[HOI3] What can I "Safely" let the AI Control?

[Stuie]

Trying to wrap my head around this game. One thing I always hated in HOI2 were all the piddly little trade deals I was constantly being asked to manage. Is it safe to turn over trade to the AI? How about diplomacy in general?

How about Politics? And Intelligence?

I guess I'd like to focus on Production and Technology as well as controlling my armed forces, but I don't want to get screwed by the AI mis-managing the other areas.

Thoughts?

[The Dutch Devil]

I always put trade under AI control, as you said I get sick off all the trade deals, and for all the games I played with the AI on trading it never screwed up. Even though trading goes well I wouldn't want to put the AI on diplomacy mainly because it will make decisions which are probably not the decisions you want.

Politics is a good one to put under AI control, since it will automatically put the best ministers in control and it will choose the best policies. Intelligence on the other hand is more sensitive and it might be better to keep it under control, mainly because this is one if the parts which is linked to what you're planning to achieve.

And keeping production / technology under your control is also advisable, for the same reason as that you would want to keep control over diplomacy and intelligence. Although you might want to experiment with putting sliders under AI control. And I'd also keep your army under control, mainly because the AI will sometimes do stupid things which could cost a corps (been there done that ).

[Soul Firez]

I always put trade under AI control, as you said I get sick off all the trade deals, and for all the games I played with the AI on trading it never screwed up. Even though trading goes well I wouldn't want to put the AI on diplomacy mainly because it will make decisions which are probably not the decisions you want.

Politics is a good one to put under AI control, since it will automatically put the best ministers in control and it will choose the best policies. Intelligence on the other hand is more sensitive and it might be better to keep it under control, mainly because this is one if the parts which is linked to what you're planning to achieve.

And keeping production / technology under your control is also advisable, for the same reason as that you would want to keep control over diplomacy and intelligence. Although you might want to experiment with putting sliders under AI control. And I'd also keep your army under control, mainly because the AI will sometimes do stupid things which could cost a corps (been there done that ).

Solid advice there the AI is quite good at controlling all the things he listed and he is dead on with keeping production tech and army and intel in your own control as it is in these fields that you will achieve the objectives you want to . plus rep from me for good advice

[HMS Empire Broadsword]

Can I let the AI have control of my Divisions and Corps in a Campaign, If I reatin control of their general objectives, and the movements of Armies and Army Groups? Also over how many of the smallest regions should I spread out an Army of 9-12 Divisions to be most effective in attack?

[(s)AINT]

Technology.... Army Groups with your navy and Airforce (the AI does a good job with the airforce and navy, especially strategic bombing and convoy raiding)


That is pretty much about it... If you let the AI control your army it is pretty chaotic and you usually loose more divisions than you would if you were micromanaging them.

[Soul Firez]

Dont let the AI run your armies (unless you have fronts every where and even then pause and control them yourself) the AI is good at many things but the idea of encircling the enemy is not one of them, it will throw a full frontal pure disaster(or proper use of airforce)

I wouldnt put tech in its hands either if you have a specific plan but it can certainly handle a well rounded tech progress but again if your plans require specific advantages control this yourself.

[The Dutch Devil]

Technology.... Army Groups with your navy and Airforce (the AI does a good job with the airforce and navy, especially strategic bombing and convoy raiding)


That is pretty much about it... If you let the AI control your army it is pretty chaotic and you usually loose more divisions than you would if you were micromanaging them.

Hmm well I found that letting the AI manage technology is not that good, especially if you want to focus on a set of techs instead of advancing everywhere about equally, which is what the AI will do.

About giving the AI control of your armies, you could try it and it will not give you above average results. Expect it to make some rather big mistakes, and you might lose a div. or 2 in the process.
Giving the AI control over your navy and airforce HQ might be more profitably, saving you micromanaging. But keep in mind that the AI will make stupid decisions.

[Town Watch]

air force or navy to the A.I. will probably result in disaster, A.I. overstacks air units which gets them all massacred due to penalties, same with CAGs which might result in carriers being easily sunk.

I think what might yield acceptable results would be to assign strong armies to A.I. control and give specific objectives, but then again its pretty moot because with such precise objectives you could just as well be completely managing your armies.

For USSR if you get into a two-front war, its still in my opinion better choice just leave your Pacific theater troops standing on the border then leave them under A.I. Works much better in single player. I would be doubtful of A.I.'s ability to prosecute an island hopping campaign in the Pacific for USA either.

[devilbean]

I think the AI sucks at just about everything, at least in the sense that you should'nt expect it to perform brilliantly. That doesn't mean you can't automate things, though...

Trade : Can be safely automated, but as far as I'm concerned the choice is between automating it and ignoring it altogether. With most countries you can set up a few trades manually to fix your resource deficits and then ignore everything else. Money isn't as useful as it was in HoI2 so you usually don't have to bother about trading out your excess resources for money. Just ignore the trade requests once your resource needs have been fulfilled and start stockpiling.

Diplomacy : In most cases leadership is better spent on research than on diplomacy. Don't automate it if you want to avoid wasting leadership on influencing far-away countries that you don't really need in your alliance.

Intelligence : Never automated it, don't know how the AI performs here. But it's pretty easy to manage it yourself, simply set high priority to all majors (if you're a major, of course, otherwise intel is best ignored), permanently assign 1-2 leadership to it (lock the slider and forget it), and set all spy missions to counterintelligence. There is no significant benefit to using 'support our party' and other such missions unless you are pursuing a very specific strategy.

Technology : Do not automate. The AI does not focus efficiently on what you actually need.

Politics : Can safely be automated, but doesn't require much micromanagement either should you choose to do it yourself. All you have to do is pick the most efficient laws and the ministers that best suit your needs. I check the politics screen once a year for new ministers and it's enough. You'll get warnings about laws when new ones can be enacted.

Production : Do not automate. The AI builds useless junk and sub-optimal divisions.

Battle AI : Definitely not great, but good enough to be worthy of automation in some situations. When fighting multi-front wars, you have to accept the fact that you can't micromanage everything. Give automated AI's your strongest armies to minimize the risk of disaster. Even with Semper Fi and the new separate stances for air and naval forces, I've seen a theatre AI ruin my Tac bomber force for no reason when on the supposedly defensive stance, so I would advise against trusting the AI with valuable assets such as your air force, your navy, and your elite armor divisions. The AI will do things like pulling disproportionate amounts of divisions from the front lines to attack lone partisan units and wasting armor divisions in city fighting when it could go around, so you're better off giving it large infantry only armies. Given that you plan for these deficiencies however, the theatre AI is quite capable and will lift a considerable burden of micromanagement from the player. Like I said, just don't expect it to do intelligent things.

[HMS Empire Broadsword]

Ok thanks chaps that has cleared things up somehway. Basically don't let the AI control your Forces.

[Poach]

I let the AI control my armies for general combat. I simply survey and give general orders. If I see something specific I take over to achieve that (eg, effect an encirclement) and I usually manage small, complicated operations by myself (eg, amphibious invasions, parachute landings, dangerous operations...)

[Frederich Barbarossa]

believe it or not technology is handled very well by the AI and it is balanced. By the start of the war my main goal is to have the best air force and army, and it does all that basically while not neglecting other fields I would usually neglect in manual control..


I personally love controlling production because I know what to do in it in and out. By the start of the war I have a million men easy.

[Soul Firez]

believe it or not technology is handled very well by the AI and it is balanced. By the start of the war my main goal is to have the best air force and army, and it does all that basically while not neglecting other fields I would usually neglect in manual control..


I personally love controlling production because I know what to do in it in and out. By the start of the war I have a million men easy.

Its tech is balanced yes but is that really what you want?? i seldom to never use militia and as such i find it wasted resources to research upgrades for a unit i dont use(hey i could be wrong militia may have great uses i am missing i just dont see them ) but as you have probably figured out i dont play historicly i play alternatively eg the last time i played japan i tailoured my research to get the bomb and in 1944 i nuked america(washington new york to seee if they would surrender lol)