Covert Sniper Posted January 17, 2007 Share Posted January 17, 2007 Gentlemen, I bought this game a couple of months ago and have been tinkering with it for the last few of weeks. I enjoy the gameplay and have had some fun but I seem to be missing something very basic about what I should be doing. I have been playing Fall Weiss and the scenario that starts with the invasion of Norway, beginner level with no experieince advantage for the computer. If I play the Axis, all goes well until about 43 or 44 and then everything just seems to unravel at once and it is not even worth playing out the scenario. On the Allied side, I just never seem to even be able to get the ball rolling and get on to the continent. What am I missing? Should I be playing a different scenario to climb up the learning curve faster? Is this game tailored to human vs human rather than human vs AI play? I am also curious about the AI and if/how it recieves a handicap. It seems that the computer has an uncanny knack to do things like locate my subs even though I move them away from the convoy lane and run silent after a successful convoy interdiction. The computer also out flanks my ground troops by maneuvering just out of my spotting range until it is time to strike. It is like the computer knows where I am as it rarely walks into the surprise attack situations that I constanly find myself confronted with. Does the computer recieve an MPP bonus or occasional free research/production? It seems to throw a lot of second, third and even fourth generation techology at me while I am fully invested in research and still waiting for second generation tech to be developed and when it is I am so strapped for MPPs with all the reinforcing that the hope of buying better units or even upgrading existing units is nearly out of the question. Is there a tech strategy order of importance that I should follow? Same question for diplomacy. HELP MR. WIZARD!!! Can someone get me on the right track? This game has a lot of potential but I need to get pointed in the right direction. Thanks, Randy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted January 17, 2007 Share Posted January 17, 2007 you could benifit by watching real pros at work. however, to beat the AI seems you're playing too safe and too predictably. It's not history channel this real war. Move you units in aggressive position, use terrain to your advantage. Use Experience with airfleets by training them on soft targets and more importantly ignore worthless fronts that may have some historical value. Concentrate on victory. With Axis or Allies you should conclude the game fairly quickly the AI lacks the fundamental ability to attack when actually has the iniative.. That is why it will never amount too much... Losing to real opponents Head to Head will train you, add your name to the ICQ list or E-mail someone for a PBEM game. PanzerLiga is rich with such individuals. My Basic strategy for Allies: Go all out with France, Kill 2 or 3 Greys... but hold till Summer of '40 Abandon Egypt Attack France as D-Day in 1942 after the Germans are preoccuppied with Russia. Use a Strong Corps defense in Russia and use it's terrain to maximize defensive lines.. Rivers and Mountains along with short supply make that feat for any opponent. you need about 6 Western Allied Fighters, or I advise it. That or a whole bunch of Land units. Crowd France, keep your navy together and supplied along with your units with HQs and slowly take 1 objective at a time. Like Brest-Paris-Benelux... Then focus on another Target penetrating the Heart of the Reich. Even if Russia is torn, you'll soon Rape the Reich in the West. With the Right Techs you cannot lose and probably can end the game by Summer of '43 As Axis you probably end the game by 1940 if you know what you're doing I have without even invading France. Just DOW Russia Turn one and storm right down the Middle, she's incapable of stopping you, you can probably kill France as the same time or wait 8 months to do that after Your near Moscow. I find that a boring Challenge BTW: learn with Axis, less Naval Manuevers and a smaller working area to begin with. PBEM me at TMSFORMS@AOL.COM with a turn when you're ready and I'll train you by smooshing you it's always fun that way, losing 10 Xs makes you a decent player fast, copy what you see Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BioWizard Posted January 17, 2007 Share Posted January 17, 2007 Readings all the posts from this forum helps a lot. For having fun playing humans online, just get ICQ and post your number in the "ICQ contact list" thread. There is nothing like seeing the moves of someone else to learn. As Liam said for playing the AI, start by playing the Axis. More action at the beginning of the Fall Weiss campaign and it is fun to have all those small victories against worthless minors. Kill them in one turn (Belgium and Denmark for example). This gives practice as to unit placement to maximize efficiency. Understand the influence of supply, very well explained in the manual. Lots of good info in there! General strategy for Axis: Concentrate firepower and kill countries fast with overwhelming forces. With Russia: build on, hide in high defense positions, be very patient and do a huge counter-attack when you have enough units and there is a second front in the West. Most important techs for Axis: infantry tech, tank tech and anti-tank tech. Industrial tech is mostly important for Russia and USA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaMonkey Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 Welcome Sniper to SC......the AI has really gotten that good? Seems like its still a chump to me. The AI doesn't have any special abilities if you play beginner without any experience allocation. You should be on even ground. Group your Kampfgruppes around HQs that are in supply, 8 minimum. A good composition is about 4 armies, 4 corps, a couple of Tanks. Bring in some air support, perhaps handled by another HQ, use your bomber for recon and reducing the AI's supply sources. Learn the fine art of examining your units for supply, readiness and morale and attaching them to your HQs. Try to build up your experience on key units, allowing them to make the kills and not taking adverse combat results. Save them for the "special moments" where the game hangs in the balance, plan ahead, hoard your MPPs and funnel the AI into your strength, set up diversions. But above all...enjoy the game, learn the mechanics and then play these nasty humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaoJah Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 The best way to practice against the AI, I think, is trying out a Sealion (the invasion on the UK). That teaches you alot of the mechanics to play against the AI. For a Sealion you need - your fleet intact and around Denmark - all 4 planes in line to bomb London - infantry research - amphiby three armies from Brussels - amphiby one corps or army from Brest - the paratroop ready to take London - focus 100% on getting London on turn 1 - A HQ ready to transport to London On turn 1 you - bomb Londond with all 4 planes - do the amphibies - move your fleet around the armies to protect them - ready your paratroops On turn 2 you - bomb Londond with all 4 planes - scout with your fleet - land all 3 armies and attack Londond with them - land your paratroops in London - transport you HQ to London (if you can) - transport another corps and army to London (if you can) On turn 3, 4 and 5 you go to Manchester. You'll probably fail at first. Try again. And again. Untill you know how to do it... Once you know how to do a Sealion against the AI, you know alot more about the game... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bromley Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 You might want to take a look at Voice of Reason's guide to SC2 combat. The best thing about it, for me, was the clarification of exactly how damage is calculated. No longer do you have to expect a unit to do 4 only to find when it closes with the enemy that it does 1. Even if you're not an equation person, there's some easy reading there too. http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=34;t=002077#000001 My top tip is to use the Auto-Assist feature with your HQs. Attaching a unit to an HQ gives it a sizable readiness bonus. If you leave it to the AI to manage, you'll end up with a load of corps and damaged units attached. Right click on the HQ. Select Set Mode. Choose Auto-Assist. Then, when you have an HQ selected, you can right click on any attached units and unattach and likewise, if you have any slots left, right click on unattached units and attach them. The reason why you use Auto-Assist and not Manual is that A-A will attach units up to the maximum if you forget to, whereas with Manual you have to check every turn that the HQs are being used correctly. EDIT: BTW, I believe that the sub thing is the only AI "cheat". If the AI or a human raid convoys, you just get a report on which convoy was raided. AFAIK, if you raid vs. the AI, it knows exactly which tile your sub was in. It doesn't know where you move to, and if you put your sub on silent it shouldn't know where you are even if you park on the convoy lanes. Nevertheless, you can see how knowing the exact position of a sub when it raids can help track it down even a turn later. There have been a load of new scripts added to help the AI (i.e. Spain joins the AI Axis without diplo sometimes, human neutral Italy invades Greece, free UK AI enginees in Egypt etc.). I haven't checked, but I'd guess that these largely kick in if the AI is in trouble. [ January 18, 2007, 02:02 AM: Message edited by: Bromley ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covert Sniper Posted January 19, 2007 Author Share Posted January 19, 2007 Thanks for the responses, they all helped quite a bit. I think my biggest mistakes were: 1. Allowing the computer to handle HQ attachment. For some silly reason I assumed that this would be a task well suited for the computer to handle but upon closer examination found that I was mistaken. 2. Not paying close enough attention to supply. I was originally playing as though a supplied unit was a happy unit. Now I see that the level of supply is an important factor. 3. Finally, I had fallen into the History Channel trap. I was doing a replay of WWII. The most pleasent revelation about this game is that you are not forced into a rehash of WWII. The reason that I usually avoid buying wargames centered around a specific war or battle is that the boundry conditions essentially force you down the historic path which eventually leads to the historic outcome. SC2 is quite different in that respect. It is becoming quite fun. Thanks again, Randy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_j_rambo Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 Have fun kid, welcome to the party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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