Challenging Level Difficulty Question

[actrade]

I think I read here that when setting difficulty to challenging, Soviet units will reform their line every turn without having to use movement points. If that is true, would doing recon missions even be worthwhile since the AI will can move whatever it needs wherever it needs to each turn?

[carlkay58]

actrade -

The AI Bonus levels are:

< 110 everything is normal and the AI has limited cheats

110+ AI will pool all of their units which are not isolated or ZOC-locked off-map and then allocate and perform attacks from the pool and then form a defensive line from that.

120+ AI will be able to substantially increase their ability to disrupt the enemy elements in combat. This lowers the opposing units CVs drastically and can cause units to rout/shatter upon occasion. This ability is limited to the Jun 41 - Nov 41 and Apr 42 - Nov 42 for the Axis. The Soviets are limited to Dec 41 to Mar 42 and from Dec 42 to the end of the war.

120(or 125)+ AI will automatically succeed every leadership check

The other advantages are to gain the percentage in various stages - such as freight is multiplied by level, fort building is multiplied by level, leadership ratings are multiplied by level and then rounded down to an integer, etc.

The most common thing as a Human vs AI is to keep the Human Morale level at 100 - otherwise the Soviets or Axis Allies shatter way too easily. I personally keep all of my levels at 100 so I have a good feel for what I can do with my side if I played another human.

[carlkay58]

The RECON air directives are flown in your Air Phase and gather information on the enemy side at the start of your turn so your Ground Phase will benefit from that knowledge.

[actrade]

Thanks Carl.

[actrade]

On the recon issue, I understand you get a snapshot of current locations with difficulty set to challenging, but I guess my point was you won't be able to use recon to see buildups before they happen as you can with normal difficulty.

[carlkay58]

That is correct. The AI is very tricky that way!