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I was planning to beat the AI, for my own amusement but also for everyone else who would be interested in how it could be done.

I choose 4 enemies which is all at war with each other, this will make things harder for the AI since it has problem with priorities. This is the situation:

I am playing the fraction with capital in Darking View. I marked likely borders at about turn 5 or so and likely initial troops movement. For me it is imperative to seize Bluedesert Hole as fast as possible since it isn’t that far from my southern neighbour.

I don’t expect much activity in the north due to the limited production there. I hope that the northeasten country will engage my eastern neighbour and release pressure on my front. One thing that speaks against that is the mountains in the border region. But the AI is notorious to disregard these obvious difficulties, at least could it give me time for y grand plan:

I will begin with 3 or 4 frontal HQ’s, one guarding the north, one the east and one or two HQ’s to attack the south. One to attack New and then turn to capture Cattlepouch and one to seize Tircastle. After that will it be something of a mopping up situation and I will probably advance on all front and I might construct an additional strategic armoured reserve( meaning a new HQ with strong armoured units attached instead of the operational armoured reserves which is armoured units attached to the frontal HQ’s) the strategic reserve is used to exploit some gap somewhere or to make a hole in the front at some critical point

Turn 5:

Everything is going as planned. Borders is shaping up almost as expected. The two northern countries seem to clatch in the next couple of turns but my eastern neighbour is occupied in capturing the east most cities.
I have many units as you an see but they are all weak with about 30 infantry each, at the moment am I constructing 120 infantry and 12 bazookas (due to the AI’s love for armoured cars) each turn.I Addition I am building some staff trucks an 20 This will change once I get my med tanks.

turn 7:

First contact with my southern enemy and I’ve encircled a careless thrust. I expect my med tanks and bazookas to do very well against the armoured cars. I also increased the average infantry division from 20-30 to 40, but I am experiencing problem with low readyness and will produce more supplies.

Turn 10:

All other fronts is stable and the southern is shaping up nicely. I upgraded to infantry 2. As you can see from the minimap is all the other contries engaged with each other giving me the time I need

Turn 12:

I start to feel the need for artillery now when bigger units start to pop up, I am still outnumbering my opponent but an assault would mean unnecessary losses. I will surround them instead though this takes a bit more time than artillery supported attacks. The soon to be captured cities will be used to construct artillery and an airforce.

I also created a second front to the east to meet the threat of an advancing army

Turn 14:

My yellow army has more or less out of enemies and are now ready for deployment elsewhere. The front to the east is held by three capable armies: light blue to the north, the pink in the middle and the red in south.

Turn 16:

The I’d-really-could-use-some-more-production syndrome starts to kick in, at the moment the wish list reads as follow:
tank destroyers
Trucks
Halftracks
Infantry

I guess the most important ones is tank destroyers and trucks. Perhaps I don’t need 5 artilleries per turn…

Turn 17:

At this point I am using my extra troops to penetrate the line and gaining access to the town located under that enemy unit with strength of 54. The AI is now starting to field heavy tanks and tank destroyers and I’m a little reluctant to attack such forces with an armoured force only consistent of medium tanks though they are in superior numbers. Luckily is my airforce starting to take shape but it is still a bit toothless against heavy tanks

Turn 18:

Change of objective for my armies again: yellow army does now support pink at the flank while red is marching without much opposition inland.
I captured a new city which is now committed to tank destroyers, no tank will be safe now on!

Turn 20:

At this point I have about 50% of the needed victory points, more production than anyone else and the largest army. I have more or less already won. I’ll do the moping up tomorrow

Hey Ande, thanks for the AAR! One thing I was wondering about was if you were playing against AI, AI+ or AI++?

this time was it only the AI but there will be others and perhaps I even post them in the AAR forum where they belong 

 How are you capturing those screen shots Andy?

prt sc button on key board though I'm sure there are a more elegant way

 I tried that. it doesn't seem to do anything...Does it save somewhere i'm not aware of?

well you need to open a paint document for example and then paste with ctrl-v

Yes it saves to the clipboard - for screenshots I usually paste it to MS Paint, then save as jpg to save space, and upload here as required.
 
Note that there can be quite severe limits on file size - I don't know what the ruels are but sometimes 200kb is all the boar will allow....others 2000kb is allowed!  So it pays to get rid of all the dross from pictures, such as the black surrounds.

I think you're occassionally mixing up west and east, don't you? [:D]

Anyway, nice effort. Now, hunt them down and kill 'em! [8D]