Getting the AI to use FOs well

[manchildstein (ii)]

there has been at least a bit of talk about the AI being incompetent in handling FOs.

i think that a scenario designer can give the AI FO a fighting chance by keeping at least a couple of things in mind:

1) the response time of a given FO's module type

2) LOS

by giving an AI-controlled FO both good LOS and rapid-response modules, the human player will be more likely to come under the fire of a barrage...

for me, one case in point was the jaegermeister scenario. i played that one several times as soviets against the ai and was hit by offboard artillery - and i think it was (rapid-response) mortars - perhaps 50% of the time. i considered this to be 'good' ... given the nature of that scenario (soviet prep bombardment) and the mapboard (medium-small), it could be that the times the AI didn't use their FO, that the FO had been broken or eliminated by my own preliminary barrages...

in my experience, if you give an AI FO good LOS to the human setup zones, a first-turn barrage is not uncommon.

from what i've seen of TRPs, it appears to me that LOS and rapid-response are more important.

just recently i've been testing a scenario against the ai, and although i was not 'hit' on turn 1, i was hit later in the scenario, in two separate places, on two different turns, by two different AI FOs; and there were only 2 AI FOs in the scenario. i attribute this to the rapid response of the ai artillery modules - they were 120mm mortars.

so from what i've seen you have:

rapid response + no los at start: good chance the AI will use the FOs when the FOs actually gain LOS

rapid response + LOS at start: expect a turn-1 barrage

slow response + LOS at start: expect a turn-1 barrage

slow response + no LOS at start: AI might never use this artillery

i would be interested in hearing of methods scenario designers use in getting the AI-controlled FOs to unleash their fury upon the virtual soldiers of the human player...

because when playing the AI, there is nothing like a dangerous enemy artillery barrage to spice things up...