Bidding for the Machine, TripleA HardAI

Redrum has been making some definite progress with the TripleAI.
It’s working pretty well in 1942.2

The latest pre-releases show a much stronger computer player, especially with aircraft and on the water. It’s not as good as an expert human player, but it puts up a pretty stiff fight. The next stable should show a marked improvement, so now might be a fun time to start exploring ways to make the AI more challenging.
:-D

For an enjoyable experience vs the AI, give the Machine a “leg-up” in the form of a bid or an AI advantage.

Under the “game options” tab you can either give each Nation a specific amount of money to spend (bid), or you can give the computer extra money each round (on a repeating basis) by selecting that option before the game starts. Select the check box “AI bonus income flat rate” or “AI bonus income percentage” and then enter a value.

For AI bonus income flat rate, I find that “5, 10 and 15 ipcs” work well for a “normal, hard, very hard” playscale.

For AI bonus income percentage, I like 10%, 25%, 33% to achieve a similar “normal, hard, very hard” playscale.

For the manual Bids at the beginning of play there is a lot of room for variety (the computer does weird stuff currently with its bid logic, and often makes silly buys so it is better to do this manually).

I’ve tried the “Bomber Bonanza” Bid, where each AI nation receives an extra bomber outright. (12 ipcs to each)
Also the “Battleship Bonanza” Bid, where each AI nation gets 1 extra battleship (20 ipcs to each).
And the “Production Blitz” Bid, where each AI nations gets 2 extra factories. (30 ipcs each).

The AI seems to use bombers quite effectively in combat, especially in positioning their large bomber stacks for all-air strikes against fleets. They don’t currently engage in SBR, but the machine uses aircraft well, so the Bomber bid is pretty enjoyable

Likewise, when the AI is given an extra Battleship, it tends to focus a bit more on naval expansion, making bolder opening attacks on the water. This is also a fun excuse to give the Russians a battleship if you’re playing against HardAI Allies haha!

The production bid, allows for the AI to mobilize their units in more expedient and interesting ways, providing stronger challenges during the endgame especially.

AI Japan still guns for Alaska with a vengeance haha. Their unrelenting determination to launch campaigns against North America is puzzling, and something I’ve mentioned to redrum, but for some reason the AI just loves to dump their resources into this region. I admit to being somewhat partial to this attack plan from Japan, despite being clearly asinine and doomed to failure when compared to an India/Moscow crush. I find that it can fun to play against as the Americans, as it definitely stalls the USA’s plans on Europe, and requires a fairly massive commitment for at least 2 rounds to dissuade the Japanese from their dreams of an Alaskan empire. But yeah, its pretty silly.

It would be interesting to see if HardAI Japan pursued this strategy after the center is secure, instead of before the center is taken, because then it might actually bear fruit. As it stands, I haven’t seen AI Japan take the center very often. Only in games where the USA stacks ground in W. Canada to lock them off Alaska, at which point they tend to adopt a more normal play style with an India focus. HardAI Japan is much better now about managing their aircraft though, not leaving their carriers undefended, and using their bombers more effectively for air-sweeps vs fleets. I expect it will improve in time.

Basically if the AI has to funnel troops across the water they run into kinks. This is more evident with Allies than Axis, where USA for example will funnel crazy numbers of infantry into Africa, and lots of curious transport re-directs. The transport logic is somewhat better lately, with Allies working harder to keep their transports out of bomber range, though I still see hiccups. Surprisingly this mass transport type of strategy can be rather difficult to face down in the endgame, once the 20 stacks of US ground start pushing their way across towards the middle east. Or dropping sneaky D-Day invasions from sz 23 (rather than across the channel or out of E. Canada like you’d expect.) This has caught me off guard more than once, but in general yeah, the machine plays it rather differently than most humans I know ;)

The extra loot does seem to help though. The AI is more likely to expand production when they have extra cash to throw around, and I’m often impressed with how quickly they can amass bomber armadas. This unit, the bomber seems to be the best thing the HardAI has going for it right now. I’ll be interested to see how things shake down, if the AI ever starts using them to strat bomb enemy factories.
:-D

Despite its obvious flaws when stacked up against a human opponent, playing against the Machine can be a lot of fun, especially in exploring deep endgame scenarios. Where most humans would throw in the towel, the AI will just keep at it endlessly, giving an opportunity to explore builds or strategies post Moscow collapse that you wouldn’t otherwise usually get to see. Invasion USA type stuff etc, or Russian liberation plans.

But yeah, I find it performs much better with the income bonus. 10-25% feels about right for Axis, 25-33% for Allies.
The extra income seems to compensate for AI goofs, but AI Germany is fairly strong with their advantage OOB, so I’d go higher for Allies on balance.

Here’s a fun set up, that includes a Russian bomber.

1 Extra bomber at Moscow (bid), plus 5 ipcs “flat rate income bonus” to each of the Allies (AI advantage):
+5 to Russia, +5 to UK, and +5 to USA, repeating each round.

The bomber gives AI Russia some much needed extra punch, and the +5 per round helps them to maintain in the ground contest with Germany (the AI is much more likely to trade units than most humans, so most of that bonus ends up in combat, which keeps things lively.)

The + 10 ipc to the Western Allies (5 to UK, and 5 to USA) seems to appear mostly in the Air, but sometimes they use it to expand their fleets and transport capacity, or another factory.

On the whole it seems to give the Allies a pretty fun starting position. The AI usually still suffers a few strategic blunders here and there, but they seem to do a lot better on average, and play it a bit more aggressive than they do OOB.

Set ups like this one could be modified, to feature other pre-placement Bid units, or different flat rate or percentage based income bonuses for the AI nations. I think it might be fun to design some scenarios along these lines. Using a fairly normal bid amount (at say 12 ipcs), but combined with the income bonuses, to give the AI a better chance to perform, until it’s logic matches the human’s more closely.

Russian Bomber Bid +5 flat rate income bonus to Russia, UK, USA.tsvg

Here’s another fun set up for the Russians: The Vologda expansion!

Russian AI gets 1 extra factory, 2 tanks and 1 infantry behind the Urals. (A set bid of 30 ipcs)
+5 flat rate recurring income bonus to each of the Allies.

The extra tanks give Zhukov more to work with, whether to guard the rear in Asia, or to launch forward against G. The +5 to base income helps the Soviets to maintain, and perhaps to make use of their new production center eventually, which is here mainly as a draw for Axis and an achille’s heel. It’s like an interior Karelia, but one that Axis can’t immediately steal ;)

The income bonus to the Western Allies, allows them to overcome some of their naval goofs, to present a stronger threat over time.

Production expansion games like these might be fun in other areas of the gameboard (like for AI USA), but just thought I’d offer one for the Russians to kick it off. Vologda always struck me as a wasted space on this board, totally empty of units. I always thought it might have been more entertaining and significant if it housed a starting factory, which also gives Russia just a bit more each into the East. Using the AI Bid concept, you could try some fun AI redesigns, using the same essential 1942.2 framework but with just a twist here and there.

Russian Vologda expansion Bid +5 flat rate income bonuse to Allies.tsvg