HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE AI??

[FLG]

I have played a few campaigns against the AI. Depending of course on what you are playing, generally in the longer campaigns if you play to win you can usually anihilate the AI in about 1/2 the length of the campaign.

I have developed a few house rules that, if used, should prolong your enjoyement, making the AI a tougher target for much longer in long campaigns. By this I mean typically longer than about 60-70 turns.

1. If the AI set's up a stack of troops in travel mode in your field of view you can not attack them. Normally players don't do this and the AI does it so often it means you can generally destroy large numbers of his troops far too easily. If you are breaking through his lines and find travel mode units on the move then they are fair game. Just ignore AI stupidity.

2. Unsupported armour, i.e. no infantry support, should not be surrounded The AI will quiet happily throw his armour into traps. Let his tanks go if they want to retreat. They probbaly wont though.

3. Don't use air power. This is really just a restraint on your attacking power. It may seem a bit harsh but you will find you don't really need it against the AI.

4. Give the AI at least a 70:30 advantage when setting up the scenario. This helps offset your ability to manage fatigue/disruption and the AI's inability to do so

5. All artillery missions from a unit to be fired at a single target. Some people argue this house rule should be used in PBEM, but in AI games it's a definite. This reduces the amount of disruption you can spread about the AI. As discussed above the AI can't manage fatigue/dsruption well so no point exasperating the situation byut disrupting all his units in an area immediately.

6. If you are going to employ gamey tactics you are only cheating yourself. No one else cares if you tricked the AI and beat him

Of course, you wouldn't dream of playing with the first three of these house rules against a human opponent. But if your playing the AI in a long campaign and want some sort of challenge past half way it's best to give the AI a good amount of leaway.