My ways to improve the challenge of the solo game
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Close Combat Series -> The Mess

#1: My ways to improve the challenge of the solo game Author: Schmal_Turm PostPosted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 1:23 am
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In order to make the most from the deficiencies of the AI I have come up with a number of things that make the game more interesting, at least when I play as the Germans who are generally the underdogs with men and material. For one thing, when I have played the game a number of times it gets rather boring to fight on the same battlefields. So what I have been doing is to make what I call a "tactical retreat" and go back as far as I can before having to fight the enemy. This way I am fighting on areas where I have never or almost never fought before but at the same time it also gives the game more of a challenge to fight to get back to the area where I started from. I also find that this also creates a number of different places of entry onto the battleground thus also giving it a fresh appeal. The other thing is as soon as the enemy asks for a truce I give it. This allows the enemy forces to keep fighting with the reserves that are not in the immediate battle. This is in keeping with the idea presented by mooxe where he said that the battle group should not suffer as a result of the losses of a single platoon. The other thing I do is after I have picked out my forces while not looking at the enemy forces I will then check out the enemy forces and decide if I was the enemy commander what I would choose. Sorta like playing chess with yourself. I also use this to increase the number of tanks in the enemy unit as sometimes the AI doesn't do a good job in choosing them, or even to increase the number of antitank guns over the use of mortars, etc. After the unit is numerically decreased significantly I will apportion units such as the tanks to make the unit decrease faster, otherwise sometimes there are many tanks left and there are only a few being used each time by the AI. After the unit is summarily reduced in tank strength, and otherwise cut off from supplies for an extended period of time, then I will not allow the unit a truce. In other words: the unit will be disbanded.

These are the ideas I have come up after playing all of the games innumerable times while looking for ways to make up for the deficiencies of the AI and I welcome any ideas or additions to what I have come up with.

#2: Re: My ways to improve the challenge of the solo game Author: Jatke PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 6:57 pm
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Grog's Rules - 1. Accept the default deployment. 2. Only issue movement orders in the Deploy phase.

As an aside, I disagree with "the battle group should not suffer as a result of the losses of a single platoon." The BG is not fighting on a one platoon front. IMO, the combat results incurred by the BG's active roster should be applied proportionately to the 'inactive' roster in order to simulate the (unseen) combat taking place on the flanks of the active roster. Using this approach, and the std tactical formula of having 2/3 of your force up front and 1/3 in reserve, would result in, depending on the total BG size relative to the active roster, roughly 60% of the active rosters casualties applied to the balance of the BG.

#3: Re: My ways to improve the challenge of the solo game Author: Schmal_Turm PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 6:59 pm
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I am assuming that most battles in real life are not finished in the two-hour time frame for every move on the CC battleground, especially with the massive numbers of tanks the Allied forces have at their disposal.  As it is, therefore, even if you disagree with my "the battle group should not suffer as a result of the losses of a single platoon," at the very least the loses should not be taken at less than a days battles. (One CC gamer suggested to me to use three loses before letting the unit disband.) In addition, most of the time the AI uses the same battle group in the battles until they are thoroughly used up, becoming totally devoid of armor.  Yet there is usually a battle group in reserve that has ample tanks. Should that group also suffer the disbandment?

What I am trying to do is use some well thought out measures to bring some amount of challenge back to what I still consider to be a great gaming system in spite of the flaws. And I am not trying to say "do it this way." All I am doing is to relay what has worked for me. Right now I am in the fight for my life using this system in Panthers in the Fog as my German forces are in total disarray as the US forces are running all over the board since I opened it up by my "tactical retreat" idea.

#4: Re: My ways to improve the challenge of the solo game Author: Jatke PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 8:27 am
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Mostly a moot point about penalizing the inactive BG roster since the save file would need to be edited manually at whatever interval deemed appropriate. The issue first occured in CC4, where BGs represented entire divisions, which only suffered combat losses on a company(-) scale.

My current solution for handicapping GE defenders vs the AI is to play with a one-man teams mod. But that still requires house rules for BG retreat as, even with the 1-man mod, its all too easy for a small force to contest an area (=block supply) ad infinitum vs the AI. There should be increasing Force Morale penalties for BGs engaged in extended combat.

#5: Re: My ways to improve the challenge of the solo game Author: Schmal_Turm PostPosted: Sat Apr 25, 2020 9:47 pm
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I agree, as you said: "There should be increasing Force Morale penalties for BGs engaged in extended combat," especially when out of supply of ammo and fuel.

#6: Re: My ways to improve the challenge of the solo game Author: Schmal_Turm PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 2:17 am
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The other thing I have added to my games with the U.S. forces is that I read where M-10s and M-4 with 105mm were dispensed to the regular armored forces at the ratio of one-to-one. So for every M-4 there would generally be an M-10 or M-4 with 105mm whenever available. This really helps to boost the forces that the U.S. A.I. has at its disposal.

#7: Re: My ways to improve the challenge of the solo game Author: Berger PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2020 6:18 pm
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In my battlegroups I employ only 9 or 10 slots  against 15  AI.



Close Combat Series -> The Mess


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