The mission should really be split into two components, north and south.
- The AI always has had a lot of trouble the more troops and space you add to a mission (i.e. Taifun in UC1). I think there might be too many options to evaluate, and it starts picking sub-optimal ones. Even if it makes the same error rate as in other scenarios, the simple fact that there are more decisions to be made, and thus more resulting errors on an absolute basis, leads to more situations that can be easily exploited for a human.
- The paratrooper cheese is intense in this mission. You have several units to drop, and if you've managed to keep the air army from market garden, you can have easily about 8 paradrop. I'll give you that there's a lot of Soviet units in the rear that will take care of them over time (if not by turn 2 or 3), but it still cripples the AI supply lines. Combined with quick advances and the creation of pockets, I would say close to 70% of AI units were out of supply by turn 2 and cannon fodder by turn 3.
- Related to paratroopers, dropping them deep in the enemy's rear close to HQ leads to HQ blowing up bridges left and right, often exacerbating the supply issues. Granted, now at least, the AI can rebuild bridges, but shouldn't it try to kill my units first before blowing up important bridges?
- This links back to smaller scenarios. Splitting into north and south portions, and removing half of Poland would improve AI efficiency and player fun. The north is really about trying to encircle the Berlin pocket in Poland. The south is about grinding your way to the Osel, and then taking the other side. My different armies (British 2nd, US 1st, US 3rd in the north vs. US 5th and Free French in the south) had little interaction and overlap (or even reasons to overlap). Then, once you've done that, there's nothing left. It's pretty much open country to the last objectives. Sure, the AI has a few reserve units left, but they're bumps in the road at that point. I won on turn 9 (vs. first objective needed to be taken by turn 10) and could have easily done 7 or 8 if I had been more aggressive or optimized some more.
- The AI has some issues defending the Osel in the north. It completely abandoned the river in turn 1 (perhaps related to the fact that my paratroopers had put the entire area out of supply?). Or perhaps it was simply shuffling units as it kept changing plans.
- Supply should be much more of an issue. The Allies are attacking at the tail end of their logistical lines, through a destroyed Germany, into a destroyed Poland. And this isn't some carefully planned operation that was in the works for several months. Yet, we have 100% supply efficiency and 9 or 10 supply barrels to place around. Operation Overlord is so much more difficult than Unthinkable, simply because you're at 50% supply efficiency. You would think that moving things through the ruins of Berlin would be a hassle at least. Perhaps a gradual increase in supply efficiency through time (or side objectives that improve it) would be a great idea to increase the feeling of initial desperation and difficulty.
- Finally, even I was feeling overwhelmed by so many units. I love UoC because of its small scale nature. You have 10-30 units, objectives coming due in 3-8 turns, and then it's done. The focus and drive is intense. Here, there's too many units, too many options, too many things to remember.
Anyways, I really liked the overall alt campaign, but felt the end game was a tad disappointing. Certainly could be improved if I was game designer (but not looking to be one lol).
Thanks for that update and I can't wait for the next DLC