Hearts of Iron IV

[DGuller]

In my first game as Japan, I failed to anticipate the Chinese events where factions unite against Japan.  I also failed to realize that my entire army was supplied through a single port.  Which was captured by the Chinese that I failed to cover.     China is so going to get the harshest of treatments after a restart. 

[frunk]

I looked at the scoring system for the first time after many plays.  Apparently Paradox put as much thought into it as I did.  There's points for Air, Land, Naval, land area, industry and maybe one other I've forgotten.  Air is some mysterious "Air Superiority", land is number of divisions, naval is number of fleets, industry number of factories.  Each one could be multiplied by some factor.

The UK scored 10 points for naval for having 10 fleets, Germany scored 8, Soviet Union scored 77.  It's not number of ships just how many groups of ships you have.  So Germany could score more by splitting each of their 90 subs into their own fleet.
Land doesn't take into account division size, which can vary wildly.  The AI likes to split their force into many small divisions, so maybe it is playing toward that metric.
None of this matters much as scoring is dominated by the Air, which can easily be worth more than the rest of the categories combined (in the 300-400 range).

[Josephus]

I am playing the USSR historical. I was actually quite happy with AI Germany at first. They did everything right. After Austria, Czechoslovakia,Poland, they DOWd the lowlands and took Holland and Belguim quickly. They went into France and got Vichy. I was worried about the Italians allowing the French and British to drop troops near Rome, but they kicked them out. Germany took Denmark. Then they began massing troops on my border. Hoorah! I anticipated Barbarossa. June 41 nothing. More troops. I think they outnumbered me 2-1 and still they came to the border. June 42 nothing. More troop buildups. they brought Romania, Hungary into Axis. June 43 nothing. Allies launched a small invastion into Sicily that was repelled. June 44 nothing. Spain joined Axis. Allies invaded Spain. It came to nothing. June 45 nothing. I decied to invade Iran and removed troops from the German border thinking this will bring them. Still nothing. Seems like a bug?

[Richard Hakluyt]

They are doing better than real Germany did in 1945 though 

[frunk]

I think the AI uses the National Focus tree to determine a lot of what they do.  If they happen to not go down the invade USSR then they won't.

[Josephus]

I think the AI uses the National Focus tree to determine a lot of what they do.  If they happen to not go down the invade USSR then they won't.

Except I'm playing historical mode, so they should. And like I said, they did everything else right and in order.

[Valmy]

Can't you just start at a date right after Barbarossa occurred instead of having to wait for Germany to do everything right?

[Josephus]

Can't you just start at a date right after Barbarossa occurred instead of having to wait for Germany to do everything right?

Not without getting into the game files? There are no start dates other than 36 and 39.

I figured out the problem. There's a caveat in t he German coding that it will only do go to war with USSR IF it's not at war with anybody at its borders. As it turns out it has a bit of territory in west africa that borders french territory. Hence no Barbarossa. ever.

Only fix is to load as Germany and DOW USSR and flip back to USSR, however I'm playing Ironman and can't do that

[crazy canuck]

you could attack them

[DGuller]

I am playing the USSR historical. I was actually quite happy with AI Germany at first. They did everything right. After Austria, Czechoslovakia,Poland, they DOWd the lowlands and took Holland and Belguim quickly. They went into France and got Vichy. I was worried about the Italians allowing the French and British to drop troops near Rome, but they kicked them out. Germany took Denmark. Then they began massing troops on my border. Hoorah! I anticipated Barbarossa. June 41 nothing. More troops. I think they outnumbered me 2-1 and still they came to the border. June 42 nothing. More troop buildups. they brought Romania, Hungary into Axis. June 43 nothing. Allies launched a small invastion into Sicily that was repelled. June 44 nothing. Spain joined Axis. Allies invaded Spain. It came to nothing. June 45 nothing. I decied to invade Iran and removed troops from the German border thinking this will bring them. Still nothing. Seems like a bug?

Germany's AI seems to know when it can't get away with invading USSR.  In my every game as Soviet Union, when I was ready for them, they chickened out, so I had to do the invasion.  In the one game when I wasn't quite ready, they fucked me up good and I abandoned the game.

[Josephus]

you could attack them

yes. Though not when I'm playing historical.

I think, like I said, there's an annoying bug where GErmany won't attack USSR as long as it has a single African province bordering an Allied province, and the way Italy hands out territory to Germany, this happens often.

[Josephus]

I am playing the USSR historical. I was actually quite happy with AI Germany at first. They did everything right. After Austria, Czechoslovakia,Poland, they DOWd the lowlands and took Holland and Belguim quickly. They went into France and got Vichy. I was worried about the Italians allowing the French and British to drop troops near Rome, but they kicked them out. Germany took Denmark. Then they began massing troops on my border. Hoorah! I anticipated Barbarossa. June 41 nothing. More troops. I think they outnumbered me 2-1 and still they came to the border. June 42 nothing. More troop buildups. they brought Romania, Hungary into Axis. June 43 nothing. Allies launched a small invastion into Sicily that was repelled. June 44 nothing. Spain joined Axis. Allies invaded Spain. It came to nothing. June 45 nothing. I decied to invade Iran and removed troops from the German border thinking this will bring them. Still nothing. Seems like a bug?

Germany's AI seems to know when it can't get away with invading USSR.  In my every game as Soviet Union, when I was ready for them, they chickened out, so I had to do the invasion.  In the one game when I wasn't quite ready, they fucked me up good and I abandoned the game.

I doubt that's the case. In my case Germany outnumbers me and out techs me on the border. The reason, as I discovered, is that GErmany won't attack the USSR as long as it's at war with another country that borders it.  Often Germany has territory in Africa that borders Free French gterritory. 

[crazy canuck]

you could attack them

yes. Though not when I'm playing historical.

I think, like I said, there's an annoying bug where GErmany won't attack USSR as long as it has a single African province bordering an Allied province, and the way Italy hands out territory to Germany, this happens often.

Ah, I haven't played an historical setting yet.  Looks like I will hold off on that due to your warning. 

[DGuller]

I am playing the USSR historical. I was actually quite happy with AI Germany at first. They did everything right. After Austria, Czechoslovakia,Poland, they DOWd the lowlands and took Holland and Belguim quickly. They went into France and got Vichy. I was worried about the Italians allowing the French and British to drop troops near Rome, but they kicked them out. Germany took Denmark. Then they began massing troops on my border. Hoorah! I anticipated Barbarossa. June 41 nothing. More troops. I think they outnumbered me 2-1 and still they came to the border. June 42 nothing. More troop buildups. they brought Romania, Hungary into Axis. June 43 nothing. Allies launched a small invastion into Sicily that was repelled. June 44 nothing. Spain joined Axis. Allies invaded Spain. It came to nothing. June 45 nothing. I decied to invade Iran and removed troops from the German border thinking this will bring them. Still nothing. Seems like a bug?

Germany's AI seems to know when it can't get away with invading USSR.  In my every game as Soviet Union, when I was ready for them, they chickened out, so I had to do the invasion.  In the one game when I wasn't quite ready, they fucked me up good and I abandoned the game.

I doubt that's the case. In my case Germany outnumbers me and out techs me on the border. The reason, as I discovered, is that GErmany won't attack the USSR as long as it's at war with another country that borders it.  Often Germany has territory in Africa that borders Free French gterritory.

I think you're right.  I played another game as the Soviets, and this time I was more or less ready for them but the Germans still attacked.  They didn't move very far, though I did have a bit of a difficulty containing them until rushing anti-tank guns and equipping my units with them.  Even then, they alone were suffering 4x my total casualties, so obviously they weren't really in shape to take me on.

[The Brain]

Aha.