Moderator: Hubert Cater
ORIGINAL: Alcibiades73
As a new player, it was mighty discouraging to kill 10 or more units for several turns in a row and find that the Red Army has gotten yet larger every turn!
ORIGINAL: Shellshock
That sounds a lot like my experience as the German when playing War in the East for the first time. No matter how many brilliant encirclements I conducted, there was always another wall of Russians beyond to blow through. The sheer staggering size of the Red Army always gets me.
ORIGINAL: Alcibiades73
Is it better the second time around - or are you still "shellshock[ed]" from all those Katyushas flying by you?
ORIGINAL: Shellshock
I'm going to wait until there are a few more patches.
I should revive my old shellshock avatar. [:'(]
ORIGINAL: Alcibiades73
As a new player, it was mighty discouraging to kill 10 or more units for several turns in a row and find that the Red Army has gotten yet larger every turn! I felt this was too much, at least at the Intermediate difficulty. It felt like I am playing an RPG, not a historical strategy game. But I do appreciate both that 1) AI obviously does need some "cheats" against the human player; and that 2) balancing the AI is a very difficult endeavor.
I guess I will try it one more go without changing any scripts. Perhaps I might do better this time, since I know the game a wee bit better.
ORIGINAL: Hubert Cater
If you still have an original save from your first game you can actually check to see just how many bonus unit events provided to the AI had actually fired, and how many are still on the list relative to when you first start the game. Note the bonus units for the AI are labelled as such, within the last few pages of UNIT events, and not the expected in game unit events that will occur for any game, e.g. AI or multiplayer.
ORIGINAL: wobbleguts
IMO, Maritime bombers on the other hand are way to powerful. Have you tried them?
ORIGINAL: Hubert Cater
ORIGINAL: Alcibiades73
Thanks for the clarification. It makes me even more inclined to get rid of the free AI units though, since it punishes you to play well.
I can certainly see why you might feel that way, but it really is to help slow down the snowballing effect where things can quickly go downhill once the tide begins to turn.
Some players find it just right, some too much, some not enough.
It is a tricky thing to get just right for all players and all playing styles which is why we make the options available for everyone to fine tune as they prefer from the defaults.
ORIGINAL: Alcibiades73
I no longer have those saves, as I started a new game last night. But for future purposes, how do I check exactly? Do you mean through the pop-up before I load a game - that is, "options" to "advanced" to "scripts" to "unit"? If yes, then what is the indicator that a free unit event did activate? I guess it becomes no longer white and the "x" is gone?
ORIGINAL: Alcibiades73
Italy was overall a mess militarily, but they did have some respectable military assets. In particular, their navy was quite large, and it was not all quantity either. Above all, they had decent, modern fast battleships in the Littorio class ships, and a few other high tier surface combat ships as well. It did have a fatal weakness in lacking aircraft carriers, and I am not sure this could have been remedied in just a year or so.
Ah, anti-submarine technology is another technology I neglected. But with such limited funds as Axis, it's hard to research everything.
ORIGINAL: wobbleguts
Maritime bombers are so powerful in this game that you can destroy an enemy fleet with just a few units.
Glad to know that; and I think that's fair, because I feel carriers are disproportionately strong in this game - relative to both other surface combat ships and land-born air combatants - at least due to the way some nations (e.g. USA and Japan) can amass them. But good to know that there is some non-naval counter to this issue.
3 Maritime bombers will clear the North Sea
ORIGINAL: Hubert Cater
The way it works is if you take a look at the OPTIONS->ADVANCED->SCRIPTS and then UNIT event list, near the last few pages you'll see all the listed events that are labelled as ALLIED AI events.
If let's say you are playing at the Intermediate level, then if you were to count out how many there are listed for the USSR that are not labelled at VETERAN or EXPERT, and then check that list again over time as you play you'll see the applicably listed events will get shorter over time, as once they fire, they are removed from the list.
It will be a good way to see when you are facing down a number of Soviet units, just how many are from the events or not.
The alternative as I had previously mentioned would be to simply start a game at the Green level as that automatically prevents any of the Novice or higher events from firing and just the minimal Green ones will fire which are mostly a few scattered garrision type deployments.
Or you can disable all the Intermediate and Novice Allied AI USSR unit events in your current game as the other way to achieve the same thing if you really wanted to get a feel for the game without any additional USSR AI bonus units.
ORIGINAL: wobbleguts
I was thinking more about the land war in Africa. If Italy had more and better equipped units, could they have repelled the British? Probably not, but I would like to play a what-if game when Italy didn't declare war in 1940.
ORIGINAL: wobbleguts
Not really. I think maritime bombers are basically a game cheat. If the weather is good and you have upgraded them a bit, no enemy naval units stand a chance. A legal cheat I use all the time because it works. 3 Maritime bombers will clear the North Sea of the British Navy and you chase the rest down with your surface fleet.
ORIGINAL: Alcibiades73
ORIGINAL: wobbleguts
I was thinking more about the land war in Africa. If Italy had more and better equipped units, could they have repelled the British? Probably not, but I would like to play a what-if game when Italy didn't declare war in 1940.
Yeah, the Italian army was a basket case. The Germans ought to have given them more help in terms of training and material (at least in terms of licensing).
Playing as Germany, in my last game (and this one) I left the Italians to stew in their own juice. I kept the Africa Corp in Europe ready for the war in Russia and didn't intervene in Africa until I conquered the Balkans/Greece etc. Then I attacked Malta with bombers, landed a SF unit, landed a few SF and armored units in Egypt and cleared the Brits out of N Africa. Italy re-occupied their territories and everyone is happy. But what would have happened if Italy didn't declare war in 1940? Not sure.
ORIGINAL: wobbleguts
Not really. I think maritime bombers are basically a game cheat. If the weather is good and you have upgraded them a bit, no enemy naval units stand a chance. A legal cheat I use all the time because it works. 3 Maritime bombers will clear the North Sea of the British Navy and you chase the rest down with your surface fleet.
I guess I will have to see. I don't have naval targets for a while as Japan; and I don't believe Germany starts out with one. So it will be a while.
ORIGINAL: wobbleguts
Playing as Germany, in my last game (and this one) I left the Italians to stew in their own juice. I kept the Africa Corp in Europe ready for the war in Russia and didn't intervene in Africa until I conquered the Balkans/Greece etc. Then I attacked Malta with bombers, landed a SF unit, landed a few SF and armored units in Egypt and cleared the Brits out of N Africa. Italy re-occupied their territories and everyone is happy.
ORIGINAL: wobbleguts
I would suggest (again) playing as a single power. IMO, playing as the Axis or Allies collectively is unrealistic. Anyways, as Japan, you don't need MB's until you are at war with the USA and CW. As Germany, IMO you need them ASAP to hit the Royal Navy.
ORIGINAL: Alcibiades73
On Maritime Bombers: Germany can only recruit one, I think. So I am not sure how it is going to be pivotal in taking out the Royal Navy
I forgot that I edited the game so build limits were increased for all major powers.
ORIGINAL: wobbleguts
ORIGINAL: Alcibiades73
On Maritime Bombers: Germany can only recruit one, I think. So I am not sure how it is going to be pivotal in taking out the Royal Navy
Oops. My bad. I forgot that I edited the game so build limits were increased for all major powers. That way I was able to build 3 MB's and base them in Denmark/Belgium. They destroyed anything that came too close.
ORIGINAL: Illiniwek80
Why didn't you just use soft build limits?
ORIGINAL: Illiniwek80
I forgot that I edited the game so build limits were increased for all major powers.
Why didn't you just use soft build limits?
I did, but edited the games build limits as well in case I wanted to play without soft builds in the future. I've heard the AI doesn't handle soft build well so I changed the build limit for all major powers to make a more satisfying game for me if I choose to play it again without soft builds. Probably should have explained it better.
