Developer Notes - When a scenario makes no mention of HTH or AI?

[Darrell999]

I've seen this in many of the different series. In the Developer's Notes, some scenarios are described as optimized for HTH, or optimized for one side against AI.
But many descriptions don't have that clarification either way.
So for those scenarios, is it understood that they would be fine for either type of play? If that's the case, I wish the notes would say that. Or am I misunderstanding it?

Also, what does it actually mean for a scenario to be optimized for one type of play or another?
Does that refer to the balance of victory conditions, or does it mean that this scenario has scripted AI, whereas the scenarios that don't mention any optimization do not have scripted AI?

I always found this to be a bit confusing. Thanks to any who can help clarify this!

[GMcClellan]

It's going to depend on the game and when it was done. More recent games have been more explicit in writing this out, but it can be a few things.

1) Some scenarios are only really interesting from one side, so we might tag it as "vs Austrian AI" (or the like).
2) A variation of this can be that the AI is better at certain things. For instance, while we worked the scripts hard in Vienna 1683, the AI really struggles with the long approach march of the Polish horse in the full day scenarios. It's much better on the defense.

I would say that if a scenario DOESN'T say, it's fine either way, but the AI will likely be better on the Defensive side.

[Darrell999]

Thanks, GMcClellan, I appreciate your insights!

[Bart Power]

You can also use the scenario editor to see if the battle was created using only flags or if there are scripts dictating unit movement.

[Darrell999]

That's a great point, and I appreciate it, but it assumes that you have the game already. I should have given context to my questions, which is when I'm wondering whether or not to buy a game, I look at the developer's notes to see how much value there is for a solo gamer against the AI.

[GMcClellan]

On that front, I would say that every game is designed to be played against the AI. The AI can be better or worse at times (though it has gotten much better thanks to the programmers), but the majority of the user base play against the AI. An AI will never replace a human for cunning play, but the games are always playable against the AI.

[Darrell999]

Thank you for that clarification. This is good to hear. So I assume that all the games have been playtested against the AI then, right?

[rahamy]

Yes, we do playtesting against the AI.

[Darrell999]

Thanks, Rich!