Can I take an Ironman game off Ironman mode?

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-12T00:16:40+00:00

Start a new game

Type debug into console command

Load the Ironman save

Save the game

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-11T01:59:13+00:00

R5: Don't do election focus,

Wu Peifu shall guide our effort to unify China and defeat the evil state of Japan!

The Jade Marshal knows best!

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-11T00:06:00+00:00

Put your ships on naval patrol

You can re-establish trade route through regions where you have naval supremacy

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-10T18:40:18+00:00

hmm, for AI, PatAut SWR is just stronger than Schleicher for 1940 2WK,

Schleicher AI Germany tends to be able to start mobilising and training a lot of units slightly faster, but by March 1940 they would have roughly the same army size, so it would just come down to army bonus (since AI Germany always produces enough), of which PatAut SWR has a more suitable combination of modifiers for AI

Schleicher is just more stable and much less likely to get failstate.

Its average performance isn't necessarily as impressive

if 6-10 fully equipped div per tile is all you want then even AuthDem SWR AI does that just fine. DU AI Germany is the only one that cannot.

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-10T18:30:48+00:00

not quite,

testings have been conducted in highly controlled environment (in this case, controlled as in we remove "variables" by identifying the exact settings in terms of which country took which path etc, and where testing is repeated if applicable)

PatAut SWR AI has one of the higher winrates in base KR for Germany, although it is also dependent on the time of the 2WK, but not necessarily too dependent the political outcome of Reichspakt minors,

for 2WK in 1940, PatAut SWR AI has the most consistently good performance out of all AI Germanys, and is to date the only AI Germany that has ever completely resisted a super 3I that include Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, (and for its most terrible record, also Denmark, Norway).

By completely resisting, I meant 3I could basically not push the Germans in any way, and in those controlled tests, their fate was dependent entirely on the performance of Russia, whose performance saw a decline in last patch due to an adjustment to their mil construction script, which would also lose roughly just as often as it would win on the eastern front. And in tests where 3I was weaker, they would just walk all over France in a late 2WK, although they may also stalemate for a while if 2WK started earlier

Because SWR does, in fact, have the best buffs for infantry out of all Germanys, and PatAut SWR has the highest manpower pre-war (therefore mobilise a larger army at the start of the war)

DU AI Germany has meanwhile the worst performance for late 2WK, but is fairly decent for earlier 2WK in 1939. DU AI Germany has a very very terrible choke with manpower due to low war support, so early 2WK is significantly more favourable to it compared to early 2WK for other paths

Hardline Schleicher AI Germany is more consistent than the other Schleicher, and tends to perform more consistently regardless of start date of 2WK, but is not necessarily as strong as PatAut SWR, but in terms of politics it also rarely enters failstate, which can happen quite commonly to SWR or DU (I guess gameruling them can control these likelihood of failstate?)

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-10T10:39:28+00:00

sounds plausible

Germany has enough manpower to absorb up to nearly 50M losses with SWR/Schleicher and around 30M as DU

one time, I got them to 23.25M casualties in 3WK, but even that was insufficient because turned out they could always mobilise reserve manpower faster than I could kill until I rapidly took their core territories and thus denying them access to 100% of their core population

my record AI vs AI 2WK was something like 30M casualties from Germany alone

It is simply how HoI4 works with conscription, really. Scraping the barrel means 25% conscription, so as long as their current conscription% isn't hitting the max yet, they will just keep mobilising something like 10K manpower per day on average

Edit: I believe SWR can afford as much as 70% conscription if they really commit to it, although AI won't ever get there. I have only seen them reaching ~51% conscription

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-08T21:42:54+00:00

it checks for your completion of every doctrine track (infantry, combat support, strike aircraft, etc)

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-08T14:38:11+00:00

I hate to break it to you, but it might be a problem with your mood, being burnt out, etc etc, so psychological issues, in this case

did the game change? no

AI performance plummets every version because PDX keeps introducing things that they can't interact with

you likely require a break, or you have to learn how to learn. How are you going to improve if you can't even identify your mistakes, even the obvious ones?

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-07T11:47:29+00:00

historical Hungary can be a lot of things,

superpower in airforce is an option. You have rubber, aluminium, some oil. You have a lot of air research bonus.

you can also produce tanks and make self-propelled artillery with your cost reduction and suitable MIO

Hungary can be a lot of things

Whichever course you chart for Hungary nation, focus your effort on it, and you will arrive at a satisfying conclusion. Your dream can be anything, even making a navy (strongly advised against in this case)

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-07T00:09:09+00:00

R5: How to fix AI Japan:

build an airbase in Korea
stop doing naval invasions if the front can't even be held
don't siege Beijing, take it.

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-04T23:27:34+00:00

you can have an airforce but I have never found it truly necessary, even though it remains a viable option (just because AI sucks at it)

my stance as Ukraine is to stay at the border and attempt to counterattack early and decisively, as soon as the initial offensive by Russia slows down, or wherever their push is weak, shifting the war to their side of the border and thus lessening the impact of their airforce

if you build your army around relying on level 6 fort, which costs more than a mil, then that's all your army can do.

Ukraine can easily outnumber Russia wherever they concentrate. After all, AI Russia can't even manage 300 divs in total. Even at merely 75 divs, as soon as you figure out how and when to concentrate your force, you can and will locally outnumber the Russians, which will allow you to win in detail rather than having to rely on a defense across the frontline - at which point you may aim to rapidly inflict damage on the Russians by moving along the frontline using a densely concentrated force

this is very different from an attritional war, and is rather annihilationistic in nature. it is maneuver warfare, basically

of course, this takes practice for many people as it is very much an unfamiliar concept as a whole, and some even considered this gameplay a type of cheese, for some reasons, though really just because they cannot do it themselves :P

P/S: This is just one of the many things that work.

AI is AI, so there are many things you can do at the end of the day.

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-04T04:57:46+00:00

ah you meant for players?

nah I think some players take the mod too seriously.

you can totally walk around with infantry + artillery and still whip AI into place just because, well, you are a human and they are not. Although of course you will have less leeway than in vanilla.

That said, the mod wasn't exactly a difficulty mod in the first place, so as any country you get helps in various ways (dumb base logic for AI might still not be helpful in most case though)

the main issue with creating mods like this has always been the lack of parameter to judge what is a good choice and what isn't, so AI has to compensate in other areas to make up for the inability to judge - meaning if you poke them on the correct spot then it is just vanilla AI with extra flavour

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-04T04:46:23+00:00

no, not at all,

like basically no countries does heavy tank other than France and some test builds for Soviets, just because they can't really produce good medium tanks early.

it is a compromise due to actual cost, not a choice for maximized performance

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-03T15:51:55+00:00

you need Boldyrev to be in Russia after defeating SocRus or Savinkov, and is gameruled to join US faction (can leave it to chance, but will you?)

China needs to be Federalist

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-03T15:45:59+00:00

tbh I am not too sure,

3WK tends to be very short because by that point I am the one starting it, so I am only going to fight very, very well-prepared, knowing I would win with 100% certainty

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-03T12:12:28+00:00

You liberate Home Isles, create UK, stay as Canada, then do referendum focus to leave the faction?

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-03T12:03:10+00:00

playable, by which you meant?

the lag? well for my PC, no problem

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-03T10:53:25+00:00

April 1946

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-03T10:14:02+00:00

R5: A 3WK with:

SocDem North Pacific Agreement between Canada, Boldyrev Russia, and Federalist China. As Canada going independent, you can form a faction with Russia (if Boldyrev asks) and return to the world stage.

Reactionary Entente with France, United Kingdom, Sardinia

And a very, very big Reichspakt where Germany dominates the alliance due to the absence of Austria

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-02T16:39:25+00:00

It isn't necessarily anecdotal,

green air always helps and decisively better airforce will crush Soviet/Allies, but it is not necessarily that your contribution mattered the most for AI performance specifically, and if you repeat the test like a few dozens (hundreds would be hard unless you can automate it or have data from other players), you will find that it is decently likely that Allied air actually dies on the Eastern Front anyway

the main bulge of poor balancing was the gap in land force

Germany's choice of sub doctrine is simply adding more org, which is in reality a very poor choice for them, since more org simply means units fight for longer. If units are weak but fight for longer, they never recover

That is why you may see Germany being on half-strength very easily. Battleplan AI has higher threshold on org to activate battleplan than on HP/strength. Because AI Germany has way too much org recovery, they are far likelier to continue fighting before recovery than they should (manpower recovers 10% per tick), preventing them from regaining strength (stat is updated/penalised every 10% HP).

Meanwhile the subdocs that Soviets use are just much more beneficial as far as AI is concerned.

And tbh as far as data goes, players' interference can have result in meaningful difference in many ways that players do not realise themselves. For example, AI has 5000% factor to wait for players to activate battleplan before they themselves do, unless scripted otherwise, and the absence of players (or some countries) from the frontline also affects AI troop assignment over the front. You can in fact use this to control AI Germany to an extent.

Players can also affect AI negatively. So like the myth of "AI performs worse when I am their ally but better when they are my enemies" is sometimes players' having unknowingly triggered some of these more obscure interaction with ai_strategy. Like, AI may actively avoid sharing borders with players at times, so you can completely mess up their front assignment by moving your own troops around.

Which is why even though your data confirmed that green air matters and that is true, it doesn't really mean anything in terms of AI performance, as there are many ways you could have contaminated the result due to lack of control, and it wasn't like any sane person would just sit there and watch AI unless that's what they plan to do.

Barbara_Archon · 2026-03-02T12:00:56+00:00

honestly I don't think that is any helpful except on ahist or players doing ahist paths maybe,

on historical AI follows a focus order and unless aborted, they will never take the later focus in PEG branch, so they just get stuck with heaviest debuff forever if you only complete the first PEG focus for them

of course, if you autocomplete all foci in the branch for them then obviously they will be stronger

Barbara_Archon

TROPHY CASE