Slitherine

Hi all,

I'm playing PC original game once again on FM difficulty. Due to my carelessness I've managed to branch into path that doesn't lead to the US missions. I also have fair shares of minor victories. I've decided that I will play no matter what. I have one problem though - never ending spawning of enemy units around all victory flags. Sometimes even around regular flags. Basically AI always compensates for lack of strategic momentum in this way. This has probably cost me some DVs and decided my fate before, but now it's getting downright annoying. I'm trying to encircle one city at Kursk mission (first one I'm trying to conquer - AI realizes that and spawns six units (AA, AT and AR - combined around that city to defend attack). And that is the first city not the last!

This is especially problematic since all missions are with rigid time constraints (unlike in GC). Also it is problematic because computer does that almost all the time on cities with rivers as natural obstacle, or some locations that are hard to get around so it takes around 3 moves ideally to destroy such hornets nest. And once you destroy it another one appears on the hex that you haven't conquered yet.

Is there a way to avoid this AI cheat (IMO it is a cheat)? Maybe some mod or patch?

It isn't an AI cheat but a legal tho cheap strategy the AI is applying. As soon it spots your units moving towards a victory hex it starts this to build this ring of defense around it. The only way to counter it is just race ahead and bring one of your units adjacent to the city to prevent him from buying units there. Make sure to give the unit some support as the AI will counterattack it. Keep in mind the spotting range of most units is around 2 to 3 hexes so if you keep your forces outside of the radius and then rush them in at least early in the scenario the AI will fall for it and the city will be only lightly defended.

There is another nasty surprise tho. As the AI tends to work with quite cheap units it amasses some prestige during the scenario and when it only has a few units and victory hexes left it starts to spam cheap units like mad around the cities it has left. Same strategy as before applies. Bring one of your units adjacent to prevent it from buying more units there but forget the "rush" here as the AI will spam the units no matter what. Simply assume the last victory hexes will be heavily defended as the AI will be making it's last stand there.

I see what you suggest...

Well to be honest I don't remember AI doing this this much in GC. Also there was no thing similar to this in AK thats for sure. Sure there were spawns, but they where mostly coordinated scripted attacks in waves. It rarely resorted to something like this. I do remember spawning of IS2 tanks late in the game at last victory hex, but it was only one tank albeit strong.

So I will rush my units to victory hexes basically. I assume this is most easily done with recons, so I will try that. I do not agree that AI spawns if it sees your units in spotting radius only. I have seen on more than one occasion that while my units are in FOW and I don't see what is happening around AI town it spawns the before mentioned circle of defense. And that is not the last VH (more like 3-4 VHs are left). So there is no rule, but most of the times if AI sees that you captured city on the path to the next important city it spawns units in that next city, and you don't need to be close to it for AI to do so. It's really unpredictable.

I do agree that he spawns cheapest units (usually recons, or conscripts) around some unimportant town, it it is the last one remaining besides victory hex. This is done mostly to distract player in a silly way - as AI here tries to perform "counterattack" albeit sneak in your rear with these weak units in attempt to capture one of your victory hexes and prevent you from getting a DV.

Yes in AK and the GC the AI behaves differently. What you complain about was probably the biggest problem people saw in the original PC campaign and complained most about it. As it wasn't really easy to write a better AI on the fly the problem was fixed another way.

In later patches more and more scripting options was added to the scenario editor allowing the designers to script attacks to happen under certain conditions with certain units. Then they can cut the prestige supply for the AI down a lot so it's almost not buying units on its own but working with the scripted ones given it by the designers. While this leads to a lot more work for the designers it allows for a lot better and interesting scenarios.

So in GC and AK the AI seems to behave differently because it actually isn't allowed to buy much on its own. To apply this changes to the original campaign a lot of work would be needed to rework all the scenarios manually so i am afraid they are going to stay like they are.