First post here - apologies if this has been discussed and I missed it. I've been playing COW for a while now and had become accustomed to the AI that functioned as not much more than traffic cones on the map. Apart from the ROW advantage that you could sometimes get, they could always be relied upon to sit quietly while you bypassed them and came back later to clean things up. I recently started a new game after finishing up a long one, and I was surprised to find that that AI is far different now.
I am playing as Germany and opened up by attacking Poland and the Low Countries as usual, and within a day or so, almost all the AI countries hit me with a trade embargo. Then, much to my irritation, they began declaring war on me one by one. Eventually I had every nearly every AI country on the map declare war on me, and it became a complete nuisance. Don't get me wrong, I think having smarter and more aggressive AI is a good thing, but this is just silly. Sweden and Finland just kept sending individual units over in transports all day every day, and with just a couple of naval bombers I was able to slaughter them. Other countries such as the Balkan states did the same thing overland which left me no option other than to spend time and resources wiping them out. What took the cake was the French player became inactive, and despite being under heavy attack from Spain, the AI player took over and immediately declared war on me and began sending piecemeal units to their death against my fortified positions. Why attack a neighbor who has been peaceful all game rather than defend yourself from invasion?
I'm not sure what the goal here is other than to make the AI an annoyance that you can't ignore, but it seems that with a few tweaks, some real improvements could have been made. For instance, using capital ships and subs to escort transports rather than sailing off in different directions and ensuring that the troops have no protection. Or stacking units to make a larger attack rather than sending them one at a time where they are not a threat. And most importantly, somewhat rational decisions about declaring war. Why the heck is someone like Finland attacking a clearly superior enemy when I haven't come anywhere near their territory and don't plan to?
Anyway, just venting as it's getting tiresome having to constantly divert forces from fighting against human players to deal with the latest Bulgarian suicide mission against my back lines...
I am playing as Germany and opened up by attacking Poland and the Low Countries as usual, and within a day or so, almost all the AI countries hit me with a trade embargo. Then, much to my irritation, they began declaring war on me one by one. Eventually I had every nearly every AI country on the map declare war on me, and it became a complete nuisance. Don't get me wrong, I think having smarter and more aggressive AI is a good thing, but this is just silly. Sweden and Finland just kept sending individual units over in transports all day every day, and with just a couple of naval bombers I was able to slaughter them. Other countries such as the Balkan states did the same thing overland which left me no option other than to spend time and resources wiping them out. What took the cake was the French player became inactive, and despite being under heavy attack from Spain, the AI player took over and immediately declared war on me and began sending piecemeal units to their death against my fortified positions. Why attack a neighbor who has been peaceful all game rather than defend yourself from invasion?
I'm not sure what the goal here is other than to make the AI an annoyance that you can't ignore, but it seems that with a few tweaks, some real improvements could have been made. For instance, using capital ships and subs to escort transports rather than sailing off in different directions and ensuring that the troops have no protection. Or stacking units to make a larger attack rather than sending them one at a time where they are not a threat. And most importantly, somewhat rational decisions about declaring war. Why the heck is someone like Finland attacking a clearly superior enemy when I haven't come anywhere near their territory and don't plan to?
Anyway, just venting as it's getting tiresome having to constantly divert forces from fighting against human players to deal with the latest Bulgarian suicide mission against my back lines...
