History Line: 1914-1918/Artifical Intelligence

It may be due to the limitations of computer systems of the time (the game has been released in 1992), and therefore the impossibility to implement more sophisticated algorithms, but to put it in a nutshell, the "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" of the computer game History Line: 1914-1918 is in no sense challenging for a human player. The AI generally acts either predictable or random, doesn't exploit selectively the weaknesses of his human opponent, or even takes advantage of his own strong points.

In detail, the AI shows the following almost adverse behaviors:


 * AI moves units without a recognizable plan, particulary when there are many units in an comparatively limited amount of space.


 * AI doesn't use Supply Cars and Supply Trains at all, except as cannon fodder. As a consequence, especially the AI's Heavy Artillery is fixed at locations from where it cannot move on her own. Another result is that the AI is not able to perform coordinated attacks with, for example, a couple of Infantry and Light Artillery, rather moves them slowly and uneffective one by one.


 * AI doesn't use the special abilities of Sappers and Construction Units. It never produces them, and if it already has some, it just moves them in front as cannon fodder.


 * AI often uses units with range attack such as Light Artillery and Armored Train for closed combat attacks from adjacent fields, even if there is no need to go so close. AI sometimes doesn't attack with a particular range unit, although ther are enemy units in range.


 * AI doesn't note attack distances of opponent's range attack units. For example, it carelessly moves his own range attack units in opponent's reach, even if he could attack from further away.


 * AI sometimes doesn't move a range attack unit nearer to opponent's units, even if he would be able to attack it in the next move.


 * AI doesn't reasonably protect his Headquarter with sufficient units. It doesn't notice the approach of opponent's force in time, and therefore it loses the map with an enormous superiority of units not infrequently.


 * AI prefers Supply Cars and Supply Trains, even if they are empty, and infantry units (Infantry, Elite Infantry, Cavalry), even if they aren't nearby the opponents headquarters or facilities and aren't going to occupy them, as objectives for attack.


 * AI doesn't continuously note the health state of opponent units. It frequently attacks damaged units with more units than necessary.


 * AI uses production points to build weak (or inappropriate) units such as Infantry, even if there are sufficient points for stronger units. It generally tries to produce units in as much factories as possible, even if there is no need, and it generally performs unit building in an fixed order of factories.


 * AI conquers a enemy facility, even if it presumable will be re-occupied in the next round, wasting his unit this way.

Concluding remark: Since they are based on the same game engine, the predecessor games of the Battle Isle series have the same AI algorithms. For this reason, everything said here has validity for them, too.