Case Blue (moved from Beta test forum)
Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 2:13 pm
The setup seemed simple. Germans outflank the Russians at the northern end of the line, so it looked like it'd be fairly easy to send Panzer divisions sweeping southwards cutting off the huge mass of Soviet infantry dug in against the river and then go on to take the objectives. But the way the supply's been set up in this scenario is fantastic; once I did the above I realised that said huge mass of Soviet infantry was sitting slap bang on the main supply line I'd need to push any meaningful offensive deeper into Soviet territory. The AI for this game is absolutely brutal (in a good way) and was extremely quick to exploit any opportunity it could find to hang on to the objectives and the supply lines for even a single extra turn, and that's often what ended up in my quitting and restarting the scenario once it became apparent victory was beyond me.
I eventually realised my mistake was in over-prioritising Rostov. That NKVD-backed infantry division holding it just won't die and it's sufficient to simply cut the road route leading from it to give the Soviets a major supply problem, so there was no need to send four of my six Panzer divisions through a narrow strip of hilly, forested terrain when two would do the job perfectly well. Instead I laid a new bridge over the river from the south and targeted the pocket of cut-off Soviet infanty with a pincer movement - the southern thrust supported by the tanks freed up from Rostov, while the two tank divisons in the north raced ahead to secure the first objective and run interference on any enemy divisions forming up for a counterattack. It took a while to kill all the Soviets caught in the pocket even with the extra tanks and I captured Rostov two turns late, but once I'd shattered their frontline defeating the troops in their backfield was absolutely trivial, even with the new Soviet tank divisions drip-dripping onto the battlefield. The last three objectives were all captured on the same turn, which was enough for a Decisive Victory.
Overall, the first scenario where I haven't blundered to victory on the final turn but instead actually had to rethink my strategy and gradually tease out a winning one almost in the manner of a puzzle game. It was hard without being irritatingly so; I always felt that victory was within my grasp if I could just get it right this time around. The AI in this game is an absolute monster, a real achievement. While I'm sure it's got it's weird idiosyncracies that will became apparent after long-term play - all AIs do - it rarely fights battles it can't win (in fact I've only seen it fight one battle where the understrength attacking tank division promptly blew up) and it places a far higher priority on cutting supply than it does destroying my units, which makes sense when its objective isn't to "win" but instead to run the clock down so that I lose. It seems to understand perfectly which moves will throw a spanner in my carefully planned works and it's refreshing to play a game where the AI doesn't rely on brute force power and hidden bonuses for its difficulty.
I eventually realised my mistake was in over-prioritising Rostov. That NKVD-backed infantry division holding it just won't die and it's sufficient to simply cut the road route leading from it to give the Soviets a major supply problem, so there was no need to send four of my six Panzer divisions through a narrow strip of hilly, forested terrain when two would do the job perfectly well. Instead I laid a new bridge over the river from the south and targeted the pocket of cut-off Soviet infanty with a pincer movement - the southern thrust supported by the tanks freed up from Rostov, while the two tank divisons in the north raced ahead to secure the first objective and run interference on any enemy divisions forming up for a counterattack. It took a while to kill all the Soviets caught in the pocket even with the extra tanks and I captured Rostov two turns late, but once I'd shattered their frontline defeating the troops in their backfield was absolutely trivial, even with the new Soviet tank divisions drip-dripping onto the battlefield. The last three objectives were all captured on the same turn, which was enough for a Decisive Victory.
Overall, the first scenario where I haven't blundered to victory on the final turn but instead actually had to rethink my strategy and gradually tease out a winning one almost in the manner of a puzzle game. It was hard without being irritatingly so; I always felt that victory was within my grasp if I could just get it right this time around. The AI in this game is an absolute monster, a real achievement. While I'm sure it's got it's weird idiosyncracies that will became apparent after long-term play - all AIs do - it rarely fights battles it can't win (in fact I've only seen it fight one battle where the understrength attacking tank division promptly blew up) and it places a far higher priority on cutting supply than it does destroying my units, which makes sense when its objective isn't to "win" but instead to run the clock down so that I lose. It seems to understand perfectly which moves will throw a spanner in my carefully planned works and it's refreshing to play a game where the AI doesn't rely on brute force power and hidden bonuses for its difficulty.