ETW AI Economy

[Koudelka]

I've been wondering about this for a long time.. even in MTW2.

How do the enemy provinces field such large armies that are just financially impossible for them?

Playing Great Britian right now, and i own all of Europe and most of Asia. Yet here is Poland-Lithuania with about 4-5 provinces, and holding 6-7 full stacks of men.

Love the game.. but this crazy shit just pisses me off knowing the AI can cheat so badly.

Even those small nations that hold 1 province, yet can afford an entire full stack of men guarding it, and they're not bankrupt at all but even more so theyre deep in money. I'm making 70k+ a turn, not including expenses, and not even I can field the massive armies like Poland is right now.

Does the AI actually cheat that badly? Or what?

 

[Spike]

It could be that by the time you took over Europe and Asia (which I impressed with not due to the accomplisment in itself but to the fact that your saves have not become corrupted yet) the AI has had a butt ton of time to save up money. Now they have can have gigantor armies running wild and the funds to bleed each turn and still support them. Not to mention the longer you have a region the more it grows and the more tax revenue you get. I have several regions among my oldest that generate more income than the most recent 15 or so I have captured.

And if you really are making 70k+ a turn in profit whats the issue? An army can hold a max of what, 20-24 units? At an average of 250 upkeep gold per unit that 70k will buy you 280 units, or 11.6 full field armies on top of whatever you have all-ready. Build up, crush them, and once they are gone fire all your troops.

 

[Koudelka]

It could be that by the time you took over Europe and Asia (which I impressed with not due to the accomplisment in itself but to the fact that your saves have not become corrupted yet) the AI has had a butt ton of time to save up money. Now they have can have gigantor armies running wild and the funds to bleed each turn and still support them. Not to mention the longer you have a region the more it grows and the more tax revenue you get. I have several regions among my oldest that generate more income than the most recent 15 or so I have captured.

And if you really are making 70k+ a turn in profit whats the issue? An army can hold a max of what, 20-24 units? At an average of 250 upkeep gold per unit that 70k will buy you 280 units, or 11.6 full field armies on top of whatever you have all-ready. Build up, crush them, and once they are gone fire all your troops.

on VH/VH, most of the major nations are all crushed by now, i'm at around year 1744 i think. But i still like to keep a half or 3/4 stack in major cities on the edges of my provinces. Plus, i have the dominant navy right now too all over, keeping my trade routes safe, blocking invasions at chokepoints, etc.

It all adds up, right now with 4 full stacks of men running around wild taking cities and every city (that needs to be) adequately defended, i'm still pulling in close to 16k profit each turn. I'm at war with everyone in asia except russia basically.

I dont really have a problem clearing them out, i just find it odd how the enemy ALWAYS has such large armies that defy the game mechanics.

 

[JoshGuru7]

I haven't ever noticed an army that was clearly impossible but you're right in that on Very Hard the computer does get bonuses (tech, fiscal, battle morale) in addition to any increases in AI strategy which seem to be mainly negligible.

One of the things I dislike about all of these games (Civ, Anno, Total War) in that the strategy to play against the computer is different from the strategy to play against a human opponent. I'd rather play against a really devious opponent from the same starting line then an incompetent one who can research far more quickly. That's a limitation of the genre in general right now, especially as games grow more complicated.

 

[Ichigo]

Play Galactic Civilizations II. As far as I know, increase in difficulty settings only ramps up AI without "cheating" advantages. It tries to beat you under the same game conditions.

So no, not really a limitation of the genre unless you only ever consider big budgeted titles.

 

[datalink7]

This is why I don't play on VH/VH. The AI just gets cheating bonuses, not any better, so the game just becomes more of a "chore" IMO. I still have fun on H/H but of course it is too easy. They really need to get a good team in there to do the AI.

 

[Occam11]

Pretty simple to clear up actually. Just turtle inside your country for the first 10 or so turns instead of rapidly expanding and you'll be surprised at how competent the AI is.

 

[Spike]

on VH/VH, most of the major nations are all crushed by now, i'm at around year 1744 i think. But i still like to keep a half or 3/4 stack in major cities on the edges of my provinces. Plus, i have the dominant navy right now too all over, keeping my trade routes safe, blocking invasions at chokepoints, etc.

It all adds up, right now with 4 full stacks of men running around wild taking cities and every city (that needs to be) adequately defended, i'm still pulling in close to 16k profit each turn. I'm at war with everyone in asia except russia basically.

I dont really have a problem clearing them out, i just find it odd how the enemy ALWAYS has such large armies that defy the game mechanics.

Ah, gotcha, didn't quite understand what you had coming in profit wise. As for the bonuses to PC players I did not know they got those... I think I'm only playing at Hard for both right now, maybe I should turn it up?

Navies are the area I cut back. Right now outside of my massive trade fleets I only have one offensive/defensive navy with maybe 10 2nd rate ships of the line. I'm allies with all the other major naval powers and trade with most of the minor ones so I'm not worried. I could also have a fleet built within a few turns if need be. At 400-800ish per ship for upkeep per turn I try and have as few as possible at any one time. Heck, since I'm at peace with so many people I have less than 20 units of troops in all of the america's and india combined. I might have ~40 in Europe with most of those on my last front.

 

[brblx]

I haven't ever noticed an army that was clearly impossible

two full stack armies off of one single province? that seems pretty impossible to me.

this is one of the many reasons i stopped playing this game. the next TW game might as well have monster closets and unending scripted enemy spawns...

 

[katank]

Well, they have a massive king's purse bonus every turn. This allows for some incredible amount of troops on higher diff levels.

Dunno if it's been patched but this was esp. blatant w/ Native American factions where their units have incredibly cheap upkeep. Their amazing lancers cost considerably less than even European militia units. Cheap upkeep + free money from whatever deity = Inuits being able to field something like 4-6 full stacks of high quality troops off of a tiny patch of ice.

 

[TehMac]

This is why I don't play on VH/VH. The AI just gets cheating bonuses, not any better, so the game just becomes more of a "chore" IMO. I still have fun on H/H but of course it is too easy. They really need to get a good team in there to do the AI.

They need to hire American engineers. In Silicon Valley, it's common knowledge European Engineers are highly undesirable compared to American Engineers. For good reasons.

It's a shame American game designers have the imagination of a tree stump.