There will always be people who abuse/ game the system. That's their choice of course. fact is the player has much more cheats over the AI . Some are because the AI isnyt very good at using the game mechanics - such as paratroops and basic things such as holding back a strategic reserve or allocating its best generals to the best units. Other things it just can't do at all such as reshuffle its build queue or research queue. It can't upgrade units to another unit type ( like light armor to armor ). It won't promote its generals, or concentrate its forces - you wo't ever see the AI organise a corps of pure armor divisions or mountain troops. It doesn't understand terrain or the best units to use in terrain. It isn't as good at trade or resource management as a player. Basically it cannot make long term strategic plans. All these things make any claims of AI cheating a little mute compared to what a player can do. In fact the very first version of BICE when it was a sub mod of didays ICE for Semper FI was to remove as many player only game functions as possible. The idea being if the AI couldn't do it, neither should the player. However that did remove a lot of the fun factor. It made the AI / player balance closer but the game a lot drier.
If you consider building divisions well abuse, why don't you fix the problem with certain divisions being blatantly overpowered? It's not rocket science here. Don't try to stigmatize me for "gaming" the damned game by playing the game and paying attention to stats. If I cast an ice spell on a fire elemental am I an abuser/gamer of the system?
CA bonus is useful though it takes some time to reach high values - you need to do a lot of tech research across a broad spectrum of the techs. Further the CA combinations are not always going to be optimal. For example adding infantry into a light armor unit with marines will cost a lot more IC and build time for a unit with stats which make the CA combination worthless. In fact the biggest exploit in BICE at least until the next version is in units with high soft attack or low softness.
If by "time" you mean about 3 years, the point at which WW2 actually starts, then yeah, it takes time. But by then its more than just a little OP.
IC and build time? What? I'm literally talking about the cheapest units of almost every unit group. The CA bonus ends up off the charts and it wipes the floor with everyone else (pretty average-high stats, then you double everything for 100% CA). The cost is miniscule compared to the insane amount of IC you give players in BICE (another problem I might add.
Also lol at calling high soft attack or low softness an exploit. Did I mention that the units I told you also essentially destroy every unit regardless of softness since their SA/HA are both quite high?
Territorial pride isn't only a German modifier, and in the case of Poland it applies specifically to provinces with german cores. It makes perfect sense here.
I know what territorial pride is, thank you very much. YOU are the one who made it a gigantic laughingstock of a cheat. 50%+ territorial pride makes no sense at all. Territorial pride is inherently a defensive bonus (stupidity with cores in poland aside), while virtually all of the best fighting done by Germany was done specifically in other countries' cores. So just get out. It makes absolutely zero sense either historically or in gameplay and only serves to help you railroad Germany to early victory along your own mangled combat system and save them from the poor "exploiters" by giving every German division another 50 soft attack each.
yes defend the ardnennes by all means. That region should be easily defendable. The fact that is wasn't guarded correctly was an major error of judgement in 1940 and later in 1944. However depending on the difficulty settings the German AI will find a way through. The defense modifiers are high but so too are the leader experience and tech level increases. Higher difficulty levels allow for more MP for the AI. So its a lot harder to bleed the AI dry by gamey tactics.
That means that merely sitting behind the wall of the maginot or the forest in the ardnennes won't be enough to win. You can try to wear the German AI down but time is against you. Eventually the AI will out tech you and out build you. What you might achieve though is enough damage to blunt the german's success in Barbarossa. That would be a strategic success even if you have to watch from the sidelines.
No, it literally is enough to win. Leader experience? Experience? Germany is losing unit experience at war due to attrition while France is gaining. Germany and French leaders are both gaining experience at the same rate. France pulls ahead in a stalemate. Don't tell me it doesn't work, I've done it myself and when I tagswitched over to Germany to check it out they were at 0 manpower and thousands behind on reinforcements.
Also lol at saying just give the AI more cheats to help them win. No shit, I'm sure it's easier for Germany if you ratchet up the bonuses and penalties so that Germany has something ridiculous like 50 fucking percent IC efficiency while France has a grand total of around 5 IC to spend on production due to all the penalties. Maybe you should work on fixing the core system rather than breaking it and trying to hold it together with bandaid difficulty modifiers? The number of different ways you try to give the AI an advantage over players feels downright subversive.
The armor preicing / armor value mechanic is contentious. Its very black and white. If your tank armor value is higher then the enemy armor piercing value you get a large bonus against that division. It can result in some nasty shocks for the Germans when they run into divisions with better soviet armor. T 34 or KV 1 vs the Pz III or 37mm AT guns ? Its not going to go so well for a lot of german units. however there are ways and means around this. the mod has the 88mm guns in it and airpower which can help blunt the better soviet armor. In fact the germans have the bonus of the dual AA/ AT gun tech which allows them to use the 88mm unit and pierce any tank in the game. In the next version though the effect of the armor value is being lowered by half so that the need to have a gun vs tank armor tech race isn't so crucial. The soviet AI will actually build a lot of heavy armor and T 34 armor units. So much so that we have had to scale it back abit. It will still out prodcue the germans though. By late Barbarossa the soviet defense will typically consist of the conscript unit ( which is like a low morale cannon fodder unit enmass) and armor units as a backbone. It is very difficult to win against the soviet AI in 1941. Not impossible but you basically have to plan for it from the start and not make any errors. More likely the war will drag on into 1942/ 43 and most players seem to eventually record a win by 1944. But its a tough slog.
If you are lowering the armor penalties then that's an improvement.
Do look at the ridiculous bonuses the Soviet AI gets though. As a player you can build their special Red Heavy Armor units in around 2 weeks once enough cities are taken if you amass enough practicals and IC efficiency bonuses. For the AI with their extra bonuses I am 95% sure that they get units for free.
The modifers are intenitally high in BICE and hence very unforgiving. Its a mod with a tough learning curve. Make a mistake and you will lose, but for every high defence modifier there is a way to counter it. There is a huge variety of units to choose from and none are optimal for all situaions. There is no one size fiots all units combination. You really need to design your units with the task intended for them. Sending the worng unit into the wrong sort of battle will cost you badly. It can take a few playthroughs and learning the mod to get this downpacked. Added to this you still have to content with the occasional curve ball by the HOI 3 AI. It not as clever as you and the player gets way more cheats then the AI by default, but at its core its a decent opportunist. Give it an opening and it will take it.
Tough learning curve? The only learning curve is spending half an hour reading through the ridiculously over-complex tech. Once you know that it's simple as long as you understand basic HoI3 mechanics. Then you go and tell me that because I've learned what's up that I'm I "abuse/game the system".
There is certainly a one size fits all combination. I gave it to you. Defending or attacking in Mountains? CA-focused division wins. Plains? Same division wins. Naval landing? I suspect it's still a good contender (losing the LAA over something else with less amphibious penalties might, might be a good idea. I'd have to actually check the numbers).
A number of people have crunched the numbers on unit stats here and your little combo isn't in the mix. I just don't see what you are mentioning as being reality here.
