Blashy

USA shows up with a fleet of the coast of Japan, attacking the North with carriers and a few shore bombing exercises. Burma gets rained out in October, so once again the allies do not do much. I have never seen so much rain in one game.

Of course the AI should be improved... it ALWAYS is being improved. But AI is nothing close to playing a human and most people get to a point where they beat it every time at the most difficult setting. These suggestions add difficulty without gimping you apart from the tech once you are good enough that you can win without using tech and all other 9 suggestions you should really take the time to play some PBEM games.

We bomb the north of Japan, bringing a city from 10 to 2 and a village from 5 to 2. That prompts the home guard to gear up. Our dive bombers in Burma sink a Battelship! We kill a corps and a tank unit, more US airpower arrives in Burma during clear weather season. China will fall in 1944 but I expected China to fall, 1944 is much better than anticipated. I love the intelligence tech, hello IJN... ;-) .

You guys are being unreasonable, I simply say do a few things and you both go off exaggerating.

You will be surprised how good you get in time, you will not lose even with these 10 settings in use. So far I have used 1-5 and 9. With that I still have not had my total victory playing Japan.

Yep, the remnants of the UK navy manages to damage a cruiser to STR 5 and do 1 point of damage to a BB , sucking money out of Japan, hehe. We kill another Army in Thailand and bring a tank to STR1 after it resists destruction multiple times at STR 1. Still got rain in Burma but Sept to March is when there is a chance of clear weather so we hope for the best. USA manages to operate some air power just north of Japan since the village was not bombarded for a few turns by Japan. China does not send extra secrete supplies to Peking and so it should fall next turn, instead they reinforce up north, as well do the communists as they bring in one extra army. September 1943.

The following are suggestions of how I have learned to play the AI while making it as difficult as possible for myself without doing things that I feel would break the historical part of the game, for example you could declare war to Russia and all the minors from the start as Japan but that feels like breaking the game in my opinion. So I have devised a few ideas that I have mentioned before in other SC forums and in a few threads here but now I will elaborate in details for those of you that get to the most difficult setting and feel you need a more challenging experience. 1) Play at +2 experience for the AI . 2) Play at 100% setting for plunder, you will receive very little plunder this way. 3) Do not watch the AIs turn. Press F3, this speeds up the animations so the AI turns go faster. 4) Do not watch the pop ups. 5) Do not invest in diplomacy, even if the AI has and is getting hits. 6) Do not invest in technology. 7) SELL all you starting technology chits and waste them by investing in a tech you will NOT use or simply remember to never upgrade that tech even if you have levels. 8) Do a declaration of war on a few minors that would eventually join one side (ex: I always DoW on Nepal and Tibet as soon as the game starts when I play Japan) this is not going totally unhistorical and offers the Allies a minor bump in MPPs and a couple of extra units. As the Allies I do not do a DoW on anyone. 9) Do not build fortifications. 10) Do not EVER attack AI HQs, it has a tendency to make them easy targets at times and if you start to kill them you can pretty much railroad the AI.

The whole navy is something I know Hubert is working hard to improve as the AI has a difficult time managing it, you can imagine how complicated it must be to program that. As a player managing the navy requires allot more tactical maneuvers, now try and make a computer do that. I will tell you that it has improved allot even in the last two months before release, so Hubert is on the right path.

Sept 1943, Slowly crawling into Thailand. Weather is about clear up . Nepal joins the Allies. Peking still holds. China is bulking up in the North. USA is still eerily quiet.

I am not much of a threat in HvH to be honest, like right now in my first HvH I am still doing some weird stuff as I still have my testing hat on. I will say that for myself I need to do the following for a challenge vs. the AI: 1) play at the hardest setting 2) NEVER watch the AIs turn (I press F3 makes the animations go faster) 3) NEVER watch the pop ups after the AI's turn BUT, I have been testing since the first SC2 was in the works so I have tons of game experience. What I can say is that even though I have yet to loose vs. the AI I have a great time each of my game as I find myself trying something new quite often. Although I have yet to win a total victory as Japan by taking India or Russia OR a US/Canadian city. That in itself is something I will plan for in my next game, REALLY hard to do. Let me put it this way 99.9999% of my games are vs. the AI and I love this game.

Remember that this game is strategic in nature, what you discuss is more tactical in nature. It is also getting into more detailed issues of WW2 and I know that Hubert takes great pride in making this game easily accessible and not too difficult to learn. I personally love this game because of its overall simplicity.

China will easily hold on until 1944, this is great for the Allies. A very small penetration into Thailand territory by the Allies, one Japanese unit is cut off from HQ support. Seeing the production queue of USA is just too funny! My initial tactic is still not in full swing though... as I said, 1944! NOTE: I actually kinda hope the tactic is very difficult or near impossible vs. a Human player because if it is it could take away a part of the game that would make it go against what was historically needed by the Allies. Still I decided to give it a shot now since it might be the only time I get to use it... seeing as Colin is not fully experienced (yet) but his previous SC experience easily shows. It works vs. the Axis AI but I think I can have Hubert fix that .

USA is one slow beast right now, hehe. China is still alive and IMHO that is quite good, it should have fallen earlier IMO. 1944 is the year the Allies make a strong push.

Not much going on, spring 43, Burma is simply bogged down. USA is somewhat active. OZ is not the least bit worried.

Yeah I thought of that... just consider me lazy. It is the holidays damn it!

Quite overall, I can just managed to damage an HQ in Burma and make upgrades on my units. Communists in China probe to see if Japan is leaving cities open, not so. USA is acting content of simply capturing that one village. USA probably has the dominance over air power now, but positioning all that power is the real challenge.

Totally in Allied hands is what it looks like. I can not put up a pick because I am not sure of what he can and can not see.

I will see what I can do about screenies. One of the armies attacking Peking gets destroyed by the commies. Burma is liberated as the army on the capital gets destroyed. Burma is in full monsoon season, the Allies make the most of it to reinforce and refit their air power. The Chinese stronghold will fall soon if there is no rain. I lose my US sub close to the Philippines but he manages to cause some pretty significant damage to cruisers before going down.

April 1943, it was still clear in Burma, so I take one HQ down to 2 STR, Rangoon is surrounded. Communist China comes to the aid of the Peking partisans as a symbol of unity and brings one Japanese army down to 2 STR. USA takes over the village and port of Esutoro. China delays the take over and starts plans for more resistance in other areas.

More home guard appears on Tokyo. Burma is going to get rough with monsoon season starting, both air power will be useless. USA makes an appearance outside of Burma... just North of mainland Japan, bombing a village on the island that is half Japan half Russian. Also showing level 2 Naval Warfare.

Intelligence reports that Iwo Jima is being fortified (1 HQ - 1 Unit appear). The Allies are on the move in Burma now, 2 units next to Rangoon. Japan wishes to start air combat vs. USA over in Burma, USA is ready.

Only Rangoon (Capital) is left in Japanese hands for Burma. Another unit is eliminated. China is holding up in the mountains and hoping for rain! Russia increases its far east production. USA tinkering with technologies.

A unit goes down in Burma, the oil well (25 mpp value) is left undefended. That is the first ground troop that goes down for Japan... Allies go nuts celebrating . UK is on the move, China is just playing delay of death, Communist China digs in, Peking still Chinese. The islands have zero action.

No much this turn, that 3 unit line holds fast in Burma. Bombers get to raid again, convoys and the capital itself. I see the IJN now has level 2 Naval Warfare. More units arrive in China... babies, babies and more babies! Hehe

A) As I stated, letting NZ fall you can consider it beta testing, I wanted to see what happens. The UK fleet was doomed. If you decided not to invest in it you basically have STR5-8 units vs. the full STR IJN... but any damage to the IJN helps in a specific way that I shall mention later on. CLEAR weather in Burma... Japan is now aware of at least 11 units moving in vs. what it looks like 3 ground units w/ HQ, 2 are now at STR 7 and one at STR 5. A US Tac bomber is part of the group. One US Bomber destroys the port of Rangoon, no more convoys. While a UK Bomber takes down the village Japan is making a stand from to 1 of supply. The Chinese partisan unit on Peking holds on, going back to STR 10. China is being eaten up... France style.