Recommended difficulty settings versus the AI (Full Version)

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Hetulik -> Recommended difficulty settings versus the AI (4/22/2013 5:38:55 PM)

Hi all,
I’m interested in some recommendations on the best difficulty settings to use against the AI that will provide a challenging game, but not to the point the AI is getting extremely unrealistic advantages. I’m a relatively newer player, and have done very well in the “Road to…” scenarios and am interested to start my first 1941 full campaign. (Also, I recognize the AI will never provide the challenge a human opponent would, but my schedule doesn’t permit me to take on a PBEM game right now.)

I’ve poked around the forums and have seen some recommendations already – but haven’t yet been able sort through all the various comments yet to understand the best settings to have a challenging but not unrealistic game.
Playing as the Axis:
I’ve seen some recommendations to set the Soviets to 115 across the board, another to 119. Or should there be some variation across the 5 difficulty areas? From the manual I’ve seen there are thresholds at 110 and 125 for the AI related to various checks always succeeding. Also I’ve seen some recommendations to lower Soviet morale/logistics during the 41 blizzard… do folks do this? Do folks lower the Axis settings as well below 100? The most common Axis setting I’ve potentially seen to lower below 100 is logistics. What combinations of Axis(player) and Soviet(AI) settings have folks found work best?

Playing at the Soviets:
Many of my same questions above apply here as well. I’ve seen recommendations to set the Axis AI to 115 or 119 as well, but have seen some recommendations to not set the Axis morale as high as 115. Should I be limiting and my own Soviet settings further during the 41 blizzard? What combinations of Axis(AI) and Soviet(player) settings have folks found work best?

I’m very impressed by the level of detail in the game and the active community on the forums. Reading through many of the AAR’s has been fascinating.

Thanks!



carlkay58 -> RE: Recommended difficulty settings versus the AI (4/22/2013 9:07:30 PM)

The ability to change the five areas to different allows you to tailor the AI vs your abilities. I would suggest that your first campaign game should be at straight 100 for both of you. This will allow you to finish the campaign and get a feel for the 'long term'. Things change drastically for both sides during the war. If you are the Axis player, the campaign will probably end in late 42 or early 43 with an automatic victory. If you are the Soviets, then it will probably end in early to mid 44.

Once you have a complete campaign game under your belt, the AI really needs to be at least 10 points over your values to feel comfortable attacking you. Some people go with the pre-set values of Normal, Challenging, Hard, etc. Others do custom so that they are playing at 100s and the AI is getting the benefits it needs to be competition against you. This also allow you to get used to the flow of supplies, morale, etc. that is normal for your side.

It all comes down to personal taste and what you wish to do. The most important thing to remember is that you can always change these settings on the go and this will allow you to tweak the numbers without having to restart the game.



Numdydar -> RE: Recommended difficulty settings versus the AI (4/23/2013 2:30:38 AM)

I totally agree with the above. I have started my first GC as the Germans and it is very different than the Road tos oddly enough. Likely due to not having artificial boundries so my troops have a tendancy to wander around more than they should lol. This can lead them to be OOS and OOC at different points with an entire turn wasted getiing them back where they are supposed to be [:@] Who the hell is in change anyway lol.

So keeping everything at 100% allows things like this to occur and not get hurt too badly. Otherwise, any mistakes you make at the begining, especially as Germany, will be mutiplied as the game goes on.



gradenko2k -> RE: Recommended difficulty settings versus the AI (4/23/2013 4:37:10 AM)

I agree that you should probably just keep everything at 100%, especially as the Germans, until you get a full campaign under your belt.



swkuh -> RE: Recommended difficulty settings versus the AI (4/23/2013 1:38:06 PM)

Currently doing '41 campaign as Axis vs AI using 120s for SOVs. Find that much can be accomplished as if at 100s but that one needs to pick conflicts very carefully & do deliberate attacks. Thought 120 was some trigger point, but maybe not. Of course, later turns may prove very dofficult and haven't seen the '41 blizzard yet.

Think it would be very difficult to really be sure of conseqences of many different settings across the factors. But using the handicapping system is interesting.

Ahhh... forgot that levels such as easy, normal, difficult, impossible were available. Gives idea of what developers think.

Anyone else playing the handicap settings?



loki100 -> RE: Recommended difficulty settings versus the AI (4/23/2013 2:16:43 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: rrbill

Currently doing '41 campaign as Axis vs AI using 120s for SOVs. Find that much can be accomplished as if at 100s but that one needs to pick conflicts very carefully & do deliberate attacks. Thought 120 was some trigger point, but maybe not. Of course, later turns may prove very dofficult and haven't seen the '41 blizzard yet.

Think it would be very difficult to really be sure of conseqences of many different settings across the factors. But using the handicapping system is interesting.

Ahhh... forgot that levels such as easy, normal, difficult, impossible were available. Gives idea of what developers think.

Anyone else playing the handicap settings?


I started a Soviet GC with their 'difficult' (first time at anything but the scenarios) really with the goal of getting a feel for the longer ebb and flow of the game. Since I started I've bumped up the German morale twice and the other factors once when it started to feel as if the AI was too passive - probably should have made those changes earlier but I want this to last into 44 at least if I can. The final change saw quite a shift in the AI behvaviour about half way through the blizzard so it does seem to have a very direct impact.



Joel Billings -> RE: Recommended difficulty settings versus the AI (4/23/2013 5:40:10 PM)

The key item to up the difficulty is the AI side's Morale rating. From the manual:

Whenever the morale level is set to 110 or greater, then leader admin checks for movement
allowances are always successful (14.1.2) and the Soviet AI is able to build combat units so as
to maintain a force of 300 divisions and 100 brigades at no additional admin cost (see section
12.2.4). In addition, whenever the morale level is set to 125 or greater, all leader initiative
checks for movement allowances points are also automatically successful.

So to give yourself a challenge, you want to set the Soviet morale level to 110. If that's all you do, it will help the Soviet AI tremendously because it will be able to maintain enough units to cover the front. My suggestion would be that if you've played the Road to scenarios and done reasonably well, that you start with everything at 100 except Soviet morale which you can set to 110. If you go with 100% on everything, you will likely win (unless the first winter gets you). You can always change the value, so if you feel you aren't making good progress, at any time you can lower the 110 to 100 and keep going.



Hetulik -> RE: Recommended difficulty settings versus the AI (4/24/2013 4:21:35 AM)

My appreciation everyone for your feedback and perspectives. I've decided to start the 41 campaign as the Axis at the 110 level for the soviet AI. I'm a very detail oriented player, enjoy a challenge, and would be perfectly fine if the AI is able to defeat me.

Thanks again,
Hetulik



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