AI Behaviour

AI Capabilities

For the most part, the AI plays by the exact same rules as the player. Any exceptions to this rule are done to make it possible for the AI to have a chance to compete against a human, especially in the areas of intuition and planning. For example, the planning necessary to conduct a successful amphibious invasion is extraordinarily complex, thus it was necessary to not have range limitations on AI navies. Similarly, since the AI is certain to be incapable of anticipating tactical movements and maneuvers, the ability to see all troops is a necessary step to level the playing field. This is a way of ensuring to keep the player "honest": e.g. any unescorted transports are sure to be attacked as a result, in addition to single HQ units sure to being bombed.

Strengths

General Tactics: No fog of war: able to see all units
Navy: All ships have an unlimited range
Air force: The range of aircraft are based on any allied controlled airport; as opposed to being a function of the airport that aircraft is currently based in.
Army: Forces will regain organization as they move (for the player units lose organization while moving)

Weaknesses

General Tactics: Only uses the intelligence system for tech team and production delays (DD & ARMA only)
General Tactics: Very poor at executing or defending against encirclements
General Tactics: Does not give sufficient priority to protecting supply lines
General Tactics: Poor execution of amphibious landings
General Tactics: Does not co-ordinate unit arrival for offensives; thus small groups of units arrive over time, making AI extremely vulnerable to counter-attacks
General Tactics: After losing a province, the AI will continue to trickle in units so long as it still controls the province, potentially creating a verdun effect
General Tactics: Does not use nuclear weapons, build reactors, nor respond to their use appropriately ( Further Reading )
Air Force: Rebases most aircraft immediately after a game is loaded
Air Force: Does not properly defend bombers
Air Force: Uses fighters only for perimeter defense. Does not use fighters in response to enemy bombing of land units, navies, or strategic attacks.
Navy: Does not break away from losing naval engagements.
Economy: Imperfect trading decisions
Production: Does not properly utilize serial runs of units
Production: Does not always build most effective units

AI Houserules

Exploiting AI weaknesses is known as being gamey or unfair to the AI. For this reason, some players use "house rules" to ensure better gameplay balance and challenge:

Save/Reload: No matter how badly a battle unfolds, refrain from going back to a saved game.
Slow Down: Since the AI adjusts slowly to deep penetrations, have a "cooling off" period of a few days for your units.
No Pause: do not use the pause button during battle, do not slow down time during battle: allow yourself to have a slow response time to changing conditions, to give the AI a chance
No Spamming: No massive infantry spamming, no massive CAS death-star, no cruizer-zerg spamming, no factory spamming
Acceptall cheat: Often, the AI won't accept a peace deal that it truly should. Thus, use this cheat to save the AI from its own stupidity, only when not accepting peace mean certain and quick annexation.
Unit diversity: make an army with a diversity of units, with brigades.
Military Control: do not take military control of allies.
Aircraft: do not use ground attack missions
Historical: stick to historical events at least until 1939, if not until 1941.
Research: do not research doctrines until units are at war, and no doctrine switching.

AI File Documentation

the file ../ai/ai_file_doc.txt lists some very basic information on the contents of the .ai files used by the game.

switch = [yes/no]: The default value is yes. If set to no, the AI will not automatically be changed to an AI file created for specific behavior that may be appropriate to the current game year. Changing the AI can be event scripted, which may make this command useful under appropriate conditions. Starting with Doomsday, ai_switches are no longer used, the AI_XXX.ai event files are the only ones used now.

flags = { }: described as "Inter-Agent distribution variables". These appear to be variables that multiple AI files are aware of when they are set.

claim_acceptance = [percentage value]: Modifies the chance that the country for which the AI is being defined will accept a "demand claim" diplomatic action.

demand_claims = { [country tag list] }: Countries that the AI will attempt to demand claims of if they control any core provinces.

liberate = { [country tag list] }: countries that will be liberated as puppets if the AI controls its territory.

AI Types

Basically, there are several different AI definitions.

Involved with the Placement of Ground Troops
- Garrison AI
- Invasion AI
- Front AI
Involved with Naval and Air Forces
- Naval AI
- Air AI
Involved with the non-tactical portion of the game
- Construction AI
- Diplomacy AI

Garrison AI

Invasion AI

The Invasion AI is in charge of invading beaches. It pulls troops from the Garrison AI always, *never* the Front AI. The invasion AI takes into account troops currently on the beach when it invades.

Front AI

When troops are in a province with an enemy adjacent, these troops become part of the Front AI and are used to defend the border against the enemy.

Don't confuse front ratio with combat odds. Combat Odds are calculated using forces from all hexes near the target hex. Front Ratio is what the AI tries to strive on a hex per hex basis against his opponent.

When the AI shuffles his troops around a lot is because with a 4.0 ratio, every hex on his front is SCREAMING for more troops so he keeps shuffling everything. With a 1.0 or 1.2 range he settles down and digs in. Results have been VERY promising and has made it harder on the betas to advance against the enemy.

Front Distribution

Defensive: AI tries to keep an even line but will place heavier concentrations where he sees VP areas and bases

Offensive: The AI will mass troops in mainly pocketed areas where the enemy is week to prepare for attacks. Careful AI has a tendency to leave holes in his line

Reactive: AI will shift his forces to where the enemy is mainly concentrated at. If you use this in conjunction with the max front ratio the results are pretty decent for shoving the enemy aside.

OP_Defensive: Just like Defensive but the AI will look at how many retreat routes he has from the hex and will put less troops into it based on the retreat routes.

Even: Keeps a solid line front and tries to make each hex have equal amount of divisions

Front Odds Calculations

In HoI2 v1.2, the AI now evaluates the penalties of different terrains and weather automatically, so all the parameters are set to 1.0. This way, one does not have to worry about the parameters being inappropriate in different weather conditions:

strength = 1.0 organisation = 1.0 soft_attack = 1.0 hard_attack = 1.0 ground_defense = 1.0 dig_in = 1.0 # Against defender frozen_attack = 1.0 snow_attack = 1.0 blizzard_attack = 1.0 storm_attack = 1.0 muddy_attack = 1.0 jungle_attack = 1.0 mountain_attack = 1.0 swamp_attack = 1.0 forest_attack = 1.0 hill_attack = 1.0 urban_attack = 1.0 river = 1.0

The modder can change any of these variables, and they will still work, however, it is not recommended, since the AI reads straight from the modifier files.

Expeditionary Forces

HOI2 v1.0 - 1.3: The AI doesn't give expeditionary forces to human countries, they only give to other AI countries. In addition, expeditionary forces can only go to the country that controls the front, which is normally the largest power on that front.

HOI2DD & ARMA: The AI regularly provides expeditionary forces to human controlled nations, much to the dismay of most players! :)

Naval AI

Air AI

Construction AI

Diplomacy AI

Please note that the Diplomatic AI is unable to annex a country if the money is under zero.

Lack of money seems to sleep the diplomatic AI, which could be problematic for proper triggering of the AI.

For example, Germany lacking money would be unable to annex Poland (even if it has been fully conquered) hence the next AI couldn't trigger as one of the condition for triggering is not exists = POL.

In that case, since Poland has not been annexed, the next AI won't trigger