Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Fänrik Stål

I've tried playing as the Soviets with the settings at 125 across the board for axis and 100 across the board for me twice. The first time I did this (which was my first serious attempt at playing SU) my result was actually worse than historical. In a pocket just east of Kiev, the axis captured 6 entire armies, effectively destroying the SW Front and parts of Southern Front. This was the worst disaster, but there were more pockets where several entire armies disappeared. The Axis took Leningrad (the parts south of the river), Kalinin, and Tula, and were threatening Voronezh and Rostov before the onset of mud. The thing with the axis AI is that it is extremely capable of forming pockets IF it can break through your lines. Increasing the difficulty helps it do that, and also helps it move into enemy territory (IIRC increased morale decreases the movement cost for doing this). This was a very fun game, because it became a real challenge. By Jan. '43 I was beginning to push back seriously from fairly historical lines. There was no axis movement into the Caucasus though, and no Stalingrad style encirclement made by me. I did however knock out Finland during '42, relieving Leningrad through the back-door. I quit the game in early '43 due to patch upgrade.
Second try I changed strategy and did much better, wise to the risks of axis breakthrough. The game is still challenging and fun though.

If you're playing the Soviet side for the first time, I really urge you to up the difficulty, so that you may have a chance to experience the horrors I had.

In comparison with other recent games of similar scope I've played (for example Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday/Armageddon) this AI is a genius.

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ORIGINAL: BootyJoe

Vart är Fänrik stål när man behöver honom på slagfältet?

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ORIGINAL: Pawlock

I played as the Soviets on hard and it offers quite a good game in certain areas. I have just about now on turn 100 broken the back of the German resistance and its just a race to Berlin now. The one niggle I do have about the AI is it is suicidal in the extreme sometimes. It lost the game in mid 42 by doing too many suicidal attacks which led them to wearing themselves out, which in turn led tio them being picked off easily. Same with its airpower, it keeps sending bombers mainly unescorted to bomb my airfileds resulting in horrible losses to itself.
I still play the game when Im not doing my pbem as it gives me an insight into what does and does not work ion the latter war.

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ORIGINAL: Valgua

Thank you for all your inputs! Just one more question: what does the difficulty level influence? Unit strength? Aggressiveness? As I understand, turning up the difficulty level makes for a more aggressive opponent (not just an opponent with better units). Is there a way to increase AI aggressiveness without giving it uber-units?

Thanks again!

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ORIGINAL: BootyJoe
Would you recommend impossible difficulty level then when playing the Soviets? Considering the HUGE time investment it is to play a GC it is sad to fire one up expecting a challenge only to find you have won after 100 turns.

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ORIGINAL: Valgua

Thank you for all your inputs! Just one more question: what does the difficulty level influence? Unit strength? Aggressiveness? As I understand, turning up the difficulty level makes for a more aggressive opponent (not just an opponent with better units). Is there a way to increase AI aggressiveness without giving it uber-units?

Thanks again!

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playing a AI game vs. soviet AI but after 41 it just gets silly with the AI putting up a carpet 5-6 deep and teleporting 2 fronts in a single week