I ask this because I have not played it for ages & seems to have improved, I may have had an overcritical memory of its past performance but these are my observations upon playing it for the last couple of months.
Deployment - Generally very good though does on occasion spread its self a bit thin on the defence & can on the odd occasion place tanks without infantry support. Tends to cover routes flanks bunkers etc well.
Path finding- This may be my memory but seem to get far less lemmings just piling one after the other into the same hex. Infantry will still do in woods but thats fine as can overwhelm the defender but otherwise units will try another route. Often just an adjacent hex but sometimes an entirly diffrent path or it may elect to sit & wait.
The rest seem to happen all together & about 1 game in 4. I have checked to see if stuff running in background effects performance somehow. It does not its just for 1 in 4 battles the AI comes on song & if it starts the game this way it will play the whole game with an intelligence boost. Most of the following will happen.
Arty- even with long call times of say 3 it is very good at predicting movement plotting where it thinks you are going not where you are. I would say it does better than some humans.
Force cohesion- seems to send out what I will call a scout force larger than a human would but it does not have his finnesse. The main force though will hold together pretty well tanks wait for there escorting infantry, APCs do not rush off ahead. I have also noticed tanks will on occasion form up waiting for other nearby units then come round the obstacle or whatever as a group even occasionally going to combat speeds. Example entering a treeline it will wait till can do so in force.
They still normally fail to unload riders if they have them waiting till forced off by a hit.
Path finding- gets even better as I have gone to flank units only to bump into its forces doing the same.
When this all comes together the AI produces some great little gems writting this because it just put everything together for a combined arms attack.
Its armour waited forming up as I was outnumbered moved a few more tank here & others slightly to better range for a kill. Now found out why it waited steel rain poured down on positions I had just taken up. Now its tanks attacked & cavalry came rushing out of a nearby woods. Luckily I knew they were there if somewhat surprised at quite how many but due to the arty strikes had a real moment here this turn hurt.
I am talking about generated battles here & even if you have not tweaked it would like to say considering the constraints you probably have to work with due to the program & the complexity of decision making it can surprise you. Just like you take a simple task like walking for granted (apart from moving limbs you are observing surroundings & speed placing feet sensibly staying upright using balance etc) you probably make loads of calculations before using a unit based on threat terrain weapon capabilities the game can never hope to match the human computer in this process but I would just like Andy & Don to know all ther hard work has not gone unnoticed arty routines really impress me at times & it is capable of throwing a curve ball at times. Now if only you could get it to do that 1 game in 4 everytime
Has the AI been tweaked?
Linear Mode
