GE.JHD@forsythe.stanford.edu (Jon Dick) (06/13/90)
I'm posting this because a friend thought it would be a valuable contribution to the discussion. I won't make comments about things I've already seen covered. I win about 1/3 of all my level 15 games (and can usually predict victories by day 50), about 2/3 of level 14, a little more often with level 13 and I can't remember the last time I lost a level 12. I have also won against the computer in it's cheat mode (the key is to blockade his port cities, then he stops his navy cheating). My favorite way to play now (now that I've put in multiple thousands of hours), is without fighters or bombers (I usually skip using Carriers too, which I consider Cruisers in this mode and Submarines because I don't find them particularly useful). I really enjoy this way of playing. The game goes much faster (fighters take forever to move) and you learn some great strategies (I find that I use much fewer Bombers now even when I'm using aircraft). I consider level 12 to be far and away the best level to play in this mode (though I have played and won at every level using this method (I cheated a bit in my level 15 win)). I recommend it to others. If you wake your troops on a Transport in anticipation of landing on an island, but your Transport is not making contact with any land, the computer will put your armies back to sleep automatically when it is their turn. As long as you have land contact they will stay awake. Since coming up with this theory I have never had the problem of finding my invasion force asleep unexpectedly. At level 15, the computer uses a much more sophisticated spreading algorithm. It gets off it's home island faster and spreads faster than at any other level (I've watched). But mostly, it's production goes up to more than double in some cases. I have seen the computer produce a Battleship in 8 days at level 15. Armies take 2 days and Fighters 3, but those are the only ones I know for sure. Multiple attacks are very useful. I try to launch a simultaneous attack on every enemy island I can (and I really mean that even if it's just a few armies). The computer seems to "panic" in this mode and changes production on each of the attacked islands exclusively to Armies. I then grab naval control of the world and blockade every enemy port, after that it's a mop up job. When I make a landing on an enemy island, I put a Battleship in the first port I take and use the battleship to beat off enemy advancing armies. Very effective. Watch out for enemy bombers. This is particularly useful if you are playing without aircraft and/or if you have a lot of different islands under attack at the same time (sometimes my Battleship in one city is the extent of my invasion, it still causes the computer to change his production to Armies). Cheers, Jon