Playing the AI - battle proven tricks

[ThorHa]

One addition.

Your enemy general is the AI. Thus he will NOT do what a sound battle commander would do, but do outright crazy things. If you guide him into these things.

1) Baits
The bomber bait - place an artillery in view of the AI, place a fighter or an AA outside this view just behind
The AT bait - place a weak unit directly adjacent to a towed AT and place a strong artillery just behind
The AA bait - place a strong air unit just outside of range of an entrenched enemy AA but still in view of another enemy unit
The entrenched unit bait - give an entrenched enemy tank covered by AA and artillery the chance to get destroyed and give him an infantry in reach. Make sure the infantry is covered by 2 artillery and there is only one hex for an attacking unit
The Victory Hex bait - give enemy armour the chance to settle in a victory hex you deliberately leave open for it. The enemy tank will happily occupy said hex even if adjacent to multiple infantry, artillery and tanks
The infantry bait - place a tank preferred with defensive heroes for the better CD in city hexes in reach (but not adjacent to) of enemy infantry, which should only be able to attack ovber open terrain. Place a strong artillery behind your tank but out of enemy sight. Same can be acheived with an exposed artillery covered by especially rocket artillery behind
The artillery bait - place an AA unit in reach of enemy artillery and have it happily fire away at it saving more precious units on your side preparing e.g. an attack on an entrenched position

All of these work reliable as in "always". Note the usual AI movement - Air, then tanks, last AT and artillery

2) Coverage
Never allow a gap between 2 battle groups wider than 2 hexes where the enemy, especially the pesky 6 move T34, can move through and get in your rear. Cover an eventual gap even if it´s sacrifical (infantry or AA), an experienced unit survives ONE attack in the open and often there is only ONE hex the enemy tanks can reach.

3) Staged movement
Make it a habit to always move your battlegroups in a staged process: AA and artillery first into positions where you are sure you can cover them later. Then the most rear fighting units. Then the former frontline units again in frontline (or flanksaving) positions. Last your own air, no matter if attacking enemy air or just covering your own units. This way you always ensure best air coverage, even attacking enemy air, as you decide from which angle to attack this enemy best while still providing cover afterwards.

4) Limiting enemy movement options
You just violated rule number 3 in order to finish this stubborn, pesky and enemy unit. Now you notice you can´t cover all your units if you pack your battlegroup tight? Okay, backup solution - evaluate the most dangerous enemy moves (even if theoretical taking units into consideration that are out of sight).
And place a single, but strong, unit at its own blocking as many advance paths as possible, even if said unit is w/o coverage for one full turn. It should and will survive still protecting more valuable or weaker assets.

5) What the AI can't do
So you fear to park your infantry in the open in front of entrenched AT because if the AT moves 1 hex this nasty JS 1 tank could attack your infantry full strength under best conditions? Fear not. The AI can't do that. For several reasons, the first one is simple - it moves tanks first. First as always first.

6) The request of Soviet fighters to be shot down
A side effect of a well intended AI behaviour is very much in your favour. If any enemy bomber runs into AA fire, always, always as always an enemy fighter will rush to its side. Which is extremely beneficial, as said fighter does not attack ground itself AND the AI takes whatever is available. Which is often enough an already weakened fighter from a previous attack. Thus your AA, which caused the whole chain and is much more effective against fighters than against bombers, gets another free shot on a Soviet fighter next turn, making it much easier to shot it down. At least it dies together with the "protected" bomber - farewell, heroes of the Red Eagle.

Regards,
Thorsten

[Bonesoul]

Nice post Thor .

I tend to do similar, with minor differences. To me Air superiority is the utmost importance and so I look at my anti air options first, I will look at how I hope to kill (not just injure) enemy planes. Given the random results possible, this means that, though I will consider which hex to attack from for possible later air cover issues, I have to actually do the air/AA unit attacks to make sure I know the result before I can make other moves with certainty. If it takes an extra plane, maybe my Bf110 will do but maybe not, I have to know or I cant plan other air coverage (I want that AI plane Dead).

To me I will risk an attack on one of my units now, from imperfect air cover, if it allows me to eliminate an AI plane, this may be a bad choice but I prefer a potential hit now from one plane to hits later by two. The one I'm never quite sure about and it changes based on the circumstances is what priority I choose to kill planes in. Generally I will go for fighters before bombers if I know I'm going to need my bombers to help with KV types very soon, otherwise I will hit AI bombers first. The AI fighters are likely to cause less damage to any unprotected ground units I have and in general will choose to go after a ground unit if my bombers are out of sight.

Being only at the end scenarios of 1942, this is possible, it may change in 43-45 if air superiority is impossible.

On those pesky units, one thing I think a lot of players do in their desire to crush the AI is to attack when they shouldn't, the AI isn't great at withdrawing and covering weakened units for reinforcement, in general it will do it in place and be sitting there with the reinforcements pre suppressed the following turn. As such if you have a weakened enemy unit on 5-6 strength it is often better to move a unit next to it to limit reinforcement and kill it next turn, don't drive it back another hex where you cant get a unit adjacent, or such a move would be unwise and have it fully reinforce.

There is one time you might want to do exactly that of course, when your milking an AI unit for kills/exp. There are times in a scenario where you have an enemy unit isolated and out classed and don't need one of your units at that time, if its in a position to attack and drive back that AI unit, the AI is often most obliging in using its prestige pool to reinforce it for you so you can attack it time after time. Something like a 15 str Russian conscript can give you 10 kills a turn towards your next hero for 4 or 5 plus turns.

Looking forward to more sneaky, dastardly ways to trick the AI.

Cheers
Bone

[ThorHa]

I don´t really care if an enemy air unit survives. With my method, that I apply regardless of many enemy air or no enemy air, I minimize my losses from air so far very much, compared to the previous playthrough.

Only btw - I had it more than once that a recovered enemy fighter 10 strength, no stars, preferred to attack a ground unit instead of my overstrength Rudel StuKa unescorted .

Regards,
Thorsten

[Bonesoul]

Too bloody true, Rudy's going to have to go into a Bf110 at some time or he's going to be an ex-Rudel.

Bone

[captainjack]

Thor,
when you say "Don't do this", I agree with them all. Every one I have done and wished I hadn't.
My experience is that baiting the AI is a great tactic for drawing out well defended units, but can bite you if you use it as your main tactic. The same happens when I focus on forcing surrenders for prestige rather than looking for opportunities to do so in the course of my strategy. I definitely don't use the "luring tanks into victory hexes" as much as I should, but have had some success of wiping out IS1s in forest with a similar approach.

Bone,
Rudel has high enough defence that he can be left unescorted (even in a JU87G) if there are more vulnerable units to protect. But an escort is better. Some time recently in 43 East I saw an enemy fighter park next to my other unescorted JU87G - with +2A and +1D hero - and then attack a ground unit. Strange but a great relief.

[ThorHa]

I detected all the bait tactics by accident and they were mostly a result of no other viable options when I used them. I solely focus on capturing hexes with the least amount of losses, all other things come natural. But e.g. i sometimes have to park a weak unit besides an AT because it dies not fit somewhere else. And now I know I can.

The most annoying result of a bait tactics might be the unforeseen consequences of something intended - the attcking unit gets wiped out in the attack and suddenly opens a previous impossible route for attack for another unit.

Regards,
Thorsten

[captainjack]

As to my comment about Rudel, he doesn't do so well if three soviet fighters come to play all at once. 4 strength left out of 13 = Ouch! But I'm pretty sure he still did better than an unescorted bomber would.

[Bonesoul]

A Question

In later scenarios when the FW190 ground attack versions come out, would you move Rudel into one or keep him in a more specialised tac bomber. I'm sort of considering him in a 190 because he would double as ground attack and air superiority.

Your views?
Bone

[MartyWard]

A Question

In later scenarios when the FW190 ground attack versions come out, would you move Rudel into one or keep him in a more specialised tac bomber. I'm sort of considering him in a 190 because he would double as ground attack and air superiority.

Your views?
Bone

I have him in a 190G. With his attack bonus he still does a lot of damage, plus getting another +2 attack hero didn't hurt, and he can pretty much take out any plane he wants.

[captainjack]

For me, the second FW190 tac bomber is definitely worth it, but I'm not sure about the first one.

When playing 42 West I usually get Rudel into a 110 straight away as the limited core slots mean that fighter cover is a luxury for most of the Western route, but often I keep the Stuka for the Eastern path. I don't think I have a definite reason for this, but maybe I'm thinking of the Ju87G.

[MightyG]

I like to bleed the AI.It will spend every bit of its prestige on replacements for air units.Seems to focus on replacemnts for AA units as well.NO more spam defenses.

[sauvequipeut]

And a couple from the 'Other side of the hill'

'The 'Hold Position/Passive Bait' : These units can neither move nor initiate combat. However, human players are prone to forget that they *can* spot perfectly well. Wait until he casually motors his pioneers and artillery right up to a city in order to both attack and occupy the hex next turn...then charge your tanks, cavalry and anything else in range out of the fog and smash him up.

The 'French AT Bait' : Our French colleagues field two types of AT gun - the 25mm and 47mm. However, they have different spotting ranges - the 25mm has a spot of 2 compared to the 47mm's range of 1. Your human opponent will often forget this minor detail and motor to within two hexes of a 25mm 'because he can't see me'. Prove him wrong by advancing your 25mm heroes one hex and blowing his crack SE grenadiers to Halftrack Heaven.

[sauvequipeut]

And of course:

The 'Bite the Baiter' Bait : The human player is prone to using all kinds of traps to lure our AI colleagues into unwise advances and attacks. They can often overlook the fact that if these units survive, they can spot such delicacies as exposed artillery and motor transport that your human opponent assumed were out of spotting range for your turn. Don't hesitate to pile on with everything you have and make it a very expensive trap for him...

[proline]

A Question

In later scenarios when the FW190 ground attack versions come out, would you move Rudel into one or keep him in a more specialised tac bomber. I'm sort of considering him in a 190 because he would double as ground attack and air superiority.

Your views?
Bone

Well, the historical answer was to put him in a Fw190 Of course, his +9 attack did NOT carry over to air-to-air combat the way it does in the game, although he did get a few AA kills.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

A Question

In later scenarios when the FW190 ground attack versions come out, would you move Rudel into one or keep him in a more specialised tac bomber. I'm sort of considering him in a 190 because he would double as ground attack and air superiority.

Your views?
Bone

Well, the historical answer was to put him in a Fw190 Of course, his +9 attack did NOT carry over to air-to-air combat the way it does in the game, although he did get a few AA kills.

Sounds a bit like me putting the Red Baron in a 109!

And for the hell of it, why not the Arado in Sealion45? (Actually I haven't got this far, but I guess it would make sense if you get it at the start of USA in vanilla)

- BNC

[dumbttt]

Better to put Rudel in a fighter bomber so he can destroy air + ground targets with impunity. I currently have him in a ME 110 and he's far more powerful than the regular ME 109 fighter, capable of taking out most Soviet planes with one shot. Only problem is he can't escort other bombers or protect ground targets in a fighter bomber. This is actually kind of unrealistic because ME 110 was extensively used as bomber escort in the Battle of Britain.

[captainjack]

If I play West, Rudel gets a 110 for the air and ground attack options.
Though I normally prefer an active air attack, he did a good job in a HS129 once with base 10 attack against hard and soft targets.

This is actually kind of unrealistic because ME 110 was extensively used as bomber escort in the Battle of Britain.

It probably could be worked around with the switch button - 110 fighter can escort bombers but 110 fighter bomber can't. You'd have to drop the SA and HA stats while in fighter mode to avoid overpowering the 110, but if you kept the rest of the air combat stats the same and nudged the price up by 20 to 30 prestige it should be about right.

[KeldorKatarn]

This is actually kind of unrealistic because ME 110 was extensively used as bomber escort in the Battle of Britain.

Yes... and failed miserably and ended up needing to be escorted themselves. The Battle of Britain is a pretty terrible example for the use of the Me 110 as a fighter.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

I just had a thought on how to beat the AI - use cheats. Seeing as the AI is known for its stupidity, it must be too dumb to know Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C

- BNC

[PoorOldSpike]

The Battle of Britain is a pretty terrible example for the use of the Me 110 as a fighter.

Yes, in Panzer Corps the 110 is useful to finish off enemy planes that are already crippled and weak.