front is recieving enough supply. While Germany has good infrastructure, partisans in occupied territory can hugely lower the supply limits of regions unless you garrison them.

Also note that if you go down the fascist path, japan also has huge combat debuffs when invading China, so it's not meant to be an easy fight. The AI normally manages it eventually by using naval invasions to open new fronts.

[flyboymb]

I'll have to take a look at my templates to see if that would help things out. More artillery? Some AA? I just don't want to diversify too much since industry can only pump so much out at once.

I also thought that maybe Germany was ending training early or just making a bunch of small divisions. But they're a slightly smaller and similar template to mine (7-9 INF and some ART). They're not like the trash divisions I get from many minor nations and major nations that have their back to the wall.

Infrastucture turns yellow at the worst on the front. I try to level up infrastructure to at least 8 in a direct line from Moscow to the Polish border and beyond.