Why is this game so easy?

[Occam's Laser]

Apologies for the provocative title. I really don't think I'm that great at these kind of games, which is why I can't understand why I'm winning every single battle so easily, no matter which side I play.

I'm playing on Normal, becuase I don't want to give myself artificial penalties. I like playing the historical battles with real troop numbers for that battle - I don't want to fight inflated enemy numbers. I just want a tough AI to give me a reasonable challenge.

The biggest issue is, the AI is seriously awful. I just don't understand why it's so bad. UG: Gettysburg gave me a tough challenge most of the time, at least some of the more aggressive AI opponents did. The AI in this game is ridiculously bad.

Just one example: I just played Fredricksburg as the Confederates in the Historical battle just now, and inflicted 62,000 casualties on the Federates for the loss of only 8500 of my men!!!! That is simply beyond ridiculous. I wasn't doing anything special, just sat there waiting for the AI to throw it's troops uselessly at my men.

I know Fredricksburg was a bad Federal defeat, but they suffered 12,000 casualties against 4000 Confederates - and that was considered one of the worst, most one-sided defeats of the war! The idea that an army would have suffered 62,000 casualties, over half the men it had in the field in an enormous battle, is just beyond insane. Those casualty figures could simply never have happened in real life - no commander would have kept throwing men into the mincer getting those kinds of results. And as I say, I really wasn't doing anything abnormal in this battle, the AI was just brainless.

On the other hand, I played Fredricksburg as the Federals a few days ago, and won it nearly as easily. It's not just Fredricksburg, every battle seems far too easy.

Is anyone else getting these issues? I really want to love this game, but it just feels completely broken to me right now. There's no challenge. I want to play a tough opponent that can give me a run for my money, and generate something like historical outcomes, not sleepwalk through every battle against really weak AI.

 

[Col_Kelly]

From what I understand you're mostly playing historical battles. This is the easiest part of the game. Try a campaign for more challenge. An AI that can give an experimented human player a sweat without buffs or extra numbers is something that doesn't exist in a RTS as far as I know. 

[CaptainKanundrum]

It is true that AI for rts games is traditionally terrible and that the only way for it to feel "balanced" is the give the AI some kind of artificial advantage.

However, I would also agree that the AI does seem to make some particularly rediculous choices in this game. Fighting Newport News, I was only attacked by one Skirmishers unit. Then my reinforcement arrived.  Then the rest of the federal army attacked, which I easily crushed with my reinforcements.

The other problem with this game is that there is no Surrender button. So in Fredericksburg for example, the AI keeps attacking you regardless of casualties because there is nothing else for it to do. Realistically, a human player or general would surrender/retreat/concede much earlier, but this game has no mechanic for that. You are able to withdraw all of your units, but the AI never does this and it takes too long for the surrender to happen as a player.

[Wright29]

Play the campaign on Legendary and join the rest of us in being annoyed at charging melee and oversized and overpowered AI!

But seriously, the historical battles are meant to be fun simulations, not actual realistic depictions with accurate casualties. More accurately, for your example at Fredericksburg, a ton of the Union army wasn't actually committed to fighting at all. The part that did charge Marye's Heights got wrecked though. This particular historical battle shows what would've happend if the Union did commit its entire army to suicide charges on the stone walls. 

[LordOfDope]

4 hours ago, Col_Kelly said:

From what I understand you're mostly playing historical battles. This is the easiest part of the game. Try a campaign for more challenge. An AI that can give an experimented human player a sweat without buffs or extra numbers is something that doesn't exist in a RTS as far as I know. 

not true, Company of Heroes has difficulty settings without them having extra buffs or extra numbers,they are just more aggressive and attack over more flanks

[Wandering1]

I would comment on the CoH AI: there's a reason why the Expert AI is not exactly the toughest AI to beat, and that's because once you wipe a squad by cutting off its retreat path, the AI can never catch up. This happens pretty often since the computer does not understand when it has been enveloped.

Edited March 13, 2017 by Wandering1

[Hobo]

Agreed.  Play a campaign.  That is where this game really shines.

[Aetius]

I'd say the AI in this game is pretty spectacular. It is able to form a battle line, attack weak points and flanks, and react reasonably well to being flanked. The two main flaws right now that it is far too willing to accept grossly uneven exchanges of fire, and it *really* likes fortifications to the point where it will reoccupy fortifications that are already overrun. Solve those two problems and I think we'll have a vicious beast on our hands.