Infantry...who needs 'em?

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Joe1960

As much as it pains an old infantryman (U.S.M.C. 1980-88) to say...

I am now on my second campaign...11 battles in on the Eastern Front playing the Germans. It is now December, 1941.

In my first campaign I played a "historical" force of balanced infantry and tanks. Not much arty because I didn't now how to play it in this game. Tough battles...many draws as the Russian arty pounded my PBI's and ATG's without pity. Also I didn't now that the AI would perform "counter-battery" fire. And the constant flow of Russian heavy tanks would walk over my force.

In my second campaign I have a unrealistic force of just tanks and 4 (or is it 5?) batteries of (IIRC) 170mm arty. Several missions in I added some tracked 88's to deal with the plethora of KV-1's, Matilda's, and Valentines the AI likes to choose for it's OPFOR selection.

This (granted non-historical force - I guess) is quite potent. The heavy arty is a real killer and deals with almost all OPFOR threats. Especially their PBI.

Bottom line: I do not have any infantry, am doing quite well, and am not missing them.

Is there a way (or through OOB manipulation) to force the AI to choose a "realistic" force so that I can play with a "realistic" one?

Artillery is expensive. Each 170mm battery you have in your core will be worth a platoon of tanks and a rifle company to the soviets, but cannot take or hold V-hexes. You have nearly 2 regiments of the rarest big guns.

And an armoured core is worth a lot of points as well.

You seem to want a tank heavy opponent, so try the AI Tank Heavy preference. It will still buy infantry and arty though!.

You are seeing the cheap and cheerful lend lease tanks - so you are probably still in late 41 and early 42 - so try waiting till 1942+ when the T34s come on line for AI fleet buy. You will also have 75L43 long guns available (and the long 50) then that deal with the enemy armour much better than 50mm short.

You will miss infantry support when you get round to Stalingrad and any other city battles though...

Andy

[Joe1960]

Ah...forgot about city fighting.
Maybe I will see about picking the AI force.

[Xrati]

If you'd like, I can purchase a force for your game, or maybe someone with better Russian force knowledge could purchase a force for your game. Are you in a campaign or scenario/single game mode. You can zip the game file and email it to me and let me know what type of force you'd like to play against and I'll purchase the forces for the AI and return the zip to you. I could place them too if you'd like. Your choice.

[wulfir]

Xrati's offer is your best alternative.
You might think it sounds complicated but really, it isn't.

...and eventually you will master the game to the extent that when facing the AI you will play all infantry forces and say:
"Tanks, who need's em?"

If you play games set up by another player, your battles will be less predictable...

[Joe1960]

Thank you very much for the offer Xrati. If I can figure out how to do it I may take you up on the offer but I play quite a bit and wouldn't want to put you out. I appreciate the thought though.
Kudos to you

[Lt. Ketch]

The other option is to play PBEM against other players. It takes a small bit of learning to get started, but is rather rewarding. Now, you would need to find an opponent that plays with a realistic force, but the way you described it, they couldn't get more unrealistic than the AI.

[Xrati]

It's easy to do Joe. Just go to your 'Save' folder and zip/copy the SpSvXXX.dat and .cmt files. The XXX would be the number of the slot the save game is in. If it is saved in the #5 slot it would be SpSv005.dat. If you can't zip it just attach the two files to an email. The file of an unplayed game will be about 1mb. Ok, just remember that once the AI forces are deployed the game will start. So make sure you have your forces deployed before you save the file.

OPEN OFFER
If anyone else would like me to do a force setup just PM me and I'll give you my email to send the game files.

PS. Wouldn't mind trying a PBEM game with someone who's more willing to 'teach' then 'play' for the first time game(for me).