Times when the AI surprises you

[Imp]

Feel free to post if the AI has a day firing on all cylinders & does something a bit special.

I had a fairly big meeting battle on a large map the other day that was great.
The map had trees running N>S down the centre for virtually the whole length.
There was a one hex break near the top another about a third down slightly wider with a road & a reasonable break around the bottom quarter with a second road which crossed a stream. The top part of the map was difficult to get to from my side due to several streams & minor marshes so the obvious route was the bridge & after setting up I decided to do nothing on go 1 effectivly relegating myself to player 2 as I thought this would produce a better battle for the bridge otherwise I would get there first.

Due to the central woods which are at least 5 wide both sides cannot see anything till past them so the plan was main force for bridge & a couple of attack helos & a fast mech co with ATGMs attached to wind through the streams to the top road. Once over the bridge a road headed up to link up & give support.

All went well to start with beating off Attack Helos that appeared over the treeline & arriving at the bridge. Here the AI suffered not commiting enough forces or more specifically having virtualy no armour support so we took the bridge & sent a force to help out the top guys. A small armoured force was trying to advance here & my helos were having trouble slowing them while my infantry got in place. First surprise was the forces moving to assist came under fire from attack helos that had decided crossing the treeline was not sensible so I commited more than anticipated to break through & help the top force as it was now getting in trouble. Also I had seen the force at the bottom of the map & it was not as large as expected so there must be more further up the map. The top force died in typical AI fashion to a holding force as I was outgunned but the bottom one got serious. APCs lead the way in front of the armour, not a speed diffrence thing purposefull & the armour went to 2 or 3 hexes or stationary no head on rushing even the APCs were on a go slow maintaining position roughly. We slowly pushed forward & found a few units in the centre so dipatched more that way trying to find its forces as there had to be a lot lurking somewhere. I was thinking its got a big reserve this game or is pushing a lot up top, could not have been more wrong. At the bottom of the map the woods turned with a 10 wide or so strip on the AI sides bottom edge. Out of this popped fully half its force on a flanking move which is why it had stopped comming with the force I was fighting letting me come to it. One turn earlier & it would have been curtains only managed to hang on as had destroyed a good portion of the force I had found. Had sent way to much out looking for its forces up the map & discovered the AI had completly ignored it. I mean completly the only unit in the top third of the map past the road was a mortar. Totaly sandbaged by the AI I would say a third of my force never saw an enemy ground unit let alone combat & the others were fighting for survival after a very nearly decisive move.
Have no idea if the AI waited & formed up (it does sometimes) but the first sign I had of trouble in the woods was 30 odd units appearing on my 8 oclock at 3-400m, straight after a 4 plane airstrike. Admit when they first appeared I thought oh good move but as more than a tank co appeared & everyone was out of shots I just watched in amazement as the scrap piled up.
Its also worth noteing & probably luck but AA was concentrated to stop me getting near the lower woods & make the rest of the map a much safer place to use air hence aiding the undetected advance.
Salvaged a draw from the pitched battle that followed.

[Lt. Ketch]

Imp, I'm currently looking at something similar.

I've got a mobile ranger company vrs. N Korea. Three clustered objectives: North Center and South. I went North with helo troops headed for the center, figuring to swing south when ground troops caught up. The AI went hell for leather south and has now smashed into my left flank with wasn't prepared for a force of this size. The northern troops haven't seen a soul despite heavy bombardment. That bombardment probably saved my life as they seem to have wasted all of thier ammo on empty V hexs. Right now I'm moving all (yes, ALL) troops from every local to the center to try to contain this threat. I'm hoping to get some play in tonight, and so we'll see how it goes. Needless to say, when I spotted about two companies worth of AFVs and infantry and looked at my airborn platoon with helo support and only one mech platoon of rangers trying to get set up in time, I was very worried. Still am.

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

The AI surprises me, hm... frequently, i just love the way it's designed (WAY better than the original sp AI)

Well, once i was going for a small battle, 1 inf company + 6 tanks, sent my infantry into the battle with 3 tanks supporting them, i the middle of the map there was a stream,3 bridges,1 in the top, 1 bottom, 1 middle, decided to cross it on the middle, but sent 3 tanks to the bottom area, my inf made contact and was pinned, i rushed my tanks back using a road on my rear, and surprisingly, found a few light tanks on my rear, a platoon, they would crush my men from both sides used this tactic on a later battle and won by DV the AI is getting dangerous

[Lt. Ketch]

Last night the situation solidified somewhat, but still in questions. I will add that I had a "bad luck" happen. I was taking an Apache around the right flank of the enemy pocket, being carefull because I knew he had some local mobile AD platforms out there and as I drifted into a hex I had a 14mm A/C open up on me with a 3% to hit. Brought my copper down hard! 17 damange and a smoldering crator later, I was sorely tempted to nuke the battle right then and there (hit the exit key and never revisit it again). Didn't though. Still cursing that APC.

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

those things with AUTOCANNONs are worth the bother, shoot them with your canons (are apaches equipped with heat?)

[Lt. Ketch]

Not in the package that I got. Mine have the 30mm A/C with AP. (very nice) Hellfire A ATGM (o.k.) and two slots with the 70mm rockets with a few HE and 7 or so AP. The rockets have actually been more acurate than the Hellfires. Probably because they fire a salvo, not one missile.

Some more dissapointing stuff. I had a couple of LAWs connect with a Type 59 N. Korean tank at 100m or less that had over 60 penitration that did no damage. I think I must have scared the crap out of the crew when my rockets flew right through their tank without hitting anything important.

On a positive note, I have a Hummer with a 40mm GL on it take out three BP-80s in a single turn effectively destroying the AI's counter-counter attack. (it attacked, I countered, it tried to counter-counter attack). It looks like I'll be able to pull at least a marginal win out of this battle if I'm lucky. I hope to finish it tonight.

[Imp]

The rockets have actually been more acurate than the Hellfires. Probably because they fire a salvo, not one missile.

Cant remember what its called but your Apache probably comes with rockets which have a targeting system (by Hughes I think) which makes them very accurate.
Look at the weapon accuracy listed probably very high for a rocket maybe the same as the TOWs, seem to remember tests proved as acurate as PGM.
Thats a big leap for rockets they are now really cheap missiles.