Thoughts on the Current State of AOD

[miller_kurt]

First of all, a big thank you to the developers of AOD for continuing to support and improve this fine game. As a long-time player of HOI2, AOD and Darket Hour I respectfully offer the following observations (Playing as Germany 1936 Campaign, Normal Difficulty, Aggressive AI):

1) Great job improving the Soviet AI! The USSR is finally a tough nut to crack. It took me three tries before I finally got the right combination of forces and strategy to slay the Bolshevik menace. I would suggest that the Soviets should produce more infantry and less air units and mechanized infantry. Once I gutted their initial 300 divisions they were just not fielding enough cannon-fodder to stop me.

2) The Western Allies are a problem. First, no amphibious invasions. Second they are building way too many air units and not enough ground forces. In May 1942 the US fielded 98 air units and the UK had 54. Now this did make for a very active air war in the West and necessitated a very robust German air defense network. However it greatly increased the tedium of having to stop the game everyday to modify air unit missions and production sliders as replacement and repair requirements wildly fluctuate. Not that much fun! And repairs seem very expensive in terms of IC, though they are quickly made.

3) Great job bringing the Axis minor allies force levels more in line with historical possibility. Hungary and Romania no longer field 50+ divisions and they appear to have very limited manpower pools. However, Hungary did build a very large air force - over 20 units! Guess they had nothing else to build...

4) German manpower seems exactly right. I had to take every minister and national ideology that providde a manpower bonus in order to field a strong enough Wehrmacht to defeat the Bolsheviks. And there are large swathes of conquered Russia that have been given over to bandits and chaos due to a lack of security forces. Ah well, at least they aren't Commies anymore!

Thanks again and I will provide additional feedback as warranted!

Kurt

[Lennartos]

Did you play 1.10 or 1.11?
2) A Invasion bug was fixed in the later 1.11 betas, where the transport AI after reload could get stuck with Invasion troops that lost their destination, making the transports unavailable since they where filled with units.

[miller_kurt]

1.10(EQPW) I will find the beta patch and give it a whirl. Right now Western Allies have been failry passive (aside from air war) Would be nice if the Soviets declare war against Germany again a few years after the Bitter Peace. It's 1954 as Germany and I just conquered and liberated England/Scotland (no more air war in Europe, hurrah!) then completely conquered the USSR, liberated India, and am now going to clean out the Allies from Africa. Don't know if I'll have time to invade the US. I did get to nuke them , though. They are now a leftist-radical government and are rebuilding their IC at an alarming rate. Luckily I have more nukes close at hand... Thanks again for continuing to work on AOD!

[miller_kurt]

OK, now on 1.11 Beta8(QSOF) and have invasions galore! Requires a strategy rethink to defend against them...