Does this game have difficulty levels?

[gradenko2k]

I'm thinking of picking this game up after being inspired by a NatGeo documentary on the bombing of Germany. I also looked at HPS Sims' Defending the Reich but it seemed far too simplistic and abstracted for my taste.

I already noticed that the game has an AI Staff Planner to help delegate some tasks to it (at an expected level of inefficiency), a key feature I was looking for, so that was definitely a good thing to discover too.

Anyway, does this game have difficulty levels so I can ease myself in while learning the ropes? I really appreciated that kind of feature with my last 2 purchases War In The Pacific-AE and War In The East.

[lastdingo]

I found no real difficulty setting.

The learning comes rather from playing short campaigns.

I use the AI assistance only for the Balkan defences once I got a good all-round fighter and for night interceptions (switch the AI on at 18:00) because there's no tactic required during the night.

The production system and the detail coordination of most daylight actions is way too important and should not be left to the mediocre AI.

[kaybayray]

Hey Grad <S> [8D]

There are no true "Difficulty Settings" in this game. Rather how much management detail you take on for the side you are operating is the relative difficulty. You can turn over total management to the AI and just sit and watch. You can select a particular unit or group of units to manage and let the AI do everything else. You can manage every aspect of your forces and leave nothing to the AI. But the level of detail that you manage your forces with is really the only true difficulty level in the game.

There are short campaigns that focus on partiular parts of the overall strategic campaign. Each would be like a subsection of the larger overall campaign. Running those short campaigns allows you to focus on only a small portion of the overall air war. So in those terms the shorter campaigns compared to the larger overall campaign my be another relative form of a difficulty setting.

You might check out the War Room for some information on how to run more difficult campaigns or easier ones. There are many ways to setup a game so that you can run some, none or all of either side or both simultaneously for that matter.

I find the AI rather stupid especially for the Allies on the BTR portion. The AI is much better at setting up interception than planning the strategic bombing campaign. But even there it is pretty poor. Howver the depth and breadth of this games makes it a very fun and challenging game when you take on everything. The possibilities are unlimited IMO.

Regards,

KayBay [8D]