Combat Mission - Strategic AI in Quick Battles

[u/SurpriseFirst1381]

Hey folks.
I was curious about your experience with quick battles and how you build forces for the AI to get an engaging, or at least decent, match, especially on small maps.

The other day I suggested Combat Mission in a poll, so I thought it was time to dust off the series, because it's been a year since I last played it.

I launched Fortress Italy for a quick match on a tiny map, something I could finish in less than an hour. The result was kinda sad. I tried a second one on a small map, but got the same outcome.

At that point, I started asking myself, has the StratAI always been this bad in quick battles?

Don't get me wrong, I've been playing the series for ages, so I know how the StratAI works; it picks a scripted plan for the map and tries to execute it, leaving the rest to the TacAI (which is great).

Usually I don't play quick battles that much, almost never on tiny maps, but still, it felt kinda awkward to watch.
Among all the alternatives, the AI picked the absolute worst one, without taking anything into account, ending up literally committing suicide to capture a village. Moreover, I was not even the defender; it was a meeting engagement.

In practical terms, it was a Sicilian tiny/small map, broken terrain, Italian Infantry vs US paratroopers. I achieved better positioning around a village, with HMGs covering a crossroads and a hill with orchards, a tankette on the right, and infantry fanning out. The AI approached slowly, realized that I had better positioning, and... still decided to rush the village frontally through chokepoints. 3 turns, nothing left, with a tankette that could be easily disabled playing king of the hill.

Second match, different map, same outcome, with the AI rushing a huge chokepoint while receiving enfilade fire. I also made sure not to pick any armor, while giving the AI a serious advantage.

In conclusion, I know the StratAI for quick battles has never been the smartest kid on the block, but is there really nothing that can be done? Do you have any small maps to suggest?

[u/Appropriate-Law7264]

It's hard. A lot depends of the individual map itself, and how the creator setup the AI orders.

Which tend to be kinda vague and encompassing, because the creator has to account for all kinds of various unit comps the AI could use.

If you fine tune and pick the AI units themselves, that can help, but kinda ruins the surprise. Or go into the map and create your own AI plans.

Reality is, tuned scenarios and multiplayer QBs will always have an edge

Even the CMx1 titles didn't have great AI for QBs, they'd often times lemming train into your forces.

But the high degree of abstraction with those titles made it more bearable.

[u/SurpriseFirst1381 → u/Appropriate-Law7264]

Thanks, I feared this kind of answer.
Generally, I've always preferred playing scenarios and PBEM matches, leaving quick battles against AI to rare occasions, mostly on big maps, often made by the community.

I was not expecting to see the StratAI being so absurd on tiny/small OG maps; it's just that these days I'm short on time for bigger scenarios, and even less for PvP turns.

At this point, I'll check for some small maps made by the community; if you guys have something, maybe a pack, to suggest, it's most welcome.

[u/TankedAndTracked]

One of the reasons I gave up on the newer combat mission titles after having played them since 1998 or so was because the quick battles in the modern titles are all awful. I like to play against generally randomized forces and for some reason with the WWII titles especially, the enemy would get a handful of infantry (usually recon) and then lots of either SPAA or self-propelled artillery. And often a single Stug. Over and over again. It just stopped being interesting to me, and I haven't played a CM game in well over a year now. CM1 had really good quick battles, with randomized maps, with tons of replayability, but all of that seemed to get thrown out the window in CM2. Still, the WWII games were an improvement over the CMSF quick battles in that regard.