Balanced Campaign Scenarios?

Steel God

No matter how one interprets "kissing your sister" its meaning as it refers to war gaming is clear. It is at best somewhat meaningless and just friendly, or it is at worst quite disgusting and not mentioned in polite company. No matter how you slice it, kissing your sister and playing the AI is either one of those, or somewhere in between, but none of it is any good Big Grin

jonnymacbrown

[font=Tahoma, "sans-serif"]This is an area the Poles can both hold for quite some time and dish out serious punishment. Poland has innumerable pillboxes and bunkers. Do not give them up. Make the Hun take every one of them. Krakow is Army command, GO (Corps) Slask commands the 23rd PD & 55th PD infantry divisions; so the command structure is strong. Advance Krakow Army command unit and get its command range into range with GO Slask. The 23rd is very powerful with 9,500 men and 75 guns and the 55th with 8,600 men and 36 guns. The 750 man battalions positioned in bunkers can inflict pain without suffering losses to German MG fire. Eventually you are going to lose these divisions; no way can they hold out for a retreat to the Vistula. Use ‘em or lose ‘em. Basically Poland is superior in this area. HOLD THE BUNKERS & PILLBOXES. Do not fall back until driven out of the bunkers. Dig in wherever and whenever possible in plentiful industrial and city hexes. Abundant Polish AA units can take a toll of low-defense Luftwaffe is used properly. Try to position the copious Polish 40mm AA batteries hidden. They have low defense and are easily destroyed by enemy artillery. Do let them come under enemy infantry fire. These units do not accrue any benefit from bunkers and pillboxes. There are a few 75mm AA but not in this area. These do benefit from bunkers.[/font]

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Dog Soldier

In my experience, no scenario lasting more than a dozen turns can be managed by the AI. While the AI is better scripted for defense, it is completely hopeless in attack or even a counter attack situation on defense. It has no clue how to handle night turns. Seems oblivious to using terrain. I have seen it defend on open ground where a small change in the line would allow better terrain with the defensive fire benefits. Fatigue management is non-existent. That is why the AI is only suited for very short scenarios.

All that said, the scripting efforts of WDS are a great improvement for the AI. Many of the worst moves by the AI are now corrected. However, like all AI tools, past and even present, AI contains the bias of its developers and limitations of its database sources.

As a tutor in learning the game system the AI accomplishes its mission. Unfortunately, new players to HTH have to learn that what works against the AI will not necessarily translate to a battlefield with a human opponent. That learning curve is well known. Most veterans here at the blitz will help new players learn those differences. There is a fair amount of nuance in the game system that is not spelled out directly in the rules manuals. Those are a good read and re-read of certain sections at times after playing. However, experience is the best teacher.

Dog Soldier

Dog Soldier

Campaign games are fun for the experience of playing them. If one looks at a campaign game as a series of smaller engagements across the map, then the tactics used have to vary with the many smaller engagements. This allows players to graduate from the non-campaign scenarios as the options in strategy and a longer time frame allow a player to be more flexible in their approach to the game. Is that an opportunity or a trap? How will I get across that river? Where will I or my opponent make their stand and where is there just a delaying action? When should I commit reserves?

Aspects of the game system that are less important in contained scenarios really become more important in a campaign game. Finding those is part of the fun whether it is East, West, or Southern front and if you are playing Axis or Allied forces. All have different ways to get the most out of your advantages and a challenge to cover the disadvantages in your forces and the opening moves.

Every HTH campaign game is different after the first day of the game. Some ending in a draw is a really a minor victory to pull off. ie Smolensk 41. Knowing that a campaign game is not balanced to always end in a draw is simply due to the fact that players know something about the history and the mistakes made historically. Thus campaign games rarely follow the historical path in my experience. We can see so much that was not visible to the historical commanders at all levels and have far better control and coordination of forces to expect historical results.

Dog Soldier