RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR II - Multiplayer "User vs AI" Campaign

[Skirmisher]

Originally Posted by Double_Deuce

Comrade Skirmisher, your next mission in the campaign is attached . . .

Mission #02

Things started rather badly. The supply officer has informed me that my request for armored cars has been denied.
Then he tells me I have a few handfulls of points to repair my tattered forces.

A new maxum HMG is purchased,one Cossak platoon is brought up to full strength.

As soon as the battle starts I see enemy units on the road just ahead. The new HMG unit opens up on an enemy squad.
The combined return fire from 4 or 5 units kills most of the HMG unit and the rest flee. Easy come,easy go.

We push the enemy as ordered and at the end of the day mission accomplished. We lost a decent amount of men from various other units. None were destroyed but most,if not all where weakened.

At least we didn't fail,and the new Commissar is intact.
He spent the afternoon calling in mortar strikes.

Final turn files sent.

[Double_Deuce]

iCaMpWiThAWP and Brian61 have you finished your battles? I have Roman and Skirmishers files.

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

Originally Posted by Double_Deuce

iCaMpWiThAWP and Brian61 have you finished your battles? I have Roman and Skirmishers files.

Quick-played through mine:
Decided to avoid excessive losses, so i started with a platoon in the trench area, wich quickly turned into a confused melee, with me taking the "fort" without many losses.
then i used pack mules crews to capture the flags by the railroad.
tried to advance along the road with a platoon, but was met by british tanks and retread back into the fortified position, wich later proved decive winning the battle, as a platoon of marines tried to clear the road it blocked.
Japanese elite scouts scared me off the northern part of the map, nothing other than a little firefight with these same troopers there against a scout of mine wich retreated.
Late game AI counterattack didn't surprise me, i had decided to defend what ground i had 2 turns earlier, due to lack of heavy weapons to support the advance, but still was flanked by cavalry and had to divide the force, losing 2 flags because of that.
Battle turned bloody for the Whites, they stopped our advance, but learned that they can't swim against the red tide!
The comissar shot up a few units without destroying any of them during the counterattack, i tried retreating him into the woods but again, was caught by MG fire and the driver and his aide got killed, we're running low on drivers here.

BTW-Battle results may slightly vary from mine, as last turn AI is very active, and may end with 2 british tanks killed, or a platoon of my men routed.

[Brian61]

Originally Posted by Double_Deuce

iCaMpWiThAWP and Brian61 have you finished your battles? I have Roman and Skirmishers files.

Sorry haven't been in good health. Managed a marginal (barely), but losses were low.

[Double_Deuce]

Originally Posted by Brian61

Sorry haven't been in good health. Managed a marginal (barely), but losses were low.

No worries. Was going to start work on the next scenario set and wanted to make sure you didn't send them via email, cause I didn't get them there.

[Double_Deuce]

Another from the players if I may. I've been trying to test out the AI (mainly my pathing and waypoint usage) before zipping and sending you the scenario files. If you have any feedback on how the "AI" seems to be acting (with my programmed waypoints, etc) in your battles I would be interested to hear. Please note, not all of them are intended to be balanced but, are they challenging and feel like they fit the part in a bigger story.

[Skirmisher]

Originally Posted by Double_Deuce

Another from the players if I may. I've been trying to test out the AI (mainly my pathing and waypoint usage) before zipping and sending you the scenario files. If you have any feedback on how the "AI" seems to be acting (with my programmed waypoints, etc) in your battles I would be interested to hear. Please note, not all of them are intended to be balanced but, are they challenging and feel like they fit the part in a bigger story.

It's hard to judge waypoint movement on a smaller map,but
my battles so far have been good.

In the last one for awhile I was worried. The words "failure is unaceptable" rang in my ears and I was losing combat power to
enemy attacks here and there. I probably could have bought a better core to.

[Roman]

Originally Posted by Double_Deuce

Another from the players if I may. I've been trying to test out the AI (mainly my pathing and waypoint usage) before zipping and sending you the scenario files. If you have any feedback on how the "AI" seems to be acting (with my programmed waypoints, etc) in your battles I would be interested to hear. Please note, not all of them are intended to be balanced but, are they challenging and feel like they fit the part in a bigger story.

The first battle was harder than the second. I'm thinking why....
I already thought something. I do not know whether to tell you .... since it complicates my tactics.
Well, I say. In the two battles I used my Cossacks to flank the enemy. In the second battle my Cossacks found less resistance, because most of the enemy forces attacked the center.

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

In my first battle the AI tried to flank me from both sides AND pushed the center. So this is a classical AI attack, throw whatever they got at me.

In the second battle the AI held it's ground for some turns and counterattacked the turn after i lost momentum. So there may be some waipointing in there...

[Brian61]

Originally Posted by Double_Deuce

Another from the players if I may. I've been trying to test out the AI (mainly my pathing and waypoint usage) before zipping and sending you the scenario files. If you have any feedback on how the "AI" seems to be acting (with my programmed waypoints, etc) in your battles I would be interested to hear. Please note, not all of them are intended to be balanced but, are they challenging and feel like they fit the part in a bigger story.

In the first battle I didn't see any counter-attack or enemy movement (other than retreat/rout). I think though that this might have been due to the spoiling attack I launched south of the bridge across the river (hey, they're marines! ) under the supporting fire of my HMGs sitting in good overwatch positions.

The second battle, given the time constraints and very poor los along the railway, there was no other choice than a slow frontal attack along the railroad behind a walking barrage. There was a late counter-attack launched which included cavalry units from the north. They ran into my light screen of scouts and snipers reinforced by my FT engineer squad. As there were no VHs at risk, I mostly just retreated before the counter-attack and let it burn itself out against opfire on the advance.

Generally I don't care for infantry battles where time constraints are such that you need to advance more than one hex per turn. This is especially true when the terrain prevents long range support fire from mg's and los is such that overwatch and advance by bounds is problematic. I found this to be the case in the second battle, and, especially since I knew replacement troops would be hard to find, opted to fight very conservatively ignoring half the VHs in favor of force preservation.

Just as a side note, it is very hard to do railroads realistically in the map editor. Elevation changes and turns are very gradual on the main lines, los should be clear down a railroad bed to the limits of visibility barring obstruction by wreckage or smoke. Its a bit more relaxed with narrow gauge 'mining' railroads but even they are, in comparison to roads, very flat and slow turning. Outside of railway yards (where very slow speeds and short trains are the norm) and sidetracks (very slow speeds), its pretty much impossible to model a railroad turn on a sp map.

Hope this helps,
Brian