Are you all playing on VERY HARD?

[fbastos]

I've been playing on HARD.. are you guys playing on VERY HARD? I was worried about the AI cheat level, but if it is workable, I will restart my long scenario.

Regards,
F.

[Fallschirmjager]

Its easy to kick around the AI no matter the level.
To get the most out of the game PBEM is the only way to play.

[Platoonist]

I'm playing on HARD. I'm saving VERY HARD for any second campaign game I play in the future.

Two weeks of play and I'm only up to Feb '42. If I get thru this current one it'll be a miracle. [8D]

[mapr]

Playing Full campaing on Historical level as allied... April/42 now. Gave some help to AI by not reading manual before I started playing, or no playing the tutorial. Did not even read through forums.

Unfortunately KB got crippled when attacking to PH and in 1st CV combat AI's CV's reacted to base Hex or got there for some other reason... And not further progress for AI in any frontier.

Only learning the game and trying how stupid I can get and still win with AI, I'll play PBM as soon as I am ready and get free 'slot' from my UV games.

Btw, does someone know if there is any scenario where AI is not useless?

[bradfordkay]

I play on historical. I have always hated computer AIs knowing what my units orders are. I handicap myself with my tendency to forget what the heck I was planning to do with that unit (name any unit at any particular time) anyway...

Really, I do take frequent periodic breaks (of a day, or a few days) and have a tendency to forget to switch unit homebases, destinations, stand down air transport, etc. This regularly finds my units doing something stupid. Do this while playing blotto on occasion, and you'll find that even the historic AI can keep you amused...

[drw61]

I restarted the grand campaign on very hard after the patch. I am at 5/20/42 and have sunk over 500 Japanese ships for 129 of mine! I did this by ignoring the lower half of the map and taking Marcus, Iwo Jima, Bonin, Batan and then Aparri. I filled the bases with air power and based every carrier I had out of Iwo Jima, which has decimated their shipping and allowed me to resupplied the PI. The entire time the Japanese carriers and big guns have been playing around in the Java area and have never came to contend with my moves. Matrix needs to beef up the beginning defenses of these Islands to help balance this out. (I can see that a PBEM game is the way to go, but I can’t imagine playing that long of a game!)

[fbastos]

Its easy to kick around the AI no matter the level.

Omg... can you get a Decisive Victory as the Japanese playing on Very Hard?

Most humbled.

F.

[Culiacan Mexico]

ORIGINAL: fbastos
I've been playing on HARD.. are you guys playing on VERY HARD? I was worried about the AI cheat level, but if it is workable, I will restart my long scenario.

Regards,
F.

I am still learning on 'Hard'. I am kind of waiting for the next patch, which I believe will have OOB changes and require a restart to take effect before getting too deep into any campaign. Perhaps I should practice on ‘Very Hard’.

[BartM]

I play on very hard only just to give the computer a chance, and yes, if not careful, the computer can really surprise you. Sadly right now, the AI seems to baby it's carriers from beginning to end, and really places them in weird places, even when a new front is open, they kinda go about their merry way ignoring you... though...I have found at the "super cheat" leave of the AI at very hard, sometimes plans to attack somewhere have been stopped cold, with HUGE losses on my part. (playing Allies), I dont dare play the Japaneese against the AI at very hard for awhile [:D]

[brisd]

Still on my first campaign game on hard level (vs Allied AI) and at the rate I am playing, it will be 2005 before I can worry about very Hard. [:'(]

[Grotius]

I'm in June 1942 as the Allies in scenario 15 on Hard, and the AI is giving me a good game. I've deliberately played in quasi-historical fashion, even though I suspect I could just confound the AI by concentrating all my forces on one spot and pushing from there, or by sending my CVs to the DEI early, etc. Instead, I'm building up in Noumea and Wake Island, planning to do the Macarthur-Nimitz two-pronged push, etc. I'm having great fun with this game.

For my next AI game, I'll play the IJN vs the Allies on Very Hard. I'm not convinced it will be easy to achieve a Decisive Victory with that setup.

I may also try one (but only one) PBEM, depending on how RL goes.

[Titanwarrior89]

Playing the long one. AI is set on Historical. will play hard or very hard next game. Time now is 5 Oct 42. I've never played E-Mail but have played other games on line alot. I don't mind playing the AI, in fact I kind of like it. Why, because sometimes playing on line/Pbem(I would think) can be a real problem with the attitude of some of the players out there. But I may try Pbem one day. I see how some of the people don't get along even in the forum, so it makes me wonder what some of the Pbem games could be like.[:D]

[Greco, Thomas A]

I made the mistake of playing the long campaign on "histrical". Its now 20May42 and allies hold all of SRA except the north coast of Borneo. My B-17s from Ambonia and Menado make southern Phillipines uninhabitable for IJN. AI seems confused and lacks focus. I have both ends of New Guinea and 2 USMC divisions on the canal.
Will the AI ever put up a fight or should I quit and restart on very hard? I hated the cheating the AI did in PacWar on the harder levels. Is it the same in WITP?

[DrewMatrix]

Has anyone tried this (I used to do a similar thing in PacWar):

Play Head to Head but set the AI to control eveything for one side. Say have it control all the Allies if you want to play the Japanese.

Then you look in from time to time when it gets grossly confused to give it a little direction. For example you may move a lot of it's forces to the DEI if you think the AI isn't shifting forces there as the strategical situation warrants.

Then let the AI handle the details.

In Pacwar at least something like that (occasionally looking at the other side and reshuffling things a bit) helped the AI.

[Herrbear]

That is my concern also. Frag said in a post somewhere that the AI peeks on Hard and Peeks and Cheats on Very Hard. I don't mind that it peeks and maybe sees that you aren't putting CAP up on a base and decides to attack it then or sees where you are going and either gets out of the way or maybe intercepts you, but I don't want to see it use things like it gets to fire twice the amount of ammo or 8" shells seem like 12" shells or 250 lb bombs act like 500 lb bombs.

I would like to know what "Cheats" means.

[Grotius]

I haven't noticed any obvious cheats at all on Hard, even though I know they exist. On Very Hard, people have said that the combat bonuses for the AI aren't all that noticeable. But I haven't tried it yet.

I'm pretty curious to see how a human will do against Allied AI on Very Hard in the grand campaign. I'm looking forward to trying it. Another interesting scenario might be to play Japan in a 1944 or 1945 scenario against Allied AI on Very Hard.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

I haven't noticed any obvious cheats at all on Hard, even though I know they exist. On Very Hard, people have said that the combat bonuses for the AI aren't all that noticeable. But I haven't tried it yet.

I'm pretty curious to see how a human will do against Allied AI on Very Hard in the grand campaign. I'm looking forward to trying it. Another interesting scenario might be to play Japan in a 1944 or 1945 scenario against Allied AI on Very Hard.

I think the combat bonuses on Very Hard are significant...I am playing Scen 15 vs Jap AI. Japanese land forces are steamrollers and the Bettys and zeros must be avoided and Allied subs have yet to sink one vessel despite dozens of intercepts (although 4 have been sunk and as many damaged and it is only Dec 20, 42[:)])...but it is still possible to win here and there (invasion of Wake and Rabaul were thwarted)

[Grotius]

Ah, someone else had posted that while combat was tougher, you didn't get outrageous results like 60-to-zero fighter losses. Me, I don't mind giving the AI an advantage in combat. It just requires us humans to be better players -- to plan so that we fight on our terms.

[Deathifier]

At hard its peeking isn't very obvious.
I'm playing a game allies vs. Jap hard AI now and the key thing I've noticed (as of April 1942) are:

1) It's carriers are hiding in some backwater hole, I haven't *seen* them since they bombed Pearl Harbour! I mean it knows that all mine are about to roll into the PI with supply and do something...
2) It behaves more reactionary in China. On historical it moved a little bit around when you attacked. On hard it moves a lot more. Unfortunately it still doesn't move enough and the result is more units just get crushed.
3) It has attacked one base on northern Borneo, and that one base has no oil. In fact it has yet to capture any oil...
4) It is stuck at a reinforced singapore with 17 units.
5) In march it finally revealed it's master plan to win the game, invade Mindanano! Yes, excellent idea, but, uh, it's units are stuck to bases. After chasing my troops (which are the initial ones plus a PA div from the islands and arriving just before the japs the Aus 1st Cav) from north of the island way around south the AI has left its key division in SW of Davao, which continues to hold out vs. the initial troops landed there.
6) It is totally confused as to how to take Rabul, well, ok, it is confused as to how to defeat the 6 CA's, CL's and DD's there. The only troops it got ashore are when the ships were disbanded in port. To its credit betty attacks and some surface combat has killed 1/3rd of the initial contingent, and the surface combat was because of a fast transport effort (don't ask why it didn't send a BB or 4, a conventional transport TF and trash the joint).
8) After my resupply and reinforcement of the PI (uh, 1 extra US Div...) retook control of the island (half the AI got stuck at Legaspi, where I spent 2 and a half months killing one division, the other half got stuck at Clark) it decided to reinforce the place! Yes about 5 turns after I corner its key forces due to a bad retreat and a bunch of tanks trash a couple of base forces on the eastern end a pile of troops unload at Vegan.
Helloooo, bit late now!

So the AI changes its behaviour and can act a bit better on what you do (at least in China) but it still has some huge flaws that render it incapable of mounting an effective assault. Combat advantages simply make it harder to hold at various places, it won't make the AI any smarter.

- Deathifier

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

Ah, someone else had posted that while combat was tougher, you didn't get outrageous results like 60-to-zero fighter losses. Me, I don't mind giving the AI an advantage in combat. It just requires us humans to be better players -- to plan so that we fight on our terms.

Not 60 to zero fighter losses but 8 to zero losses...for eg a zero unit beat the AVG (with 98 morale, an altitude advantge and a 1/5:1 ration in numbers and a great air leader).