How to win at this game...

[Rhoklaw]

Don't play Allies which is funny, since Axis lost the real war. For some constructive criticism though, Axis AI is nearly impossible to defeat, nearly. Where as Allies AI can barely stop Germany from winning by themselves.

[Kiesel]

Just tried again and thought that maaaaybe the patches made the game harder. But to the contrary, it was more easy than ever....

Played Britain.

Round 1: Sink Fleets near India and Great Britain, Seize parts of northern Africa, build infantry for India

Round 2: Make sure to have a puffer zone east of India, try to sink fleet in the med. (get it again every round if lost), Secure rest of Africa, build 2 submarine and battleship near Britain (his fighters don't attack it, to costly)

Round 3: Keep buffer zones up to defend India and Africa. Build 2 transports and a destroyer, add to existing fleet. If leftover money, add some fighter

Round 4: Add whatever needed to invade Germany. usa might decimate German troops if you're lucky and kept the ocean free of German ships.

Round 5: Invaded Germany

Round 6-8 Play destroyer of world at leisure

Round 9: Game won.

Did I have a lot of luck? Well, I wasn't unlucky, but also not really lucky with the dices. Pretty average. Germany just left its flank totally uncovered and threw everything they've got at Russia.

Not sure if that's how the AI now does it all the time as last time I've played it wasn't THAT easy, but I mean...I was able to take Germany with 1 Battleship, 4 infantry, 1 bomber and a few fighter plane (maybe 4?). That shouldn't happen.... not that early anyways. And not while Germany has like 10 tanks and 15 infantry next to Moscow.

Please please please devs give an option to make it harder. Maybe also scenarios or later stages of the war, etc...

[Julius Borisov]

The substantial AI improvements are still in the works.

[Rhoklaw]

Originally posted by Kiesel:

Eh.... I've played each faction and won on each on the first try. It's really sad to me that there aren't more game modes or difficulty settings as it is so easy.

Not sure how you can have trouble... sure, you loose in the fights they pick, but the fights you pick can decimate the enemy a lot if you somewhat know half way what you're doing.

I've played this game since it was first conceived as a board game. While the rule sets can make a slight difference, the fact of the matter is, playing solo and relying on the AI to be smart is much easier as Axis than it is as Allies.

Playing the weak nation of Russia, you'd think having 3 nations is a huge advantage, but it's not. Russia starts off weak and can't really do anything about it. I'm not saying it's impossible to win as Russia, but you certainly won't be playing an offensive game. Your only option is to turtle up and pray US and GB AI manage to do something spectacular.

[Soltau Womble]

AI hard to beat as Allies got to laugh...never even felt threatened by AI not even with terrible USSR rd1.
Best way to win is play live in multiplayer custom game or read the buys/moves/combat of your opponents and team mates LEARN see what works.
If player does something that makes you fell under pressure then think about how great a move/s he is doing if your team are crushing the enemy look at the moves to create that situation.

AI will give you the basics but you will not beat people unless they are god awful or just very unlucky on dice.

And in team games use click zone and N to chat..

[aardvarkpepper]

Originally posted by Rhoklaw:

Originally posted by Kiesel:

Eh.... I've played each faction and won on each on the first try. It's really sad to me that there aren't more game modes or difficulty settings as it is so easy.

Not sure how you can have trouble... sure, you loose in the fights they pick, but the fights you pick can decimate the enemy a lot if you somewhat know half way what you're doing.

I've played this game since it was first conceived as a board game. While the rule sets can make a slight difference, the fact of the matter is, playing solo and relying on the AI to be smart is much easier as Axis than it is as Allies.

Playing the weak nation of Russia, you'd think having 3 nations is a huge advantage, but it's not. Russia starts off weak and can't really do anything about it. I'm not saying it's impossible to win as Russia, but you certainly won't be playing an offensive game. Your only option is to turtle up and pray US and GB AI manage to do something spectacular.

Played Russia last night; UK/US/Germany/Japan all AI.

Captured Berlin round 7. Germany had 5 units on the board at that point. Even if it had recaptured, I could have just recaptured. Japan wasn't a threat in the east either; I did a two-front war. Which sounds ridiculous if you think about how humans can handle Japan, but what with all the overextensions, it worked out all right.

Russia suffered no bad dice runs, but mostly it came down to Russia punishing Axis overextension and UK/US trading France - not efficiently, but enough what with everything else to push Germany down.

[WebBowser]

Originally posted by aardvarkpepper:

Originally posted by Rhoklaw:

I've played this game since it was first conceived as a board game. While the rule sets can make a slight difference, the fact of the matter is, playing solo and relying on the AI to be smart is much easier as Axis than it is as Allies.

Playing the weak nation of Russia, you'd think having 3 nations is a huge advantage, but it's not. Russia starts off weak and can't really do anything about it. I'm not saying it's impossible to win as Russia, but you certainly won't be playing an offensive game. Your only option is to turtle up and pray US and GB AI manage to do something spectacular.

Played Russia last night; UK/US/Germany/Japan all AI.

Captured Berlin round 7. Germany had 5 units on the board at that point. Even if it had recaptured, I could have just recaptured. Japan wasn't a threat in the east either; I did a two-front war. Which sounds ridiculous if you think about how humans can handle Japan, but what with all the overextensions, it worked out all right.

Russia suffered no bad dice runs, but mostly it came down to Russia punishing Axis overextension and UK/US trading France - not efficiently, but enough what with everything else to push Germany down.

I wish my AI US actually did something in the first 7 rounds... Last time I played the US actually managed to do NOTHING to threaten Germany until about 2 turns before Moscow got captured, and somehow lost Hawaii to boot. Maybe I just got unlucky...

*edit

You know what, credit where credit is due. With the recent patch, the US starts taking action far more quickly. Wasn't enough for me to win (decided to try and rush manchuria on round 2 and failed, costing me the game), but it was much closer this time around.

US not losing Hawaii for no apparent reason also helps.

[aardvarkpepper]

I played UK., AI as Russia, US, Germany, Japan.

Russia cowered in Moscow, didn't attack anything even with hugely favorable odds. US is faffing about with France, I'm trying to build up some pressure on Finland/Norway but US is having no part of it.

Mostly it's about Russia and US potato'ing. I suppose maybe I'll try it again, and direct US to attack particular territories, but its transport logistics aren't the sharpest.

[WebBowser]

Originally posted by aardvarkpepper:

I played UK., AI as Russia, US, Germany, Japan.

Russia cowered in Moscow, didn't attack anything even with hugely favorable odds. US is faffing about with France, I'm trying to build up some pressure on Finland/Norway but US is having no part of it.

Mostly it's about Russia and US potato'ing. I suppose maybe I'll try it again, and direct US to attack particular territories, but its transport logistics aren't the sharpest.

Yeah, finally managed to win my first game with Russia. I did my normal opener of mostly abandoning Karelia and splitting my forces between West Russia and Finland, but Germany did something weird. Instead of throwing everything it had at Karelia like it normally does, it instead split forces between Karelia and west Russia. I was very frightened, as the bulk of my forces was sitting in West Russia, but somehow Germany lost the fight, along with most of their starting forces. That round 1 loss costed Germany the entire game (they took Karelia obviously, but that really didn't mean much with most of their forces gone and mine in relatively good shape).

[gbelle]

The key to beating the AI is simple. Concentrate all your forces in a central territory like west russia then trade for territories. The AI does a terrible job of trading and you can easily win the IPC exchange in them. Hold Caucus if you can as well just because it is worth 4 ipc and has a factory. You should be able to hold the caucus but give up Karelia and trade for that one.