Matrix Games Forums

Hello everyone,
I’ve been playing the 1943 campaign as Germany against the AI. I’m keeping track of Soviet AFV losses, and while the difficulty is challenging, I’ve set the AI morale to 110 and everything else to 120.
My concern is that the Soviet AFV losses seem quite high (Average of 1.2 k AFV since July up to December 1943) and I’m worried the AI might struggle to launch a proper offensive in 1944—potentially making the campaign stale or less interesting.
Is this normal? Does the AI usually recover and mount a decent offensive later on?
So far, the AI has been quite challenging, which I really enjoy, but I’d appreciate advice from anyone who has played this campaign. This are the actual loses: https://imgshare.cc/sjsup4ph

AFV losses should not be a problem for the Reds; they look a little high, but at this point the Soviets are producing upwards of 600 or 700 AFVs per turn, and in some classes production was higher in 1942, so that aspect is probably fine

The AI will struggle to attack you for other reasons, mostly just not being very good at attacking.

You'll need to find a human opponent if you want a challenge

As Q-Ball says, I would recommend playing the attacking player if you are against the AI. So Axis early war or the Soviets later war. The AI is just not much good at attacking.

You can try to reduce your own "Logistics, Transport and Fortification Levels" to below 100%, this way your units will not get that much Supplies, Forts and and therefore are not able to destroy as many Soviet AFVs.
Alternatively/Additionally you can alter your own rules, like not using Supply Priority 4, not using FBDs or not assigning more than 2-3 SUs per Corps HQ (or only use 2 as a Support Level [if you have SU management automated]) and to not attach any SUs to Divisions (or not more than 1 or so). Similarly you can alter your use of Defensive GS ADs.

Wiedrock wrote: Sun Nov 09, 2025 11:48 am You can try to reduce your own "Logistics, Transport and Fortification Levels" to below 100%, this way your units will not get that much Supplies, Forts and and therefore are not able to destroy as many Soviet AFVs.
Alternatively/Additionally you can alter your own rules, like not using Supply Priority 4, not using FBDs or not assigning more than 2-3 SUs per Corps HQ (or only use 2 as a Support Level [if you have SU management automated]) and to not attach any SUs to Divisions (or not more than 1 or so). Similarly you can alter your use of Defensive GS ADs.

I understand that. I was just curious about the actual behavior of the AI. At first, I didn’t expect much—but after 20 turns, the AI has successfully pushed me back, and the Wehrmacht is heavily damaged and retreating along the entire front. So the result has far exceeded my expectations.

My only concern, in terms of what I would consider “decent” AI behavior, is whether it truly knows when it’s worth pausing to regroup rather than continuing to push. I also wonder if anyone who has already played this campaign knows whether, by 1944, the Red Army is still a formidable force, or if it simply burns through its tanks until there’s nothing left to fight with.

Ido not own the Scenario, so no idea.

The Soviets lost about 20k Tanks each year of the war which was like 100% of their annual production each time. Maybe this helps?!
And individual tanks (Soviet ones) are not as important/capable as you may expect. They are alright but not 'the one' asset the AI would need to have to advance at all.

If the AI slows down to levels you do not like, you can alter the Balancing options at any time.