Does the AI cheat?

[hardlec]

After months of conducting a painstaking campaign I caught up to my enemy in VP. Then I get the message that the Army has been defeated and the enemy gains 1500 VP.
I accept a Battle where I have a 4 to 1 advantage in ships and several capital ships. I need a victory.
I end up with 4 AMCs against an Armored Cruiser. I can't use my torpedoes. All I can do is die.

[aeson]

I do not believe that the wartime event probabilities and force selection for engagements are biased to favor either the computer or the human player.

Typically, the forces drawn for engagements are more or less approximately equal, but there is some variation and you will sometimes see one side or the other draw a significantly weaker force. This seems to happen more frequently with small or unbalanced fleets, as it appears as though the game will draw weaker ship types to fill out a force for an engagement if inadequate numbers of ships of the preferred type for that specific engagement are available, e.g. a pair of CLs showing up when for symmetry you might expect a CA, or an AMC showing up in a slot which might normally be expected to be filled by a CL. Drawing four AMCs against a CA is simply bad luck, and might not even be that bad depending on the type of engagement and the numbers and types of ships you had available in the sea zone in which the engagement took place.

The Army Offensive events have probabilities modified by an event which asks you to approve the transfer of resources from the Navy to the Army to support an offensive, and if you denied the transfer of resources then the Army suffering a serious setback is only slightly bad luck.

[Fredrik W]

The AI does not cheat! Exactly the same rules are used when the AI force is selected as when your force is selected.

[hardlec]

The AI still seems to pick favorable conditions for itself. I am learning to adapt.

The forces of each side are about equal. I have one B and one CA against 6 B's. Twice. I then stop accepting battles in that area.

I have a CA. My opponent has a CA. We each take a hit. My opponent then breaks off. I get 149 points for damage done. My opponent gets 226. This is pretty standard.

I'm learning to compensate, but I don't think the AI is fair.

Maybe when some of the good things happen to me, I'll change my mind.

I always provide the army with all the support I can.
I never support aspiring dictators, they always seem to backfire.

[dorn]

Aug 24, 2018 12:01:52 GMT -6 hardlec said:

The AI still seems to pick favorable conditions for itself. I am learning to adapt.

The forces of each side are about equal. I have one B and one CA against 6 B's. Twice. I then stop accepting battles in that area.

I have a CA. My opponent has a CA. We each take a hit. My opponent then breaks off. I get 149 points for damage done. My opponent gets 226. This is pretty standard.

I'm learning to compensate, but I don't think the AI is fair.

Maybe when some of the good things happen to me, I'll change my mind.

I always provide the army with all the support I can.
I never support aspiring dictators, they always seem to backfire.

If your enemy has much large force in area the probability he has more ships in combat is much higher. You need to adapt to  situation.
AI usually gets more hit with torpedoes but it is OK as AI is more conservative in battles than players and this gave AI much better chance to make torpedo attack.

In this game player has still edge as is able to design better ships, AI just adapts but are not so successful as it seems. AI do not used imunity zone concept which is quite good to design ships. So they did sometimes strange design, sometimes good design sometimes going back and using wing turrets even later but it is more historical. 

[hardlec]

I do have some advantages. I am quite often able to cross my opponent's stern and rake across the stern. The AI seems to have a thing for wing turrets, which are inferior IMHO.
When I design a fleet, I have a cohesive plan. The AI does not.

That still does not help me when I have no control over which nation I face, or that I can't chose my Targets. (I want to attack Philadelphia, but I only get random events. Or, If I want to go to war I want to fight a country which has possessions I want to win.)

[bcoopactual]

It's true you don't have direct control over which nation you want to face and you can't pick targets* other than declining missions in the hope to get another more favorable one.

You can influence which nation you eventually go to war with in some ways. This is anecdotal (meaning it's based on forum user experience rather than direct confirmation from the developers) but in general, you are more likely to go to war with a nation you have a high intelligence level against. Having a high intelligence level against a country tends to cause more tension elevating events like caught spies and other events. Conversely you seem to see fewer events against countries where your intelligence level is low or none. So for example, I never try to fight England until the end of the game so I leave my intelligence level against them at no more than low for most of the game. You also have the option to take the tension reducing choice although I prefer a tension neutral one rather than a reducing one if it's going to cost me prestige.

*This is something they are looking to add for RTW2 in some form but won't change for RTW1.

[dorn]

Aug 24, 2018 12:28:56 GMT -6 hardlec said:

I do have some advantages. I am quite often able to cross my opponent's stern and rake across the stern. The AI seems to have a thing for wing turrets, which are inferior IMHO.
When I design a fleet, I have a cohesive plan. The AI does not.

That still does not help me when I have no control over which nation I face, or that I can't chose my Targets. (I want to attack Philadelphia, but I only get random events. Or, If I want to go to war I want to fight a country which has possessions I want to win.)

You are the greatest naval authority in the country but not political authority so it is OK, you cannot choose foreign policy. But you can still influence it and game allows it quite well.

I really like system of RTW which remains me old Master of Orion game. 
Both i take there are closed to Exupéry Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away

[hardlec]

The AI does not cheat, but is is extremely arbitrary, even more arbitrary than reality.

[mobeer]

I'm surprised when I seize ships after wars at how little ammunition the AI ships have. Just got a brand new battlecruiser from Russia and it has 90 rounds per gun compared to my usual 140 rounds. It looks suspicious to me, but inconclusive.

[aeson]

Sept 10, 2018 15:49:58 GMT -6 mobeer said:

I'm surprised when I seize ships after wars at how little ammunition the AI ships have. Just got a brand new battlecruiser from Russia and it has 90 rounds per gun compared to my usual 140 rounds. It looks suspicious to me, but inconclusive.

Why do you consider it suspicious? My experience is that when you keep a specific computer-designed and -built ship continuously engaged long enough for a player-designed ship that has significantly more ammunition than is typical of computer designs to get a 20% main battery ammunition remaining warning, the computer's ship tends to want to run away and often doesn't appear to be firing its main battery guns much, if at all, suggesting that it's short on or out of main battery ammunition.

Also, my understanding is that 90 rounds per gun is about right for historical battleship main battery ammunition stowage in the period covered by the game.

[cv10]

Sept 10, 2018 16:49:32 GMT -6 aeson said:

Sept 10, 2018 15:49:58 GMT -6 mobeer said:

I'm surprised when I seize ships after wars at how little ammunition the AI ships have. Just got a brand new battlecruiser from Russia and it has 90 rounds per gun compared to my usual 140 rounds. It looks suspicious to me, but inconclusive.

Also, my understanding is that 90 rounds per gun is about right for historical battleship main battery ammunition stowage in the period covered by the game.

That's my understanding as well. It's also a carryover from Steam and Iron, where BBs and BCs have 90 rounds of ammo.

[oldpop2000]

I have examined Navweaps and here is what I've seen. The British capital ships normally carried 100-120 round per gun. German ships carried 90 rounds per gun. WW2 German warships carried 150 for the smaller guns like the 11 inch. The Bismarck's carried 108. I haven't gone through each nation. This is just some random facts.

[mobeer]

Sept 10, 2018 16:49:32 GMT -6 aeson said:

Sept 10, 2018 15:49:58 GMT -6 mobeer said:

I'm surprised when I seize ships after wars at how little ammunition the AI ships have. Just got a brand new battlecruiser from Russia and it has 90 rounds per gun compared to my usual 140 rounds. It looks suspicious to me, but inconclusive.

Why do you consider it suspicious? My experience is that when you keep a specific computer-designed and -built ship continuously engaged long enough for a player-designed ship that has significantly more ammunition than is typical of computer designs to get a 20% main battery ammunition remaining warning, the computer's ship tends to want to run away and often doesn't appear to be firing its main battery guns much, if at all, suggesting that it's short on or out of main battery ammunition.

Also, my understanding is that 90 rounds per gun is about right for historical battleship main battery ammunition stowage in the period covered by the game.

It looks suspicious to me because in early battles, before Director fire control, I frequently have to order my ships to hold fire to conserve ammunition at long range. By comparison the AI ships open fire as soon as they enter range, and then keep firing throughout engagements, including for example in long and distant stern chases when again I will have ordered my ship(s) to hold fire.

It looks odd to me that the AI can fire indefinitely carrying 90 rounds per gun whilst my ships cannot do so with 140 rounds per gun.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I have seen such AI behaviour too. But mostly when I check the hit log on my ships, it shows only secondary hits, so it looks like that enemy turrets aims at my ships even without ammo.