Pacific War - Victory Conditions and AI cheating

[Didz]

Victory!....well according to me anyway.

I finally finished my first ever complete run through Operation Z at about 2am this morning. (I know I'm knackered now)

The Chinese front held stubbornly and eventually the Japanese front completely collapsed and a were chased all the way back to the coast and pretty much destroyed. I captured all the coastal ports and even launched a seaborne assault to liberate Taiwan.

In Burma the British and Indian army, supported by Stillwells' Chinese and troops from Nepal blocked Japanese expansion beyond Mandalay, and eventually bombarded them into submission at Rangoon cutting them off and destroying them as they tried to retreat, chasing them all the way to Bangkok and Singapore to liberate Thailand and Malaya.

At sea the US led forces overcame the Japanese fleet in a massive battle west of Hawaii, and then performed a sweeping left hook to liberate the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, the Bismark Archipelago, Portugese Timor, Java, Sumatra, Sarawak, Borneo, and Manila.

In the final months of the campaign the combined US and Allied fleets were moored off the coast of Japan having sunk the rest of the Imperial Navy and were bombarding Japanese cities and destroying their hastily raised home defense units.

Nagasaki and Hiroshima were in US hands having been taken by US Marines. There were Russian Marines on the slopes west of Kyoto (who for some reason were not able to climb up them despite the city being unguarded).

But the game reckons this was a STALEMATE!!!:confused:

(I don't think so. Do you?)

The Victory conditions for even a Minor Victory require both Tokyo and Kyoto to be in allied hands, which is more than I recall happening in the actual war. At least not without two atomic bombs, and the Japanese surrendering first. Me thinks this is a bit too demanding, so I am declaring myself the Victor anyway.

AI Cheating

This is just a question really.

Having 'beaten' the Japanese (see above).

I decided to replay the campaign from the other side and try and beat the Allies. (Have you seen the Victory conditions for Japan :eek:)

Anyway! I'm a few turns into my Japanese Campaign and I'm already getting suspicious about the set-up.

I certainly don't seem to have as many units at my disposal as I recall Japan having when I was fighting against it. In fact, I hardly have any and very little hope at this stage of obtaining more.

Plus, I am getting intellgence messages almost every turn telling me of events occuring to bolster the Allies which as I recall didn't happen till much later in my Allied Campaign. The Chinese Communists joined the Allies on turn 1 for example, Stillwell is already in Burma and I haven't even attacked Thailand yet, and the US have already sent bombers to India.

Is this just me being neurotic, or is the AI deliberately programmed to cheat?

I assumed I was on a level playing field based on historical events, but something doesn't seem right.

[Hubert Cater]

Hi Didz,

Congrats on finishing up your first game and in terms of the AI it does receive some unit bonuses throughout the game just to have it play better.

What we tried to do was to add them here and there and only as needed to have an optimal AI experience but definitely not an overwhelming amount of units every turn like some games do.

Also, if you play on the higher difficulty levels the AI will have more money to spend so this might be a factor as well.

In terms of specific events like Stillwell etc., these are as far as I remember the same regardless of which mode you are playing and regardless of side, i.e. the AI doesn't receive these DECISION events any earlier than you.

What it might do better though is protecting some of the key Partisan or other locations that will block some events like the Chinese Communists from occuring and maybe this is why you are seeing these happy when playing against the Japanese AI.

I hope this helps,

Hubert

[Bill101]

I've always attacked Thailand on turn one, as it's an easy capture. Are you going for Malaya instead? Only I think it's possible to do a bit of both.

The Communist Chinese will join if Japanese units approach their territory, so it may be that this was the trigger?

As for the Victory conditions, it's a race against time to capture Japan before time runs out. Obviously in the long run the result was a foregone conclusion, but the time limit is there to keep the pace up and encourage your troops to take those vital locations before the time is up.

[Didz]

On my first attempt I went for Malaya on turn 1 and left Thailand alone. However, I quickly realised that this tied up too many of my valuable units for too little gain. The main difficulty being the delay after landing whilst waiting for supply to build up again so you can rembark them for the next assault. So, I had a rethink and started again this time splitting my force and taking Thialand and landing in Malaya simultaneously in Turn 1.

This seems to have an unexpected bonus in that by the time I was ready to expliot my capture of Bangkok the Allies had got over-confident and moved their forces into northern Thailand, making them easier to defeat. So, I was able to bounce them out of their positions and capture Rangoon and the oil field near Mandalay quite quickly. There only seems to be a weak Chinese Army defending Mandalay so I should have that in my hands as soon as I have consolidated Rangoon.

The challenge I have in this second attempt is the Phillipines which are still in US hands and look likely to remain so for some time. My main fleet hung around near Pearl Harbour and picked off a few more US ships, ~(not the Aircraft carriers unfortunately) but eventually ran short of aircraft and are now heading home. So, I never had a decent air umbrella over the Phillipines in the opening of the game and most of my army units were needed to fight the Chinese and capture FooChow and Hong Kong. So, the USA are still on the islands although they are isolated.

H