American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

I can't see the AI in the current games being upgraded to anywhere near the level of a human opponent. I think that all they can really do is tweak it here and there. Anything more would require a whole new game to be designed. Even then I doubt the AI could compete with a capable human opponent.

Even wargames with better AI (e.g. Grigsby's War in the East/War in the West, Decisive Campaigns series, and [to an extent] OpenGeneral) can still be outwitted by humans. Unlike chess (which I understand has several highly competent AI opponents) the wargames simply have too many variables to be accounted for which means you can usually beat it by doing the unexpected. The AI can never understand that an attack may be a feint or that strategic moves may have an intent other than to take an Objective on the map. The bigger the map and the longer the scenario/game the more the AI struggles.

[As Blake is aware, I hate AI in general society and remain in a never-ending war to combat it. I hate that it lies and I hate that it tries to tell me what I want to hear rather than give me the facts. I avoid it as much as possible. I do not use it in internet searches (using DuckDuckGo [which doesn't track me] I can turn it off) and I pay cash for almost everything except internet purchases. AI still follows me around and tries to track what I'm doing. Several years ago I purchased a washing machine and dryer online. For three months after that a weather site I use (and some other websites) featured ads for those items and other whitegoods. Bad news for the AI, once I'd bought those items it's very unlikely that I would want to purchase them again anytime soon (and haven't). All I generally get now are random ads that I can ignore as they are usually for things of no interest to me at all. The latest visit to the weather site featured ads for a motor bike, an anvil, model airplane, nuts and bolts set, and some things that I don't know what they are.]

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

Even if there was an AI that could beat anyone on even terms, there is tremendous value in playing HTH (PBEM). You can't send a message to the AI and brag about you last cleaver move.

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Brigadier General Richard Walker
II Corps, 4th Division, 6th Brigade
Army of Tennessee
(JTS/WDS Scenario Designer)