Defeating Insane AI on larger maps

[LostWraith]

I have been able to defeat insane Chaos with SM and IG on small maps like Fallen City. I also succeeded with a couple of other matchups on larger maps, such as SM vs. Eldar . However, I am utterly unable to defeat Insane Chaos with SM on Dread Peak.

Any tips from experienced players will be much appreciated. I have tried more than ten times with various tactics. I tried early game tac squad push, dreadnought rush, and pressure until tier 3 or even 4. However, even if in everygame I hold at least 3/4 of the map, I am always utterly outproduced and overwhelmed by their massive force.

[Pukkun]

Well playing against the AI is playing against time, the CPU doesn't need to click stuff, move stuff, etc.
That's why your disadvantage increases with the map size, especially because of the LPs.
I'm sure you would win if there only 4 LPs per maps...being forced to spread over a huge map is something the CPU does not slow down.

[LostWraith]

The frustrating thing though, is that even if I capture 3/4 of the map and build LP on every point, the AI always outproduces me and overwhelms me.

[Pukkun]

Well they get a resource bonus above, and a malus below hard difficulty.

[LostWraith]

Can you elaborate on that please?

[Pukkun]

I'm not too sure, but I think it's 25% steps from easy to insane.
Req/Power compared to you:
easy: 50%
normal :75%
hard: 100%
harder: 125%
insane: 150%

[Praylak]

I hear ya. I'm having the same problem, specificly in the campaign. Its a strength 1 province, the weakest but its a good size map. Its got SP's every 20 friggin feet though, must be like 80 points. The economy from just 1/10th of that is enough to make 3 times your pop cap in under 6 minutes. Whats the point in a map like that?

The spamming is constant, and unletting so I get overrun. Not sure what to do about it. Any ideas?

[Energizer Bunny]

Key to beating insane AI is to hit it hard in T1. It works every time, no matter what the map (I'm assuming you're talking 1v1 here).

Build your hero right off the bat, and 2-3 squads, overwatch then go for their base. Even if you have massive map dominance the AI will tech hard and fast, so the longer you leave it the greater your chances of losing are

[LostWraith]

It is almost what I try to do every game. However, although I always kill their CL early on and wipe their base clean of troops, the computer always manage to build a second base and tech to berserkers while I am trying to destroy their tough buildings.

[Zallis]

LEave their buildings alone, and go searching for other bases they may have built. In most cases, the AI wont bother to build another base if its existing one is "fine". Namely, take out their lps and their builders, along with their troops and their barracks if you can, then just leave.

[LostWraith]

The problem is that the AI always builds the machine pit or the sacrificial circle in obscure places. The next thing you know half a dozen predators are coming after me.

[LostWraith]

Okay I did it. I basically built less dreadnoughts (one hellfire only) and instead build more tac squads with RL.

[tobyng]

how do you beat insane even on small maps?
i am being beaten by insane AI

[LostWraith]

Cap points as fast as you can. That is THE most important thing. If you cannot own more than half the map, you have lost already.

If you can dominate them on territory, then you just need to play a really good game to keep going and possibly finish them off. It's not easy.

[Slow_Runner]

Moved to strategy since this isn't a balance issue. Please tell us what game you're playing, DoW, WA or DC.

[Thelron]

Killing the AI is all about keeping it starved for space. Lock down every chokepoint you can, and try to bottle them up in as small a portion of the map as possible (IMO *area* controlled is actually far more important than controlling the SPs in that area right away- you can always run a unit around picking the SPs up much more easily than you can push a ramped-up AI out of the viscinity). Giving them an early knock is good so long as it doesn't cost you too much yourself, mainly you have to find ways to chew up a full attack at a given chokepoint quickly enough that you won't be dealing with a steady stream of replacements and without losing so much that you have to concentrate on putthing the line back together and can pull some units off the chokes to go knock a few things over at your next objective (preferably things that are quickly replaced).

Redundant production is a must if you don't go for a quick win. Keep your buildings sitting with a unit ready to go at all times, and with rally points set somewhere that's sensible to sort things to where the actual losses were, so you can get new units in action as soon as something gets trashed. The longer things go the more likely you'll be sitting on plenty of resources, so you can pretty freely send out counterattacks, especially with vehicles (as they build pretty much "good to go" as opposed to squads that have to wait and reinforce) as the key concern is that you have enough forces in place to hold a position, and the "instant" replacements mean if you bump into an oncoming attack force you can blunt it a bit and not really suffer defensively if you play it right.

A nice swift rush makes for a MUCH shorter game though, I just seem to personally do better with the yard-by-yard approach. Of course, I tend to favor guard, who can do that pretty successfully what with all the bunkering and artillery.

[Mullertime]

AI's are a bugger to kill in later tiers, cos they can just spend/spend/spend.

The point was made a while ago by a guy whose Avatar is a black and white picture of a guy smoking a cigar. (I think. Sorry I don't remember your name, dude)
EDIT: Just seen one of his posts. he is: TheDeadlyShoe

He pointed out that most of us have lots of req in the later tiers.
But whilst we have this 'extra req', the comp is spending it!
They have superb micro-skills, and with tons of req, will just keep attacking you. It's really hard to beat comps in later tiers, cos they will just keep throwing units at you, and they can micro your spending better than you can.

Your best bet is, as people have said, try to beat them in tiers 1/2, keep as much land away from them, and switch difficulty down from 'insane'
In fact, from what i recall, I think an insane comp gets something like +70% req and power to you

[snrjefe]

Look for critical buildings that affect their tech. Taking out, say, a SM Orbital Relay or Tier 3 HQ puts limits the units the AI can build. If you can knock him back a tier or two, the replacements will be weak and you can start to steamroll.

[Kalba]

The major problem against computers is that after the very start people forget to micro, and then the other thing, cheating the computer.

As we know, computer doesnt *think* so there are some things that you can exploit.

For example when a computer is trying to build a LP with 2 builders, if you kill one of them, it cancels the LP so you have nice time to kill the other. Pretty soon after that it'll send 2 new builders to finish the job, etc.

I can say from experience that it takes some time until you figure out how the computer acts, once you have that you can do it each time. We had a LAN party awhile back and for some reason we ended up playing DoW against the comp. Bloodshed alley with 3 x SM vs 3x Insane Chaos.

After 3 days of blood sweat and tears, we came through