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War in Spain - Artificial Intelligence (AI) System(s)
By Joe Wilkerson - Project Leader
War In Spain 1936-1939
Joint Warfare Simulations
As mentioned in Dev Diary #2, our team wanted to create a new series of games inspired by War in the Pacific Admiral’s Edition (AE). The look and feel of the UX/UI and the player’s roles are very similar to AE. But the AI system in War In Spain (WIS) is a significant departure. AE relied heavily on scripted AI. The Tactical Land AI in WIS (which I will focus on today) does not use scripts. It is a true AI, which analyzes METT-L for each unit every turn before determining actions for that unit. METT-L means Mission, Enemy, Terrain, Troops and we add "Logistics" as a separate, called-out dimension, due to its overarching importance. German General Erhard Raus wrote in “German Operations Against Soviet Breakthroughs” that the War in the East was about attacking the enemy logistics and defending one’s own. Similarly, Jomini wrote that military operations must attack an enemy's lines of communication while protecting one's own - same idea. We based our Tactical AI around these principles, as after analyzing how we ourselves play, we finally realized, this was the essence of how we play!
AI tied to Logistics
The screenshot above shows my plan as the Republicans for an attack towards Zaragoza at the start of the game. I choose to attack down the rail lines as these are the primary lines of communication, especially for Corps-level and larger formations. As explained in Dev Diary #2, players can also use the logistics-enhancing units, the LogR (rail), LogT(truck) and LogF(foot) to increase supply movement capacity in a given area. The LogR farther back for the Corps and the LogT and LogF farther forward for Division and below.
We have trained the “Tactical Land AI” to plan and operate in this same way, the way we play.
The goal of this operational offensive was to capture Zaragoza. I planned an inner ring to surround and then attack into Zaragoza, as well as an outer ring, facing out towards any counterattacking enemy to stave off their efforts. In scenario two (Zaragoza o muerte 1936), the player has 60 days to capture Zaragoza. In my 3rd attempt at this scenario I finally got it done. It is tough against the AI as it has a strong defense of Zaragoza (roughly division strength) and counterattacks from all directions to try to break the siege. It plays operationally just like I would. To be honest, it’s the best wargame (computer game) AI I’ve ever played against. And I’ve played against most of them!
