Analyzing Global Conquest difficulty changes in Liberation

[UnicornPoacher]

I started a new game on normal and the difficulty seems to have ramped up significantly from what I am used to. Anyone else experience this? Is this a factor of playing against the new USA faction perhaps/balance differences?

[ThatZenoGuy]

Yeah, enemy counts have gotten pretty silly, every attack/defence is like a battle of attrition.

The only saving grace is that you can pretty easily capture enemy vehicles, turning otherwise terrifying foes into excellent allies. Usually good to keep a couple tank crews on standby because they only use 1 point per crewman.

[UnicornPoacher]

It's a good tip although my experience is the attacks are often so vigorous its not often you can recover a vehicle in time to contribute to the battle at hand.

To be fair I don't have a ton of examples of this happening and I have been hoarding points a bit this game so I may expand to stage four/defences and see if putting more units on the field will change things.

[Sturmtruppe]

yes there has been a noticeable change to the difficulty. Basically there is a lot more crew served weaponry out there so I would advise using recon more often. Set them to only return fire and stealth them up to the enemy line to see what you're dealing with before sending the bulk of your force in

[UnicornPoacher]

Agree this caught me off guard too, enemy will plop arty all over on and near control points can be a nasty surprise.

[blagmire]

Sounds like they upped the bonuses the AI gets which kinda sucks.

[UnicornPoacher]

Which bonuses? After further investigation others have reported the enemy reinforcements routes being less predictable which I think is likely from what I've seen. Also I suspect the preparation time was reduced too although I haven't timed it, usually I have opfor rolling in by the time I've barely layed a few trenches and got stage 2 moved on point.

I find these to be some frustrating changes... I'm all for a challenge but going this far makes defense prep feel really trivial and borderline ineffectual when the first attack is coming in from nowhere. anyone else see these things too?

[ThatZenoGuy]

Originally posted by UnicornPoacher:

Which bonuses? After further investigation others have reported the enemy reinforcements routes being less predictable which I think is likely from what I've seen. Also I suspect the preparation time was reduced too although I haven't timed it, usually I have opfor rolling in by the time I've barely layed a few trenches and got stage 2 moved on point.

I find these to be some frustrating changes... I'm all for a challenge but going this far makes defense prep feel really trivial and borderline ineffectual when the first attack is coming in from nowhere. anyone else see these things too?

He means the bonus to unit cap that the AI gets. Apparently it scales higher with difficulty even though that isn't listed in the game.

[Jerico]

Originally posted by UnicornPoacher:

Which bonuses? After further investigation others have reported the enemy reinforcements routes being less predictable which I think is likely from what I've seen. Also I suspect the preparation time was reduced too although I haven't timed it, usually I have opfor rolling in by the time I've barely layed a few trenches and got stage 2 moved on point. I find these to be some frustrating changes... anyone else see these things too?

Filling like aim. The AI tanks shot instantly and deadly. The youre tanks just ignore enemies in their vision and turned front armor for them. The AI has a heigher level of ricoshet. A infinity ammo do mortars super deadly with 90% aim.

[QUANTUM MECHANICS c000021a]

Game is too easy even at hardcore compared to AS2 without mods loaded. This is caused by changes to vehicle, artillery damage mechanics.

[Saxhorn]

Cut and pasted from my response in another thread on the same topic.

The tables of what units the AI can spawn appears to have been changed but the MP is identical.

This is a log file from back in April of this year.
My army is "worth" 792.
The bot has 1386 MP to spend on units.

[00:10:18] [CMP] Enemy Bot Budget. Player MP: 792,
Start MP Add/Min/Max/Multiplier/AttackerMultiplier: 0/500/0/1.75/1,
Finish MP Add/Min/Max/Multiplier/AttackerMultiplier: 0/500/0/1.75/1,
Risk Factor: 1
Bot CP: 0.65
Bot Start MP: Clip(792 * 1.75 + 0, 500, 0) * 1 * 1 = 1386
Bot Finish MP: Clip(792 * 1.75 + 0, 500, 0) * 1 * 1 = 1386

This is the log file from today.
My army is worth 792.
The bot has 1386 MP to spend on units.

[00:04:04] [CMP] Enemy Bot Budget. Player MP: 792,
Start MP Add/Min/Max/Multiplier/AttackerMultiplier: 0/500/0/1.75/1,
Finish MP Add/Min/Max/Multiplier/AttackerMultiplier: 0/500/0/1.75/1,
Risk Factor: 1
Bot CP: 0.65 * 0:150
Bot Start MP: Clip(792 * 1.75 + 0, 500, 0) * 1 * 1 = 1386
Bot Finish MP: Clip(792 * 1.75 + 0, 500, 0) * 1 * 1 = 1386

The difficulty setting for the campaign is hardcore.
The economy setting for the campaign is low.
The size of the campaign is very large.

This is the first attack mission of a new campaign.

These are both for a "3 star" risk factor location on the strategic map. The number of stars on the strategic map will also change the amount of MP the bot has to spend.

The MP back in April for the first battle of a campaign is exactly the same as the MP it has to spend in the first mission of a new campaign I created today.

What I believe has changed is the table the bot picks its units off.
Instead of buying a few very expensive units the bot now buys lots of cheap units.

So whilst the MP is the same the number of enemy units you need to defeat is larger.

Since the cheap units the bot is buying are mostly infantry they are easy to defeat.

For reference for the German campaigns above my army was/is this

7.5cm leIG infantry gun
rifle squad (the one with the MG34)
rifles squad (the one with the MG34)
ammo crate
medic team
tank crew
tank crew

This uses just about all the MP you have to spend on the low (hardest) economy setting.

[Tribal44]

well, you can deal with arty/At guns with a bit of reconn,
or counter arty, but what suks is that you have to take out MG and other stuff
several times in a row to put them out of combat for good
because the AI keep re-crewing it.

It s easier to put out of combat a Med/Heavy tank than to get rid of
a mortar or mg nest.
Same goes with arty and canon, if the gun doesn't break
(pieces often survive even high caliber HE when it s not a direct hit)
it s back into action within a few minutes

That does lead to stall and losses,artificially pumping AI army strengh
because they keep deploying cheap infantry that does re-crew stuff.

[Saxhorn]

Also I suspect the preparation time was reduced too although I haven't timed it

Prep time was changed several version ago when the new AI was released. It's now more random and I think it's between 5 and 8 minutes before AI attackers appear on the map when you defend.

I think that was an increase from the old time the enemies arrived but I'm not sure about that.

On attack the AI:Player arrives on map almost the same time as you do so it's harder to just "rush" the points like you could with the old system.

[Tribal44]

It s an improvement somehow, but perhaps need some balance
sometimes it ridiculous
the same equipment/emplacement takes abusive amount of firepower
for the AI to stop using it.

[Saxhorn]

several times in a row to put them out of combat for good
because the AI keep re-crewing it.

A sniper in a concealed position will kill the crew and the gun won't be damaged.
You are able to clear a whole flag this way as the AI will constantly recrew the weapon.

A bit of a shonky tactic really but you can choose not to do it.

Flamethrowers and molotovs will also kill crew and not damage the weapon.

The USSR ampuloment (spelling?) launcher is very good for this. It ahs a low firing signature and can loft glass balls of burning goo over small hills and low obstacles. Weapons with a very flat trajectory like an AT gun can't really shoot back if you can get it in just the right spot.

[Saxhorn]

Specific for the OP on this part

Is this a factor of playing against the new USA faction perhaps/balance differences?

The US faction is meant to be balanced by the German units released with the Liberation DLC. Unfortunately none of the new German infantry units are in Conquest (yet).

All of the German infantry units available in Conquest are mid war so the new German infantry units with all the STGs aren't available. Even then I'm not sure it would balance out because the STG has had a range nerf.

So if you want to play against a highly mechanised enemy (so lots of halftracks with heavy weapons) where every squad is full of soldiers with semi automatic weapons fight against the USA.

I've only recently started a campaign against the US and the difference in firepower between the two combatants is concerning.

All you can do is rely on your support weapons to take care of the US infantry. Weapons like the 7,5cm leFG 18 infantry gun and 3.7cm Flak 37 are even more important if you choose to fight the US.

Infantry is even less useful against the US than it was before when you fought the USSR.

Squad versus squad your German infantry isn't a match unless you want to direct control the MG gunners the whole time. And you can't DC one unit because then something somewhere else goes pear shaped so you "win the battle but lose the war".