Border Conflicts are a Joke

[Pupique]

I can't be the only one who is winning a border conflict and then, out of nowhere, BAM - you lost.

I have absolutely no idea why I lose a border conflict that is supposed to be a guaranteed victory. My troops are very far from reaching 0 morale and the combat pip is almost always shows that I'm winning, with at least 60% victory progress. Despite all that, I still lose.

I know that there is a 360-day limit to border conflicts. If that was the case, however, it'd be a draw, not a straight-up defeat.

Can anyone relate to this or perhaps explain why my troops simply decide to yield when they're closing in to victory? Thank you.

[Bloop]

the ai usually rushes in like 13 divisions in the elventh hour. my advice clump all your divisions in one place and hope they kill the initial small force before their reinforcements arrive because then your plans all go kaplooey

[Pupique]

Originally posted by azariah_kyras:

the ai usually rushes in like 13 divisions in the elventh hour. my advice clump all your divisions in one place and hope they kill the initial small force before their reinforcements arrive because then your plans all go kaplooey

The weird thing is not that I lose the battle - in fact, the last one that made me post this was really close to a win. The combat pip went from 40 to 75 in my favor and then, literally out of nowhere, I lost the conflict. My organization was still high, I had plenty of reinforcements at my disposal and I still had 300 days left until it was a draw.

It's not like my pip went down from 75 to something like a 5 and I lost. No, the battle simply ended for some reason and they won. It seems that all the AI has to do is simply press a button. They press it I lose, no matter what I do, no matter what I try, no matter how strong my divisions are. They press that button and it's an instawin for them.

[Bloop]

hmm strange i think its just the ai being cheaty

[Pupique]

Originally posted by azariah_kyras:

hmm strange i think its just the ai being cheaty

Seems like it. I've only managed to win border conflicts against Nationalist China because of their army debuffs. They lose so quickly that the AI doesn't even have time to cheat. Any other warlord always manages to best me, even though I constantly get close to winning.

[Bloop]

the warlords somehow win out? usually they are worse than the nationalists

[Pupique]

Originally posted by azariah_kyras:

the warlords somehow win out? usually they are worse than the nationalists

They do because they don't have the nationalist army debuffs and their division design is pretty much the same. The terrain also usually gives them enough time to trigger the instawin button.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

Without screenshots I cannot tell you what the problem is with certainty, I do feel pretty confident in stating that it's not AI cheating, at worst it's a bug ... but I don't really think that's the case, I think you are just suffering slow reinforcement of battles.

You see, the circles are just a very rough overview of any given battle based on the match up of forces that CAN enter the fight for both sides ... not just the ones that are actively fighting, to get 100% accurate information, you gotta click on the circle itself to bring up the combat screen

I've noticed this a lot with the border conflicts, cripplingly slow reinforce rates where I have the numbers advantage and yet the RNG just does not fall in my favour to put them into the fight. So you'll only have 1 division in the fight draining org begging for reinforcements that never come ... while the enemy get lucky and have 4 divisions get reinforced on the spot.

Just to be clear on this though, the RNG is both ways, the AI is screwed over by it all the same, it's not that you are being unfairly screwed over by it alone ... you just notice it more with a border skirmish because of the 'importance' / 'investment' / inability to restart the fight.

[Pupique]

Originally posted by |H|H| Fr3ddi3:

Without screenshots I cannot tell you what the problem is with certainty, I do feel pretty confident in stating that it's not AI cheating, at worst it's a bug ... but I don't really think that's the case, I think you are just suffering slow reinforcement of battles.

You see, the circles are just a very rough overview of any given battle based on the match up of forces that CAN enter the fight for both sides ... not just the ones that are actively fighting, to get 100% accurate information, you gotta click on the circle itself to bring up the combat screen

I've noticed this a lot with the border conflicts, cripplingly slow reinforce rates where I have the numbers advantage and yet the RNG just does not fall in my favour to put them into the fight. So you'll only have 1 division in the fight draining org begging for reinforcements that never come ... while the enemy get lucky and have 4 divisions get reinforced on the spot.

Just to be clear on this though, the RNG is both ways, the AI is screwed over by it all the same, it's not that you are being unfairly screwed over by it alone ... you just notice it more with a border skirmish because of the 'importance' / 'investment' / inability to restart the fight.

It could be that, makes sense to me. I tried to replicate it but central China was so weak this time that they were ravaged in all border conflicts. I'll try it again next time, keeping that in mind.

[sauron2012]

Do not use border conflicts. It's completely waste of time. Better to declare full war and annex country as soon as possible. How ever it's save you 140 days of both national focuses. Better to spend this time on something else.

[Madtoast]

The border clashes only use 6 units for both sides.

I just make 6 20w units asap move them to every border clash. 3 inf only with support art and 3 7/2's. They will de-org and reinforce at different times during the clash. Also keep them on a dummy order for the planning bonus.

Make sure you move your other troops out of the area before you start the clash.

[Pupique]

Originally posted by sauron2012:

Do not use border conflicts. It's completely waste of time. Better to declare full war and annex country as soon as possible. How ever it's save you 140 days of both national focuses. Better to spend this time on something else.

There are warlords that rely on Border Conflicts though, such as communist China. Without it, it'll be tricky to win the civil war. Also, success is possible when doing Border Conflicts with good divisions, despite the risk of a random insta loss.

[Pupique]

Originally posted by madtoast:

The border clashes only use 6 units for both sides.

I just make 6 20w units asap move them to every border clash. 3 inf only with support art and 3 7/2's. They will de-org and reinforce at different times during the clash. Also keep them on a dummy order for the planning bonus.

Make sure you move your other troops out of the area before you start the clash.

Yeah, that's what I do. I went the whole early game with only 6 divs, but they were 40-widths. I suppose my best bet is to rush signal companies, I'd wager.