AI unable to build big army (>25000 pts)

[francoisD]

Hi,

Do not know if this has already been tackled previously

Bu I have a concern about the AI as a purchaser: it is almost unable to build armies worth more than 25000 points while it could perfectly reach armies worth 35000 pts.

This is not disturbing for single battles, since you can always buy its army (except for the surprise), but this is really a drawback for long campaigns.

Indeed I have just begun a LC with germans and my army in 1941 has only few tanks but includes a full battalion of infantry with support troops such as a company of engineer and is already worth 5000 pts. I was planning to add a full battalion of panthers (about 60) and a few specialized tanks, to get roughly an element of a panzergrenadier division

This would lead me to a final army worth 12000-13000 pts, that is totally realist, with respects to the discussion here:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=34658

But since the AI cannot spend more than 25000 pts, even with the ai tank heavy on option that I do not like, I can not do so.

Indeed germans will eventually have to defend only, and that means that the enemy would need an army of (13000pts of army +500 pts support troops) *2.5=33750 pts (or more than 28000 pts for a delay battle).

I am really annoyed by this problem,

Here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=34658
People complain that when they begin to buy top equipment, battles begin to be very easy.
Perhaps the problem is that the ai cannot get a big enough army.

But if the designers have some time, I think an easy solution is available

First are some figures obtained by the random battle generators concerning the army pts that support the problem I defined above. Figures are obtained for the four main army (Americans, germans, Russians, and british), from January 1942 to January 1945 (because it takes a long time), with ai heavy tank on or off. Recall that armies are limited to 500 troops (did not try d-day like battles), and points were limited to 40000 (never even close to it)

(min pts, mean pts)
1942 OFF A (20942, 21543) G (19188, 20298) R(13199, 14239) B(17504, 20976)
1942 ON A(25405, 26109) G(22219, 22705), R(15835, 16041), B(17848, 23122)
1943 OFF A (19629, 21549) G (19066, 19440) R(17277, 18189) B(20321, 21703)
1943 ON A (24852, 25639) G(22071, 23174), R(21097, 22179), B(22123, 23546)
1944 OFF A (21460, 23157) G (21092, 22380) R(18336, 18930) B(22368, 23350)
1944 ON A (25362, 26850) G(25316, 25999) R(22763, 23271), B(23852, 25124)
1945 OFF A (23687, 25994) G (21810, 23043) R(22673, 23585) B(16679, 23201)
1945 ON A (30722, 32255) G(26318, 28074), R(26768, 28398), B(27258, 28793)


Interestingly, I noticed two huge variations for the same battle, for the british in January 1942 with heavy on: from 17848 to 26175 pts, and again with the british in January 1945 heavy off, from 16679 to 26226!!!

I do not like the heavy on option because armies consist of too many tanks. However I do like the variety of combinations in all armies. I feel a very small modification is required to obtain bigger armies (in points)

We can study the tanks allocation, because the solution lies at least partially in them. Indeed among all the unit classes, only tanks and artillery troops, have a very wide range of costs per unit

Usually with ai tank heavy off, tanks represent about 30% of the number of units (140-180 for 500 units), and with heavy on, about 50% (220-260 for 500 units).
four examples

January 1944 with germans, OFF, 22759 pts,
46 PzIVg, 68 PzIVh, 22 Panth D, 4 PzIIIn, 30 StGIIIg, 4 luchs, 6 stuh 42
(14218 pts and 180 units)
January 1944 with germans, ON, 25811 pts
56 PzIVg, 106 PzIVh, 30 PzIIIn, 14 PzIIIm, 10 StGIIIg, 4 luchs, 4 stuh 42, 14 tigers 1
(18470 pts and 238 units)

January 1944 with Russians, OFF (18084 pts)
126 T34-1943, 10 SU76M, 32 KV1C, 5 T70, 5 T60, 64 SU152, 10 KV 85, 5 SU 57
(16860 pts, 257 units)

January 1944 with Russians, ON (23454 pts)
62 T34-1943, 3 T34-1942n, 5 SU76M, 29 KV1C, 16 SU152, 32 SU 57
(9473 pts, 147 units)

It appears that the AI buy very cheap tanks in all cases. So when the maximum pts of an army is too high, the AI can never spend all the points. So simply make it buy the most expensive tanks!

With tanks being only tigers, the second army could reach more than 36000 pts…

In fact the AI is not forced to buy all the time the most expensive tanks.

Since the problem appears only for armies worth more than, say, 15000 pts, for 500 units left, simply buy the most expensive tank, when the AI decides to buy a tank, when the number of points left divided by the number of units left is higher than 15000/500=30.

So the Ai can be kept as is, with its wonderful variety and surprise, with the exception that if this ratio is higher than 30, when a tank platoon or company has to be purchased, then buy the most expensive one.

I guess the purchase step is a recursive one (buy one unit, then decide for the second and so on). In this case, if the pts to spend is for example 20000, the AI will start to buy expensive tanks, and as soon as the ration pts to spend/unit left will go below 30, it will buy cheap tanks. And if the ratio becomes higher than 30 again, it will buy again expensive tanks…

If the pts are very high, the ai will buy only expensive tank.

As a side note, it is also surprising that in a few examples with the Britain, there occurred a very high variation in the points, from 16000 to 26000 for the same allowance of 40000 pts…
Quite disturbing…

Well, I hope you have understood my thoughts, and you will agree this would be interesting.