Mission Timings

[watcherzero]

Anyone else having the trouble that its next to impossible to recover lost control points in very rich ($4bn+) countries?

Even if my agent is already in the country and has a 90%+ chance of purge they will always manage to lockdown the CP right at the start of the turn before my agent can act. Then despite having all stats 15+ im only getting a 2% boosted 8% chance of cracking the CP to make it vulnerable to purge again. Say I do eventually manage to crack it, another faction will swoop in and purge it right at the start of my next turn.

Its not just in this situation, the AI always seems to be able to complete its turn actions before the player.

[Lovecraft]

By design, defend always happens before crackdown and purge. That rule applies to both the player and the AI.

And an agent with 25 stats, research for a +3 crackdown bonus, and maximum investment can recover lost, defended control points in rich countries quite easily. I just did that actually, fighting with aliens over the EU, I recovered CPs about 10 times.

[Zuul]

So...look at any action. Down at the bottom in the panel where you can activate actions and it shows the description, look at the far right side of the box, top corner. You will see a number of clock icons. Those show where in the turn process the action takes place.

One clock is first, two is second, so on and so forth. For individual actions on the SAME clock rating, the actions process in descending order of modified skill. So 12 skill + 4 boost goes before 14 skill + 1 boost.

[robert.steven.marshall]

Are you cracking down one turn and then purging the next? Because on the back of what Zuul said you can do it in one turn. Same with public campaign. So you can do several different things in order (very useful for other things like detain then assassinate in the same turn). You can also do the same action with several councillors although it might not be the most efficient way. What's the percentage on a coup like?

[watcherzero]

Nah, experimented with doing it on the same turn but the purge always goes off before the crackdown. Also saying its easy with stats that are higher than max cap is not helpful suggesting you are doing it extremely late in the game or playing on easy mode with the +3 freindly and -3 opponent stat bonuses.

[corisai]

Originally posted by watcherzero:

Nah, experimented with doing it on the same turn but the purge always goes off before the crackdown. Also saying its easy with stats that are higher than max cap is not helpful suggesting you are doing it extremely late in the game or playing on easy mode with the +3 freindly and -3 opponent stat bonuses.

Or you know - learn how to play game?

Pick best agents (hint: not too old AND with skill for faster learning), then boost their ADM, then max it & boost other stats - sooner or later you will have several agents with multiple 25.

And don't forget about having Investigation, Espionage, Science and Loyality. Yes - they don't provide sweet CP. No, they all helping you to keep your CP.

[robert.steven.marshall]

Originally posted by watcherzero:

Nah, experimented with doing it on the same turn but the purge always goes off before the crackdown. Also saying its easy with stats that are higher than max cap is not helpful suggesting you are doing it extremely late in the game or playing on easy mode with the +3 freindly and -3 opponent stat bonuses.

Mate I've done crackdown and purge in the same turn so many times now. It's defending then crackdown then purge. The point of defending is that it's meant to be difficult to crackdown or purge. Max cap is not 15, it's 25 like the other guy said. What year are you on? What's the coup chance? Do you have high public opinion? What's unrest like? People are trying to help you but you don't seem particularly interested. Play on easy yourself if you are struggling or accept it as part of the game.

[watcherzero]

When I was playing max skill cap was 20 then you had game difficulty and faction modifiers which could increase it, so 25 was only possible playing on easier difficulty.

[kalonjelen]

Originally posted by watcherzero:

When I was playing max skill cap was 20 then you had game difficulty and faction modifiers which could increase it, so 25 was only possible playing on easier difficulty.

So to back up:

Current state of the game is that crackdown happens before purge, always, so you can always do a crackdown then a purge. But defend interests always happens before either of those things so if the AI is going to defend, it'll succeed.

The ways to deal with difficult countries with CPs that you want are as follows:
- Coup: this resets all control points and interests and often puts you in charge. Will also mess up any alliances, which can be good (Kazakhstan) or bad (France). Not easily applicable in all cases, especially in democracies, but with enough increase unrest it can be really useful.
- Detain AI en masse: the way this works is that if you put their councilors in jail they will not be contributing to the CP cap, and often that faction will go over the CP limit -and when they do things become REALLY vulnerable. I often will turn a councilor so I know where all their friends are, then detain 3-4 of their councilors on one turn, then crackdown/purge the point the next turn.
- Detain/kill councilors with defend interests: requires timing and knowing what they have, but if you time it so that the CP will expire its defend interest when they don't have anyone to refresh it available you can use that as a way to take the endpoints
- War. Just blitz over that country

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by kalonjelen:

but with enough increase unrest it can be really useful.

There's also the possibility of using Increase Unrest enough to bring it up to 10 Unrest, which will cause a popular revolt. This will work similarly to a coup, though unlike a coup it can cause loose nukes if the country has any.