AI/Scenarios vs PBEM/online

Alby · Post by **Alby** » Sun Jul 15, 2001 9:32 pm

I was just wondering how many people out there play against the AI exclusively and how many others never play vs the AI.
I myself vay rarely play scenarios or play against the AI.
how about the rest of you warriors?
Just curious, theres always talk about how changing the oobs would screw up the scenarios, just wondering how many people actually play scenarios/campaigns ect ect....

Drex · Post by **Drex** » Sun Jul 15, 2001 10:22 pm

Whenever I get tired of being beat by my pbem opponents I go play a scenario or campaign to recharge myself. When the AI beats me nobody knows but me. But I prefer pbem by far. I am looking forward to getting my Mega-campaign though.

Drex · Post by **Drex** » Sun Jul 15, 2001 10:22 pm

Whenever I get tired of being beat by my pbem opponents I go play a scenario or campaign to recharge myself. When the AI beats me nobody knows but me. But I prefer pbem by far. I am looking forward to getting my Mega-campaign though.

bchapman · Post by **bchapman** » Sun Jul 15, 2001 10:32 pm

90% Pbem, 10% scenerios or campaigns. One good thing about playing the AI is that if you are short on time, it doesn't care how long you take between turns. But it is so much more exciting playing against a human opponent.

Warrior · Post by **Warrior** » Sun Jul 15, 2001 11:44 pm

I played against the AI for about 9 months. When I felt I wouldn't get totally stomped into the ground, I found PBEM opponents. I still get stomped, of course, but at least I have a fighting chance.

I rarely play the AI anymore unless I'm testing scenarios.

[ July 15, 2001: Message edited by: Warrior ]

Alby · Post by **Alby** » Tue Jul 17, 2001 3:17 am

Bumpo

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Tue Jul 17, 2001 3:48 am

Humans it the way to go. Much more challenging. The best part of the game is the ability to play against another opponent. I like the Big battles.

Possum · Post by **Possum** » Tue Jul 17, 2001 4:04 am

Hello all.
Well, I'm the oppostite, I play exclusivly vs the computer. My main reason is I dislike playing generic battles. I'm much more of a roleplayer than a wargamer; So I find that playing campaigns is much more interesting/satisfying than a one off battle.
I will occasionally play a designed scenario based on a real life battle, Just to see what it's like. (Usually in conjunction with me reading about that battle in a millitary history book.)

ectizen · Post by **ectizen** » Tue Jul 17, 2001 7:20 am

Exclusively AI, at the moment, for two reasons:

1 - I'm still enough of a novice to find the AI challenging

2 - I can play at my own pace. The AI doesn't mind if it takes me two weeks to complete a turn

KG Erwin · Post by **KG Erwin** » Tue Jul 17, 2001 9:02 am

I play exclusively vs the AI, though sometimes it gets tedious when I'm playing the defensive role and simply padding my score. I prefer the convenience of playing at my own pace, plus I enjoy the long campaigns. I can restart it until I get a force mix I'm happy with. The role playing aspect is a part of all this, too. Also, learning the capabilities of the various nationalities is enlightening, in that it gives me some insights that simply reading about the war can't provide. I've always thought that wargames (at least the best ones), teach you about the wars they portray as well as providing an entertaining gaming experience. I still think that the biggest improvement that could be made in SPWaW is to make the AI player able to use historical tactical doctrine for the different armies, but that's another topic.

Krec · Post by **Krec** » Tue Jul 17, 2001 12:34 pm

I play ip/email/AI/Campaign...........latley ive been looking for scenarios that can be played ip or email vs human . i enjoy a good scenario .. the Prokhorovka one is very good against human.....always looking for a good fight............

Alby · Post by **Alby** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 3:35 am

Hmmm seems playing the AI is winning the poll so far!
problem i have playing scenarios vs humans...how many times has the other guy already played it?!, and knows when and where evrything is and happens?? heheh

Alexandra · Post by **Alexandra** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 5:16 am

Originally posted by Alby:
Hmmm seems playing the AI is winning the poll so far!
problem i have playing scenarios vs humans...how many times has the other guy already played it?!, and knows when and where evrything is and happens?? heheh

Interesting PoV Ably. Of course, the same can be said, in other ways, for random battles

After all, how many times have we heard about the German players using 'wurfs and ammo dumps' as a baseline tactic. Even I have begun to plan for those when I play against the Germans, and I have a lot less PBeM games than many people.

Overall, I think that playing people is better with a random battle, and, for set battles, the AI is better. One, because in that situation both sides are set up plausibly, and also because it's hard to get people to agree to play anything other than random meeting engagement PBeMly.

I'd like to see more people using scen's in PBeM play myself.

Alex

Joe Osborne · Post by **Joe Osborne** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 7:35 am

I can't remember the last time I played the AI....once I found PBEM in 1995 I was hooked. Only because I used to beat the bejeezus out of the AI and once I played another human...different story! Man, I got beat up, kicked around, and then I finally got a draw....Alleuia!

From then on it was the only way to play.

Yeah, it can be a pain in the butt to negotiate PBEM (and it always will...), but the thrill of playing another human is so akin to actual warfare (without the actual blood, gore, etc...).

My personal take on this question is not enough players have tried (yeah, grit your teeth and try...

) playing other humans in PBEM or TCP/IP.....to me the best players of this game are the best PBEM/TCP/IP players...(no, I'm not one of em

)

Anybody can "learn" a computer...but it's a different story when you square off against someone you don't know and cannot predict.

Try it you'll like it!

Joe "Joss" Osborne