Sure-fire tactics to beat the AI

[whizbang]

Some time ago – I’m not sure exactly when – but someone (I believe he was from Australia) posted a message claiming that if you went to his website you could discover how never to lose in a CMBB battle. Being a somewhat wet around the ears newbie I fell for the bait and then spent a few weeks trying to disengage from the multiple challenges I received from other members of his site.

I now of course know that if you are playing a PBEM you better know what you are doing because there are some really experienced and wily players of CMBB out there. But what about playing against the AI? At first I lost too many battles through sheer ignorance of what to do, when, why and how. So then I bought the Strategy Guide and that certainly helped me understand at least some of the mistakes I was making.

But I was still losing when I felt I should be winning and I also realized that changing the default conditions was not a viable route to take if I ever wanted to be at least a reasonable competitor.

Luckily at this stage a more experienced player on the CMBB network (who prefers to remain anonymous) gave me some hints and mailed me an AAR. I had no idea then that an AAR was anything more than the final stats of a battle -llost, won or drawn. It was at that stage that I realized that well produced AAR’s could be the basis of valuable tutorials for newbies and intermediates, like myself, so that they could win - even against what seem at first sight like unbeatable odds.

Of course I’m talking about beating the AI not about PBEM’s. The fact is that the AI, however craftily programmed, is to some extent predictable. Please bear with me because I am now about to give you the information hinted at in the subject title. Take for example the famous scenario The Iron Roadblock which is given as a beginner’s tutorial in the manual where all you have to do is press GO and your KV-I will give you a victory and, perhaps, reinforce your self-confidence. But what if you turn the tables and play the side of the AXIS. What then?

At that stage a number of us keenly interested players decided to get together and start writing AAR’s for some of the more amenable scenarios (i.e. not too big but still challenging) such as The Iron Roadblock, Hill312, Death Ride of the 424th and Jaegermeister. Our techniques improved as we went along, not just in devising new ways (at least to us) for beating the AI if at all possible, but also in improving the presentation. Although pics may take time to download they can be both interestingly graphic and concisely informative with diagrammatic information superimposed over the print screen images.

You can find some of these AAR’s at the Training Section of Boots’n’Tracks, at the moment in PDF format but are later to be converted to HTML with better definition images. We will continue to produce these AAR’s but we do need feedback from you the user, not only as to whether you find them helpful, but also how they could be improved and which other scenarios should be included. Our names and email addresses are there if you want to write directly or you can follow this posting and add your comments. And of course if you would also like to join the team we would be only too happy to welcome you. We are an internationally based group representing many of the combatant nations of ww2 although to date we have no Russians on the team.

[Sgian Dubh]

Well, any answer to your question is going to be picked apart because terrain, etc will always have a major influence. That being said, I'll throw in my 2 cents.

I would also suggest that the rules would differ based on Infantry only, combined, amour only, etc.

Also, are you talking attack or defense on the part of the AI?

I'm not going to worry about indicating possible spoilers. Anyone opting to read this thread is accepting the possibility of reading something that could diminish the 'fun' of CMBB for themselves.

For infantry and combined arms with a modest amount of cover and/or good masking terrain features I would recommend the following general 'tactics' against the AI:

Prep: Take as much arty and mortars as you can. I lean towards mortars myself. If you have the points to spend, take inf guns and armour capable of using cannister rounds. Oh yeah, take HMGs. If the map is big or terrain is dense, I take some snipers for probe duty (attack or defend).

Defending:

1: If you are defending, let the AI come to you. It tends to employe its forces piece-meal. You job is to take them apart in detail. You should strive for maximum LOS for your mortars or provide a way for them to be highly mobile so you can re-locate them to whatever part of the line the AI is pickeing on.

2: The AI tends to stick to cover (smart), but this can make it somewhat predictable.

3: If you can buy some TRPs, #2 sould give you a good idea where to put them.

Attacking:

1: If you are attacking, pound the bejezus out of the areas around any flags. Always save some mortars of the AT guns that will probable pop up, usually toward the back of the map, if the AI can get good LOS from back there. I had a game where the AI packed 5 AT guns into the same small patch of woods (about 4 tiles worth), because it had excellent LOS across much of the map. Needless to say, I dumped a crap load of mortar fire on them.

2. Take one flag where you can bring the maximum amount of firepower to bear on it and the area surrounding. Occupy the flag with as small of a force as possible, because they may very well perish.

The AI will try to re-take that flag. Again, it tends toward a piecemeal effort, so take it apart in detail.

Overall: If you can find a way to flank and take a rear objective, this really 'disturbs' the AI as it tries to send forces in two directions at once.

Those are just off the top of my head. I'm sure others with more experience will be able to provide for formulaic answers (if they are willing to).

[Monty's Double]

Playing against the AI is like playing a poker player who never bluffs. The secret to beating it is to use its predictability against it, unlike playing a human, where there's a huge amount of bluff and double bluff. The kicker for a lot of us is that what worked in CMBO won't always work in CMBB, because of the added sophistication and options. For example, in CMBO when you assault a flag placed in woods, you can guarantee the AI will have put his AT guns in there, so you drop HE all over it and saunter up. Try that in CMBB and you'll find your tanks taken out by the guns in the trenches you hadn't spotted. Beating the AI is about careful planning and always playing the safe odds, which is why ultimately it can become a little stale. Playing a human opponent forces you to think creatively, and that's something that never loses its appeal.

[laxx]

one question i have is this:

I have always felt that "hidding" in defense until the enemy is right at your door step (<40 metres) then you open up with max firepower is always better than firing at attrition when the enemy is at long range.

I usually play German, and somehow, the ammo is usualy depleted too quickly on attrition defense. Besides the Russian attacker being ambushed will more often than not, break and panic.

what are some of your thoughts on this ?

[reinald@berlin.com]

Hmm. dunno. Having a hard time against the AI sometimes. I recently lost the "SP-Der Manstein kommt!" op. I always let the AI have +25% extra in troops and experience +3. What does the +3 in experience do?

The point is: There are other factors than AI-predictability like being outnumbered by it, the AI starting in better positions or the designer having placed the AIs teams well that can ruin your day. Mebbe, I'm just plain lousy, but I still enjoy battling the AI.

[Monty's Double]

Don't get me wrong, playing against the AI is still fun, especially in well-designed scenarios. The AI does best when it has lots of set up options; when it's presented with an obvious line of attack it usually takes it (as opposed to pushing a diversionary force down to flush out the defenders, that a human might try). As to the comment about opening up late, that depends on a lot of factors. To win as the defender you don't have to kill much, you just have to hold the flags. I like to use a handful of units (HMGs, mortars firing through an HQ, sharpshooters etc) to open up at long range and slow down the enemy's advance. They can even be used to draw barrages if they are well spaced. Infantry squads are best saved until closer, I agree, but even then there are exceptions. I've seen company-sized assaults drop and call in arty on a couple of half squads that fired a few rounds and bugged out. I try and used a layed defence where possible, as it slows down the attacker and makes him rush his final assault.

That's the plan anyway, I'm not claiming it works!

[whizbang]

Although the title perhaps suggests otherwise, the purpose of my posting was not to imply that there were some simple tactics that one could adopt which would allow a player to beat the AI whenever he or she wanted. The whole purpose of the AAR’s that we have and are continuing to develop is to teach, with real examples, some of the basic tactics (and there are scores and scores of them) which will help less experienced players to hone their skills and develop a measure of self confidence at CMBB before launching into the world of PBEM’s.

I could not agree more with Monty’s Double when he says that “Playing a human opponent forces you to think creatively, and that's something that never loses its appeal”. But many of us who are not experienced war-gamers need to walk before we can run. We need to get in the habit of carefully examining the terrain before we commit and place our forces. We need to get accustomed to keeping our squads together under the watchful eye of HQ. We need to learn how to be patient when attacking a well defended situation. Much of this is in the manual but a well written AAR, especially using a scenario that the reader may well have tried and failed to crack before, is likely to be not only a better learning tool but also more entertaining than thumbing through pages of text.

I also suspect that I am not a lone wolf crying in the wilderness since I see that close to a thousand players have already taken a look at our AAR on Gefechtsaufklaerung.

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by reinald@berlin.com:

[snip] I always let the AI have +25% extra in troops and experience +3. What does the +3 in experience do? [snip]

Mebbe, I'm just plain lousy, but I still enjoy battling the AI.

I'm not surprised if you have trouble beating the AI giving them those bonuses, unless you're a REALLY experienced player. Each +1 in experience raises the experience of the AI's units one level. So +1 would make greens into regulars, +2 makes them vets, and +3 makes them crack. Regulars would become elite. So if you're playing against a +3 experience bonus, you're fighting virtually all crack and elite troops. That's quite a BIG boost. Crack troops respond quickly to orders, shoot very straight, and don't break easily. A green unit will still SAY "green" on the unit, but it will fight like it was crack.

If you add to that a +25 force bonus, you've given the AI yet another very large boost. At that point, you're arguably no longer really playing the scenario the designer designed...it wasn't supposed to be that much of a challenge.

I'd try maybe just giving the AI a +1 or +2 experience boost, with no force bonus, until you can beat it consistently, then move the ante up a little if you begin to feel unchallenged.

[ March 05, 2003, 02:06 PM: Message edited by: CombinedArms ]

[Silvio Manuel]

Adding Exp.levels really affects the final score too, far more than adding more % of troops (i.e. +25%). AFAIK, when you kill a Regular unit that has been boosted up +3 to Elite, it is still counted as a Regular unit in points, not the Elite cost.

So if you add +200%, and the AI stupidly loses all those extra troops, it REALLY hurts its score. But if it loses the normal % of Regular troops, boosted up to Elite, it only loses Regular points.

[reinald@berlin.com]

Regulars would become elite.

Ah, err ... and I was already wondering about those russki infantry squads that come under fire by three tanks + 2 HMGs and still continue to slaughter my poor Schützen.

[Silvio Manuel]

reinald,

Yeah I don't like facing Elites either- which, granted are rare in the field. But you get the same effect if the scenario designer used the %-Chance-to-be-Fanatical feature, and you just have to exterminate some steely squad on your flank w/ 5 darned tanks shooting at it, or better yet a flamethrower since that's the only thing that can rout Elites and Fanatics.

[Scott B]

Originally posted by Silvio Manuel:

Yeah I don't like facing Elites either- which, granted are rare in the field. But you get the same effect if the scenario designer used the %-Chance-to-be-Fanatical feature, and you just have to exterminate some steely squad on your flank w/ 5 darned tanks shooting at it, or better yet a flamethrower since that's the only thing that can rout Elites and Fanatics.

Although an important distinction is that fanatical conscripts still shoot like crap.

Scott

[Kingfish]

Originally posted by laxx:

I have always felt that "hidding" in defense until the enemy is right at your door step (<40 metres) then you open up with max firepower is always better than firing at attrition when the enemy is at long range.

Sometimes opening up from a distance has it's advantages, in that it will disrupt and delay your opponent's advance and force him to deploy prematurely.