Posts made by CrayzKirk

Actually, I like the revised map over the first edition spring map.  It is easier to see the divisions on the Russian territories.

Dang it, the KC Whiskey is good stuff…  ;-)

Agreed on the artillery buy; it not only gives you more offensive hit points than the equivalent infantry buy, it amps up the existing infantry so that Germany has to be on it’s toes.  I would usually buy 4 inf 3 art however I think the 6 art buy is stronger in the first round.

I was looking at options for the first German round and was wondering if it makes more sense to take out the USA destroyer and 2 transports than use the subs vs the cruiser.  Go ahead and expect a fighter loss vs the cruiser and buy an extra bomber on the first round instead of 4 inf/3 art?

Why am I thinking about Axis moves?    :-o

The AI usually leaves the India carrier alone once you move it out however it is within range if the fighters want to hit it and the carrier and battleship decide to move a couple of spaces towards Africa.

Boo…  Game fell through as he wasn’t feeling well.  I would like to get good enough that I can beat the AI however I don’t want to just mimic the save games that I’ve downloaded.  Map awareness and unit counters are one thing I really need to understand better.

It’s just a lot more fun to play vs people than the computer.  I just want to get good enough to get my friends interested in the game instead of thinking the way I did.  They tell me they’ve tried everything and the Axis are overpowered.

I understand how long software development can take, putting in changes, making sure nothing else is broken, etc.  As soon as you start assigning new priorities to different units and territories, it can upset the balance of how the land AI is currently working.

I’m a software developer by employment, so I could probably look at a few things.  One thing I thought about was creating some unique personality modules by map, packaging them in the zip file with the map (same format as a jar) and using Spring to inject the code so it would be used by the engine.  This way, any map specific AI could be kept with that map.  IJN could have some logic to prevent the route finding from getting stuck dealing with the canal (it appears this is what happens) and even paying attention to the islands when threatened.

Or even some standard openings in the map xml similar to chess programs that have standard openings.

Ok…  my mistake, reinforcing after the battle is allowed.  Thinking back to the original game where you had to move everything in combat.  Not a bug…  IJN moving navy towards south america and getting stuck due to the canal being closed…  this is a bug with the Hard AI.

Thanks for the info; I’ve been loading the save games and then looking at the history round by round and then the individual steps by each power.  I like the car, sub, des build up by USA for a couple turns and then go hunting for income.  The islands have always seemed like a good source for increased income for USA.  I was looking at the buys and thought that a bb, car, des first round would be interesting followed by 3 sub, 2 des, 2 inf second round and then trn, inf and other support units on the third round and then moving out on round 4.  Who knows, I may download the source code, build it and check out the logs to see why the IJN Hard AI is getting stuck by South America.  It seems that the path finding is having trouble with the canal being closed and the intent is to get to the Atlantic to support Germany.  I would also like to see the AI take a few more chances when playing with dice.  Pathfinding with navy, transports and air seem to be the weak points of the AI as you have noticed.  Unlike the fixed board of chess, the movement possibilities are very complex as well as unit interactions.  I don’t have any experience with game AI however some sort of database of opening moves and preferences would seem like a valuable addition.  Nothing hardcoded in the game code for specific maps, just some rules in the map database to give the AI a starting point.

Hoping to get a live game and will do my best to keep focus for 5 turns as USA on the Pacific.  Positioning of the Russian stack is important and making sure it can support WR, CAU and Moscow to trade territories or punish a bad move is one of the things I have trouble with.  Also, need to be aware of when UK and USA can reinforce to prevent a German tank blitz.

Thanks for the info.  I want to find some new ideas because the friend that I’ve played AAA with is convinced the game is unplayable and I’ve never even played a game with the new map other than the AI.

After all, the worst that can happen is I make a bad move or don’t see something and get to play again once I can convince him the game is worth playing.

I loaded the save games up to where Britain is going to move.  At this point, I see 6 fighters and 1 bomber for Japan that can pretty much wipe the existing British navy out unless it move or there is some fighter support with the carrier.  I don’t see how a couple of fighters can get there so I don’t really have a good idea what to buy to prevent having to move the navy away.  I guess I’ll get the next save game to figure it out.

Yeah, my one turn thinking did me in again.  I saw where the fighters could land as the map was set, not as it would be after the Britain moves.  Now, the fighters are closer so they can land back in Germany so somethings gotta give.  Japan is in trouble and Germany keeps moving it’s tanks around in a vain attempt to position for the fatal attack on Moscow.

Interesting on the destroyer blocks and the factories.  Not sure what you are going to do however it will be fairly easy to rebuild the carrier and fighters so the navy will be pretty much untouchable at that point.  Losing 12 for Japan is close to terminal as it cannot support the factory with much and now must regroup to protect the main island.  Plus you can bring up 7 inf/arm/art for pushing Japan out of Asia.

One thing the AI really should do is keep fighters supporting the carriers when available.  Otherwise, it’s a poor excuse for a destroyer.  I was close in one game against the AI like this however I didn’t position my navy correctly and everything got smoked by the Axis air force.  I will check back in over the weekend as I will be out and am not going to load TripleA on my company laptop.

The destroyer block also forces Japan to move the navy somewhere else or it will get pounded by the pack of subs, destroyers, battleship and cruiser.  You are also able to reinforce immediately and the IPC advantage makes it a poor choice for Japan to get into a trading war with USA.

Thanks…  I haven’t been playing much as work has taken a large part of my life right now.  Basically, I don’t keep up the same strategy and as the allies, tend to not think of how the countries can defend each other.  I’ve been studying the save games you posted in the other thread and noticed that I get very distracted and don’t make the AI pay when it makes poor moves or don’t see a good landing spot for my fighters.  Didn’t notice they can get to Archangel from the sea zone the cruiser usually is in.  I also expect the AI to do things that I would do, like destroy the transport and carrier moved from India towards Africa by using the two fighters in a 3 move and then bringing the battleship and carrier from the East Indies for the fighters to land on with the remaining move.

I’m hoping to play my friend this weekend and try one of the all bomber buys just to see what happens.  He is convinced, as I was, that the game is hopelessly unbalanced and the allies have no way to win.  We played 1942.1 about 3 times and I never got to do much because as Germany I did the 6 tank push and got hit by some terrible dice early on.  Never have played Japan and most of the time, just lose focus and want to try something other than the infantry push.  As Russia, I will buy the 4 inf, 3 art the first round and try to hold West Russia with fighter support.  USA gives me a lot of trouble because I see so many things that I want to do and end up doing none of them.  I will forget to move pieces in the non-combat phase and then end up being a move behind.

I like the idea of 3 tanks per turn in India, single fighter and infantry for Britain as long as they can afford it.  Get 6 or 9 tanks in India and with infantry/artillery it starts to become a major distraction for the Axis.

There’s usually a fair amount of drinking involved and my strategic thinking turns to when the next shot of whiskey is going to happen…  ;-)

So, what happens if the defending units get more hits than the invading units are able to absorb?  Do the bombarding ships take hits?  Are they at risk?

Something I never really thought of…  If Russia were to turtle and buy a carrier and destroyer, land both fighters on the carrier and then on round 2 move it to British sea zone to protect the carrier that Britain bought…  It would set Russia back a turn however would it allow the Allies to get a navy one turn sooner?  Can Germany simply destroy it?  Does this move really have a chance of working?

Are those pieces simply in the set to take up space?  Why would they be included if they were never to be used?  I’ve always been concerned with keeping Russia alive as long as possible; what if Russia simply spends it’s income to ensure their allies have a better chance of survival and can invade faster?

As long as you are discussing hit points, etc.  One thing that has bothered me with the subs can’t hit air rule is that tanks and infantry really have no chance at a bomber and do bombers really have a 4/6 chance of destroying the one unit, a fighter, which was made to counter them?  Bombers hit ground units, subs hit water units…  Why the difference?  If infantry are a fodder unit, then truly make them that.  Make their offensive/defensive capabilities equal at a 1 and if you want them a 2, you buy artillery on offense and bunkers on defense.

The transport rule is one that really changed the game because without it, the Axis air force gets wiped out at a huge loss and Germany has a hard time replacing the fighters.  If a sub with a deck gun and torpedoes defends at 1, then how does a transport with no real armament have any defensive ability?  I understand that a transport represents a group of transports and support units however if you use this same line of thought, then a sub isn’t just a sub as it would also have support units.

The game would then turn into a real confusing one and the only way to win would be to get a Royal Fizzbin!

Thanks for the info and I grabbed the save games for TripleA.  The only problem is that I can’t use any of the things that I’ve seen.  ;-)  I just don’t really have a plan of attack, it’s a little like how I learned how to play chess: wait for an opening and then put the other player on the defensive.  I’ve done the Ukraine attack and it has always gone BADLY.  It either does almost no damage on the first roll and then gets hammered on the reply or it takes out Ukraine and leaves the tanks open to counter attack.

I’ve never really been able to get the large number of infantry for Russia that I saw in the 10 round game nor have I been able to put any pressure on Germany before Russia falls.  At that point, if  the Allies can’t take Germany fairly quickly, it would seem the IPC balance is pretty well in favor of the Axis.

I hadn’t really watched the Hard AI however after watching your replay of KJF, it pretty much abandons the navy and leave the carriers bare.  I can see how the path finding for the navy and fighters would be fairly difficult and weeding out the obvious (to us humans) moves not to make becomes an interesting logic problem.

I’m beginning to think that there is more to the game than I thought, my friend has told me that he can play the Axis and buy tanks each turn and overrun Russia pretty quickly.  With fighter help from Britain, bombing raids from America and landing chunks of infantry in Africa by America, I’m pretty sure that plan will fail.  Against the AI, it’s not the tanks that worry me as Russia, it’s the large stacks of infantry/artillery that are protecting them that is the biggest danger.

Still didn’t beat the Hard AI; I built a large navy and was very poorly moving pieces around when Japan started messing with USA and forcing a turn of units in defense.  Russia fell, got retaken by Russia and then fell two turns later.  I am not very effective at being able to place the units properly.  Germany became a monster, Britain started losing income and darn, darn, darny, darn.  I lost again.  At one point I had four bombers doing raids, lost three in one turn and the fourth on the next.  Did dumb things with the ten fighters I had sitting in Russia, hit two huge naval forces and got two hits out of ten, lost four and got one out of six and lost the rest.  I had to retreat to India and couldn’t get them home.  The AI then built Battleships and destroyers with the large amount of money it had as Germany.  At that point, the IPC balance was in favor of the Axis and it won the economic victory by taking India.

Need to study it a bit more as I believe that if I had the units positioned properly, it would have made a difference.  As it was, Britain and America still did basically nothing.  India had a large force and when I tried to pressure Japan, it just got smoked.

Just having a hard time getting pressure soon enough.

Grrrr…

Yeah, I’ve seen the Hard AI leave a bomber within range of a fighter and transports left unguarded however most of the time, the takes my fighter in a direction that I don’t want to go.  So, the transport might seem like an easy target however it keeps the fighter from performing a defensive action.

Realistically, I think the game needs to be played with 12 sided dice because, let’s face it, the infantry are so overpowered for the cost.  In fact, the artillery simply make them an even better unit with the increased firepower.  I haven’t even tried playing the Axis yet because, well I don’t want to feel really stupid getting beat by the computer.  ;-)  Removing the transport ability to fight back is really a stab at the Allies because only they need to have a lot of them to do anything.

I think I will look at the game as the Axis really must attack because if they don’t, they are toast.  The trick is to get them to attack where you want them to without giving too much up.  Now that I’ve looked at the map again and reread your small novel, SZ5 almost seems unfair…  Once the Allies are there, it really is going to be hard for the Axis to stop them especially if they have a large bomber force in America and use the fighters that Britain has been building each turn.  I can see 3 US and 1 UK carrier with a bunch of transports and infantry being a huge headache.  I just need to prevent loss by victory city.

And I really don’t like taking advantage of AI glitches or logic mistakes.  The computer can’t learn so once you take advantage of it, it’s like taking candy from a baby.  And I have bad teeth already.

The submarines seem like a unit that could be very useful however, like most people, I seem to never get the 1/3 chance when I need it.  Again, this seems like another attempt to balance the game in favor of the Axis because the Allies typically don’t need a naval stealth unit.

And I never really thought much about SZ61; I always considered that japan would go the old route instead of through America.  It’s closer and if Germany has Caucasus, really pressures Russia.

Thanks for the short novel.  Very interesting read.  Typically, I will quit or do something which enables the AI to win with the Victory City conditions.  I haven’t really looked at stockpiling a very large navy with a dozen transports menacing the European coast.

Thanks to all for this great analysis.  Very interesting as I have not analyzed the game to that extent nor played any of the Global varieties.  When I first got the game and set it up, it really hit me as a KJF game.  Britain and America both start with a fairly large navy in the Pacific.  The problem is that Japan has a larger navy and before an America/Britain punch can be applied, the British navy is pretty much gone.  The Axis are able to apply that 1-2 punch to the Allies where it is much more difficult to set up that 1-2-3 punch against the Axis.

I figure out the odds however I don’t like low luck; if I want to play a game of chess, then I’ll do that.  Like most people, I get worse than average rolls  ;-)  At least I remember them that way.

Interesting on saving one of the large IPC islands for America.  It seems to me that forcing Japan, which must use transports to move units to the Asian coast, to spend money on navy would be the most effective way of winning as the Allies.  Germany has no need to spend a dime on the navy and simply needs to protect it’s capital and take territory away from Russia.

Thanks for the information.  I bought two of these thinking it would be more fun than the first 1942 game.  I played it a couple of times and found out that the Allies had a big advantage.  My friend, whom I have played all of the Axis and Allies games with, played with his son during the Christmas break and told me that this game was so imbalanced that the Allies had no chance at all.  I had read about how it was easy to counter the all tank build, etc.  The one thing that I have found from playing the game is that one Ukraine is stacked, Russia is in big trouble.  I kept thinking that Britain and America could put some pressure on Japan and yet it is very difficult to do so because Germany and Japan will decimate the British navy.  Even if you try to put pressure on Japan, they can simply buy bombers, fighters and inf/art to pressure Russia.

yeah, American can build carriers and transports to land units on Europe.  the problem is that by that time, Germany and Japan are both monsters.  With the income the Axis have, they can sacrifice their air force to destroy the navy and have it all built back by the time the Allies have recovered.

Or am I missing something?

I agree to a point; the carrier really can’t get away and without the fighters, it’s a sitting duck…  The game seems to be setup wrong in my opinion.  Germany and Japan can decimate the British navy without much fear of loss…

In the 8+ games that I’ve tried it, only once did I take the East Indies.  Every other time, it was a total loss for Britain and Japan had only a single hit on the battleship in two rounds of combat.  Hard to not get frustrated by those odds.  if the battle doesn’t go well for the Allies, it’s hard to recover.  You lose 2 transports and 4 infantry as well.

This is where I get frustrated with the AI; my rolls will hit the 1/16 bad followed by the computer 1/16 good.  Time after time after time after time.  Again, the game shouldn’t be decided by rolls of the dice.

Just wondering what happened to my post that asked if the game was out of balance?

Didn’t mean to step on any toes…

Ok…  I see it moved to the software forum.

Still, have the same problem with the game; if the Allies get less than average rolls, game over…  Not fun…

Same issue as the original game…  shuck/shuck…  has to be more than just transports and infantry.  Or am I just expecting too much?

Offensive 1 sub, 1 car, 2 fig, 2 cru vs 1 bb, 1 car, 2 fig and 8 of 9 times lost everything with only a single hit in 2 turns.  When that happens, the Allies are screwed.  So this means that it isn’t a valid strategy because when it goes wrong for the Allies, it’s very bad.

I suppose I should just keep throwing the dice hoping for the best.  Nope.  Not the way I throw them…  ;-)

I need help…  The Hard AI just destroys me.  Russia loses the start.  Britain gets wiped out.  I see no fun in this game at all.  The Allies lose so much on the first roll that it is almost unfair.

Help me understand the game…  It has to be more than just rolls of the dice.   if it isn’t, then I want my money back…

Or I’m just terrible at rolling the dice…

Don’t think it is dice; 2 fig, 1 car, 1 bb vs 1 cru, 1 car, 1 fig is a total loss for Britain. The board seems to be set wrong.  Germany and Japan can take out Britain’s navy without much worry.  Like the original game where we came up with house rules of no first Russian attack, two hit battleship, bombers able to drop infantry.  The game just seems, in my opinion, to be totally unbalanced unless the Allies get a good starting roll.

I had a chance to win vs the Hard AI; I took 11 away from Japan and got stupid.  After that, the 7 bombers Japan built destroyed my navy and set the Allies back three turns.  Game over because of my own stupidity.  Since then, I have not even come close to taking the islands away.  In fact, Britain loses 2 cru, 2 fig, 2 car, 2 trn, 2 inf and a sub to zero for Japan.  That’s game over three times in a row…