Excelent Campaign feature not mentioned before

[AB]

Unless i missed it mentioned somewhere else...

The Computer now places AI forces (in campaigns & battles) near the objecive hexes in delay and defense scenarios. In the past, the computer just scattered forces around their entire deployment zone - willy nilly. Now, the victory hexes act as a sort of magnet. This, combined with the ability to place the victory hexes in custom spots; hilltops, woodlines, center of villages, etc, means that the computer can now set up a more reasonable defense or delay.

Am i the only one who noticed this, or did i just miss it in Win SPMBT?

[DRG]

You just missed it before. There has been no change to the way either game deploys. However, if you are used to "other" versions of SP you may notice a big difference in the way our's works.

If you want see how the AI handles this set up a normal battle ( like a defend for the AI ) and set the AI side to HUMAN deploy. When the game offers you the opportunity to deploy the AI side press the AUTO DEPLOY button. That will initiate the code that places the AI side. Once you are back into the main map and still in Deploy mode press the " = " equal key and that will cycle through all the variations the AI could have picked for that battle

It helps to have the ID tags on and zoom out the map to view things easier.

You will notice a wide variety of set ups that are never the exact same twice

Don

[Mobhack]

NB - if it is defending, any mines etc will only be deployed the first time.

Cheers
Andy

[AB]

And i just discovered the reason i had never noticed the 'magnet' effect of Victory hexes. It seems the only Victory hexes that function as 'magnets' are numbers 0, 7 and 14. Almost all computer deployed units clump aroud those three objectives, with the exception of an infantry screen along the front, and some various AA along the back of the map and some armor along the map edges.

[Mobhack]

0, 7 and 14 are the key V-hexes hexes for the 7-hex clusters.

the "shotgun" V-hexes are best left for human-human games, though the AI will do OK with them, it is best when defending with the traditional 3 clusters, for its layout.

Cheers
Andy

[Marek_Tucan]

Interesting, didn't know that these three are "critical". Good to know that, explains some oddities in my scenario...

[Mobhack]

Why would it affect your scenario - as you deploy the AI troops in the defence then?.

Navigation when advancing will generally be to the nearest V-hex.

Cheers
Andy

[DRG]

It does not affect how the AI defends. It only affects how it DEPLOYS IF you allow the AI to deploy automatically and I doubt you did that

Don

[Marek_Tucan]

Actually I'm trying the auto deploy each time in order to get some "other opinion" on good deployment spots so I was a bit surprised sometimes that the AI ignores high-value hexes and concentrates on some low-values... As I didn't know this.

[DRG]

OK that explains it but I want to emphasise that it's only deployment that this happens. When attacking the AI isn't drawn to those three V-hexes above the others

Don