Question: AI and Barge Carriers

[Felix Nephthys]

Does anyone know what might cause the AI not to buy barge carriers when it is supposed to be attacking across a river? I would think that would be a priority.

[Felix Nephthys]

These are my usual preferences.

[whdonnelly]

Helicopters or rubber boats are other options

[Felix Nephthys]

Originally Posted by whdonnelly

Helicopters or rubber boats are other options

I know. I meant to get tanks across rivers.

[Rosollia]

The AI buys its units based on a "pick list" in the game code. For river crossings the barge carrier formation should be selected by AI. To fix a possible AI pick list error it is vital to get information on exact battle date and sides involved.

[Felix Nephthys]

Originally Posted by Rosollia

The AI buys its units based on a "pick list" in the game code. For river crossings the barge carrier formation should be selected by AI. To fix a possible AI pick list error it is vital to get information on exact battle date and sides involved.

I honestly don't have anything specific. When the AI fails to buy barge carriers for assault it tends to happen more in the later decades and with countries with higher end units, especially the US forces. Wish I had more info, sorry.

[Mobhack]

Did you remember to choose "river crossing assault" in the water conditions (wide river N to S) - the only one where the AI buys barge carriers and rubber rafts?.

If you did not get asked the question "how wide should the river be?" they you have not selected te correct water conditions, and so no riverine assault equipment will be purchased.

If you have done so - then did the AI get given enough points to actually buy some?. 1000 points may be enough in 1946, in 2010 it may only be enough to buy an MBT and a few engineers and run out of money before the barge purchase.

This is easily checked by
- setting the battle date and required opponent in Game Options (makes repeated buys in the battle generator so much easier)
- now enter the game and set up the desired points if required in preferences
- start the battle generator and set COMPUTER for all settings except DEPLOY
- remember to choose river crossing water conditions after setting up for an assault battle!
- Accept this and then examine each sides auto-purchase, then exit without playing, of course.
- repeat the process a few times as required

A perfectly simple process that should only take 5 minutes.

If the particular attacker at that date is not buying barge carriers, and you have selected the correct battle type and water conditions and have given the attacker a decent dose of buy points, then let us know.

Andy

[Imp]

To be honest even if the AI had them the chances it would get a chance to use them are remote. River crossings are the hardest thing going its difficult enough as a player to get your stuff across safely & you have given it a lot of thought. They are slow & vulnerable so tracking with arty is easy.
That said I did one vs the AI in a campaign I think that was good fun. It was playing as Russia & bought mainly attack helos airmobile troops & paras. By turn 4 virtually all its forces were over my arty park was in big trouble & moving vehicles was dangerous due to the swarm of helos.

[Suhiir]

I've rarely seen the AI do a decent river crossing.
It may buy barge-carriers, but rarely uses them even remotely efectively.

When I play vs the AI I don't let it do river crossings.
Never seen it buy a horde of helo's like it did for Imp - now THAT would be interesting.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

I've rarely seen the AI do a decent river crossing.
It may buy barge-carriers, but rarely uses them even remotely efectively.

When I play vs the AI I don't let it do river crossings.
Never seen it buy a horde of helo's like it did for Imp - now THAT would be interesting.

The AI doing a river crossing is usually akin to shooting fish in a barrel, even in WW2. Add TI sights post 1980 and its a slaughterhouse. Same goes for the good old barges to the beach amphibious assault.

However, if IT has the TI and you do not then it can give you a slap, as I found out a few years back playing as USSR v USA post 1980...

I added the helo cloud as an option for the MBT pick when we went to Windows, many moons ago. It can give the AI a little bit of a chance in the river crossing if the human is unprepared, or it is poor visibility pre-TI and AAA radars. Especially if they have done the usual eager-beaver defence all along the riverbank with nothing in the back row bar the Powerpoint Rangers !.

But since people probably don't let the AI do a river crossing against them much then it is a rare thing to happen. (It is a very rare assault type in the long campaigns and I think it's now pretty much human-only anyway).

You can always set up a few battles in the generator and see what the AI buys - it will be under 1 in 20 most likely that you get more than maybe a lift platoon.

Andy