Hello everyone, I've been playing a lot of Sandbox games recently, after finally beating all the main scenarios, and have run into some frustrating issues with the AI. Namely, it appears at times to be blind and oblivious to enemy forces! I like to play mostly Corps v. Corps games, using all the game types, from Attack to Line of Sight to Hunt Them Down. I typically play with 1 or 2 OBJs, to give the AI something to target. I typically play as a Division Commander subordinate to the AI, though recently I've dabbled in being just a lowly brigade commander. The main issue I'm starting to notice though, is that the AI on both sides seems to be blind! What I mean by this is if a division, friendly or enemy, is marching along a road to get to the location the Corps commander has ordered them to go, they seem to absolutely ignore any enemy forces in the vicinity! One of my games today had my division marching along a road (me being a brigade commander in the rear of the column) towards an OBJ. The lead unit in the column, an infantry regiment, started to spot enemy units in the distance maybe 500 to 600 yards away, coming down the same road we were on, to the same objective. What should happen is that both divisions would halt in their march, start to shake out into brigade battle lines while still out of range, and then start advancing towards the enemy.
What instead happened, and seems to happen every time I run into this situation, is that both sides continued down the same road, towards the same objective, without even a pause. I thought maybe the issue might lie with the officers of the units, perhaps they could not see the enemy and thus did not "know" about them. But their target lists showed the same enemy units as the lead regiment, for both the brigade and division commander. Clearly they could see the enemy column, but it's as if they were just completely ignoring the enemy! Both columns continued marching closer and close in plain view of each other, until the lead regiments were about 150 yards from each other. At this point they both went into line and started firing at each other. With the lead regiments engaged, I expected a response from the rest of the division, but again they seemed to ignore what was going on right in front of them! The second regiment in the column kept marching down the road, right through the first regiment, until it too realized the enemy was right in front of them, finally shaking into its own line formation and firing. This continued until the whole lead brigade was stacked right in front of each other in the middle of the road. At this point officers started galloping around and artillery started to go into place in the rear, and my fellow brigadiers started pulling their troops of the side of the road and organizing into battle lines. The division commander fired off couriers, and I got orders to go into line on the left flank of the lead brigade (which was still stacked 5 regiments deep in the middle of the road), while the other brigades were deployed to the right.
Clearly the AI knows how to handle a division, deploying its brigades into a strong battle line to meet the enemy. It just does it far too late! It seems when a unit is in "march mode", following orders to deploy its troops to a certain location, the AI shuts off and doesn't recognize a threat until it's within firing distance. At that point it is far too late. This isn't as if I turned the corner on a forest trail and ran into the enemy, this is on the Kansas map with its long sight lines.
I don't want to come off like I'm trashing the game, coding AI isn't something I could do in any form, and this is by far the best Civil War game out there. In combat the AI can whoop butt. But this is just something that frustrates me and makes Sandbox play less enjoyable. Units should spot the enemy, analyze the strength of the force, and deploy appropriately. Instead units ignore each other until they're shooting. Completely sucks away the immersion.
I am curious if there is anything I can do to prevent this. I have my aicount set to 65 in my sowgb.ini. I'm on Normal difficulty, so it isn't an issue of couriers (the brigade's regiments move instantly when their officers finally react). I've turned off all mods and it still happens. I've tried all the different game modes in Sandbox, even Line of Sight, and it still happens. It happens with all command styles, from Frozen to Bold. The AI just seems to completely ignore any enemy forces moving along roads until the lead units are engaged. It just seems terribly unrealistic that two forces would road march till they're 200 yards away from each other before deploying.
Some pictures to illustrate:
SPOILER: SHOW
Here the lead regiment in a column spots some Yankees about 500 yards away. This is a Corps v. Corps Attack, with me as a BDE commander.
The lead regiment keeps on trucking. It's hard to see but their movement order hasn't changed since their original orders... meaning its behind the enemy line!
Looking back on the division. Units are still coming up, oblivious to whats going on ahead. You can see a regiment in line behind the first one... they had marched right up to the back of the first regiment, deployed into line, and then turned around and started marching back, still in line. Who knows what they were doing.
A different battle, the one I described in my post. Division v. Division, me as a BDE commander, Hunt them Down with OBJ. I was Union, you can see the front of two columns are 420 yards away from each other.
Lead regiments deploying into line. You can see the OBJ location in the middle.
Looking back on the column. I have one of the other regiments selected, you can see their movement order is right in front of the enemy. This is the location of their original movement order, meaning their commander hasn't even reacted yet.
A look at the Command Map. Hard to tell, but both divisions still haven't given different movement orders. They're in one of the support formations Division commanders use, not a battle formation.
The five regiment stack I was mentioning. You can see my order location bottom left - this is the original location that I was ordered to at the start. Still no orders from my division commander to react to the enemy.
A different game again. Corps v. Corps, Hunt them Down with OBJs. I am a BTY commander. In this one you can see two division converging on an OBJ. The Confederates actually stop their column and start to deploy - Union keeps on moving.
You can see the column formation the BDE is ordered to form up into at the OBJ - oblivious and completely ignoring the enemy units not even 300 yards away. The brigade commander can clearly see the enemy. No reaction. His style is Bold, by the way.
Final image. The brigade commander finally reacts, moving away from the enemy. He doesn't give any formation orders, however.
