Garrison observations

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way2co0l
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 687
Joined: Nov 29 2010
Human: Yes

Garrison observations

Post by way2co0l »

Been watching several youtube videos for various playthroughs, and it made me wonder how effectively the AI is utilizing garrisons. With the low tech level units and much smaller initial armies, garrisons seem to be the most effective force multiplier available and yet it appears that they're underused by the AI. I keep seeing instances where the AI just sends 1 or 2 units right through the enemies territory taking city after city unopposed.

An example is in Average Gamer's German playthrough. Austria-Hungary sent what appeared to be 2 cavalry units in a straight line and managing to get as deep as Stalingrad without meeting any resistance. Now, obviously armies are smaller and they move slowly, so I'm not surprised that the Russian army wasn't able to meet them or even close the pocket somewhere down the line even. But I'm surprised how easily they were able to take territory and remain in supply. If those cities/facilities along their path had garrisons in them, then the cavalry units wouldn't have made it that far. Skipping past the garrisons to try to take undefended cities further in the back would have seen their supply cut off once the local cities reestablished control in the absence of AH's military units to maintain it, so their advance would have been cut off that way too eventually.

From my observations, the AI needs to be much more liberal with garrison forces in war theaters, especially with garrisons for trenches. It will slow down advances and require a more dedicated push to accomplish anything and prevent anyone from taking large swaths of land completely unopposed.

Now, to be fair this is from youtube videos so maybe I'm not seeing the full picture. Does anyone else want to weigh in on this?
way2co0l
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 687
Joined: Nov 29 2010
Human: Yes

Re: Garrison observations

Post by way2co0l »

So, after playing some for myself, I do see that the AI will use garrisons, but it seems to fail to do so preemptively. Obviously that's a way to save money by not having reserves active unnecessarily but it makes the early stages of the war simple if you're willing to just rush cities down before their garrisons become active. They should have at least minimal garrisons (2 in every possible hex) in all threatened areas prior to the start of the war, if not all areas period. It's a bigger expense, but it makes for better defenses. Rushing through undefended cities just isn't fun.
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