Stalingrad 42 Breakout Group Zhuravlev

[Plain Ian]

And the result is....C!!!!! Anyone pick that one? I think a lot of people got this one. The first assault kind of gave it away that the AI is stupid. 

Yes I know. If I can write a better algorithm than JTS to handle retreats then go ahead and do it. I guess we have all seen stupid retreats like these.

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So just to clarify, there is no AI for the retreats, it is purely random. And to put it into perspective, outside of how often the worst possible retreat route is randomly selected, it seems realistic to me. These men, assaulted, don't know where safety is, they just know they are being attacked and run - all they know is that unit to their left is standing firm at the time while there are rumors of enemy behind them already. Sometimes that is to the rear, but in these type of situations, it could be into a pocket. Look at what the men of the 106th Inf Div did in the Bulge, and they ended up with 8000 men trapped.

Anyway, you have to chalk it up to random bad luck rather than AI.

Well there is random and there is random. If you are saying that the game looks at the possible retreat routes and assigns the same weight or chance for moving to it then this is indeed random. 



So you are saying that there is an equal chance for each retreat possibility above? 

I thought these games were more sophisticated than that? I've probably played too many boardgames where things like retreat are well regulated and scripted. 

eg if forced to retreat then priority is 

1. towards supply
2. further away from enemy unit than at start
3. non zoc
4. zoc

That sort of thing.

In the game situation above I'd assume that the game engine would check and do this -



Still random but at least fair. It allows for that 106th Bulge retreat situation once out of every 100 rolls. But it also allows me a bit of certainty or predictability that it will retreat to one of my two preferred retreat positions most of the times. 

That's all I'm looking for.