Would Sir like extra bombs with that?

[Chuske]

Great AAR Loki. Any ideas how you might improve things to get a decisive victory and get to Berlin earlier? Do you think the rule changes in recent versions have made things harder or is the AI just better now?

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Chuske

Great AAR Loki. Any ideas how you might improve things to get a decisive victory and get to Berlin earlier? Do you think the rule changes in recent versions have made things harder or is the AI just better now?

Challenging gives the AI a really useful bonus that +/- 10% on CV leads to a lot of marginal battles and esp in Italy there is no easy way around that - apart from using naval invasions etc.

I wanted to test an Italy strategy and I think I convinced myself that the usual 'take Rome' and 'go home' model really is the best. In a PBEM a German player might under-resouce Italy (I've made this mistake hoping to make up the VP via excess garrisons) but the AI puts in enough that the gains are outweighed by the cost.

Again, esp for the AI, picking your invasion spot in France is critical. My best ever result followed from a Pas de Calais landing as I was up against the Rhine by the start of the winter and everything else then happened as the German 1945 morale levels wrecked their army.

Another thing is maybe to be more rigorous about pockets. Since the AI (ahem) cheats a wee bit when threatened by encirclement you can't pull off the 2-3 turn tightening of the noose that works in PBEM. Create and seal your pockets in the same operation, that way you get to destroy units and its destroyed units + bombing that puts the Germans into a resource crisis.

Having said all that, I'm not too disappointed at a draw. One good thing of an AI game is you can do most turns in an hour or so - clearly you are not optimising but its 'good enough' and gets the game moving.

[LiquidSky]

I've been flirting with the idea of putting one or maybe even 2 of the FJ units in Rome and leaving them their even though the city gets surrounded. With a level 4 fort and Heavy Urban...and a depot with enough supplies for them to last until the year 2000...I wonder if it would be impossible for the allies to take.

And with the airfield..you could always fly the divisions out later.

Also...I am curious if they would even be isolated if you use the FJ Headquarters as well.

Something I will have to test