AI supremacy

[MarkIV]

Hi to all, at first sorry for my bad english.
I have played WinSPMBT many times with fun, but I've see that the AI don't play the same game! I premise that I've played with and vs many country in generated campaign, but the enemy units are always more reactive than my troops: it is no matter how many times you can shoot and bombard a enemy unit, they fire all bullets at any enemy advancing or shooting at them. It seems that the suppression fire is absolutely ineffective on them, but not on my units: after one or two hit (no casualty), my unit is pinned and hardly rally. Otherwise the enemy infantry unit, also when he has suffered losses and he is withdrawn, almost always reacts to one unity of mine that advances in an adjacent hexagon. My infantry, after some casualty is, correctly, very hard to rally. The AI infantry (ALL COUNTRY)fights up to the last man (really). I've changed the preference, but the AI always easily rally. Can someone can help me?
Thank you

[Marek_Tucan]

It sometimes seems like this But then, with what are you suppressing and for how long? I can assure you that when trying out my WW2 scenario on Petrzalka map, AI infantry got on many places stopped dead in its tracks by overlapping HMG killing zones and light artillery/mortars - noteworthy is that light arty is better at suppressing than the heavy one as it tends to distribute more rounds around target.
Also it tends to be random - firing whole turn at one infantry squad, killing half of it and it's just pinned... Then in next turn the same MG on the same spot managed to rout two squads and still had enough rounds to continue pinning that first one...

[MarkIV]

Thanks for reply, but the problem is that the suppression and / or rally seems not the same for human and AI. My squads are really suppressed by enemy artillery, MG and so on and are difficult to rally, but seems that my troop's fire is almost harmless for enemy infantry. For example: my entrenched squads suffer suppression by artillery fire, then the assaulting enemy squads fire and caused casualty: my suppressed infantry shoot only one or two time (bad). In the reversed situation, the entrenched enemy is not suppressed (they rallied after my first direct fire) and is almost impossible to hit. Also, routed enemy squad (with only 2 or 3 man) quickly rally and opportunity fire on firing or moving adjacent enemies.
I have played this game (and also other wargame and video-wargame) many time but I must modify the preference for computer opponent almost to the lower level for a balanced play.

[DRG]

If that's the way you like to play it then that justifies why we allow the prefreences to be set that low but you are the exception to the rule. Many newbies to the game think the AI is endowed with magical powers it just doesn't have but after playing a few years most people complain the opposite. Everyone is different and that's why the preferences settings are there to adjust but I would be very surprised if anyone but you and a small handful of others plays with the "computer opponent almost to the lower level for a balanced play. "

I can tell you the AI has no special bonuses for rallying etc and in fact can have some serious disadvantages against a human player ( arty "gold spots" for one.. the AI only picks targets as they appear once the game begins and it has no access to the rally hex or any of the opfire filtering the Human player has. )

However as Marek_Tucan says ..."It sometimes seems like this"......but there are no special rally bonuses for the AI

Don

[Marek_Tucan]

The AI doesn't cheat and uses exactly the same set of rules as we do - also it doesn't receive any special bonuses to morale or experience, if the suppression doesn't work then you may have encountered some die-hards or aren't suppressing enough (as often happens to me on advance).
As for the situation you describe, if your troops are suppressed, they don't shoot straight. Often it is better to break LOS (go to hiding or drop smoke) to be able to either have time to build up morale again or to atleast fire at the enmy at pointblank range when he comes through the smoke.
As for the opposite situation, if the enemy was in "pinned" status, then no wonder he opfired upon being fired. Sometimes he gets lucky, esp. if attacker is moving in the open... Just finished fighting one PBEM battle with a friend (the bugger got my HQ with his helicopter dessant) that involved close-combat fighting in a forest, plastered by arty from both sides - I was suppressed, he was suppressed, but still both sides were able to move somewhat, though greater proficiency of my Austrian Jäger units over his Militias was showing, still if I didn't want to get into pointblank slugfest, I fired everything available on targeted enemy unit (due to limited LOS using "Z" key alot) before moving in close with the assaulting squad and his units were usually too suppessed to return fire even at pointblank.
Try it out - machineguns Z-fired are a great suppressing asset, the same for say AA guns and their likes. Keep the enemy under fire up to the very last moment, preventing him to have a time off. Throw everything including kitchen sinks on the bugger and he'll break.

[Nightblade]

The main problem is the "luck" factor.

How many time i could swear the enemy AI had some built-in advantages when a very cheap entrenched AI squad could kill any of my expensive assault troops without having a single casualty and ignoring suppression that every of my mortar fire on them should have dealt.

But sometime the "luck" factor was in my favour, as in the same conditions, i sometime noticed my troops ignoring the entrenched unit fire and destroying them totally on their 1st assault. Or my mortars seriously hurting them.

Sometime it seems you have a good hit percentage and can't hit a single thing, while sometime you have a very low one and you successfully land hits after hits at incredible distance.

So in fact when playing the SP serie, you have to take 2 factors in account when building your assault and defenses : tactics/strategy ... and luck.

Fortunately, there are some ways to lower the luck factor influence :
-never think that a enemy cheap rifle squad alone in a building will be easy to destroy by your superior amount of troops and troop quality.
-never think your enemy is suppressed by your artillery and MG suppressive fire when you decide to assault its position.
-always overwhelm enemy unit position by superior amount of troops. Don't even try to go 1 on 1.
-never think your very expensive tank will be able to resist those rpg from the eighties without problem, you are in for a surprise if you are not lucky when it happens.
-unless you are buying the enemy troops yourself, be prepared to face a lot more ground troops than yours, and so don't think a position you conquer is safe just because you rooted a dozen enemy squad.
2 dozen more of them will attack you soon enough.

With that in mind , you should then lower a lot the impact of luck in your games

[cracken]

This luck factor makes SP more interesting: not every single detail is up to you and your math knowledge.

Also remember, that when you attack one single squad of the enemy, you have the disadvantage (because you are moving etc.). When ever possible overthrow the enemy in a 2:1 relation:

f
e
f

(f = friendly forces, e = enemy)

And do not hang about holding fire one round (for better op-fire). If you see you cannot reach the enemy, concentrate your forces before you advance.

[Marek_Tucan]

Nightblade said:
How many time i could swear the enemy AI had some built-in advantages when a very cheap entrenched AI squad could kill any of my expensive assault troops without having a single casualty and ignoring suppression that every of my mortar fire on them should have dealt.

Or when the last surviving Italian tin can with 37mm popgun, surrounded by burning wrecks of its unit, under heavy fire, suddenly pops three shots with one-shot - one-kill on my experienced A-13's...

Or, OTOH, when my PBEM opponent fires my T-55 with his T-55 at pointblank, gets hit, gets critical hit with 19 extra penetration and it shows "no effect" report