Well, frankly speaking we've designed those Scenarios and even Campaigns as a sort of "advanced" training. They are no more than a sophisticated drills. The KEY point of Massive Assault is the Wolrd War Mode - there you will find all sorts of choices between attack and defence and sometimes all mixed up in a strange order.

I suggest playing World Wars against the A.I. and if you feel like you beat the A.I. every time you play, then proceed to Online games - there you won't be complaining about the lack of options, I guarantee...

I'm like fadden.

I have tried many many times to beat the scenario, but can't

Any tips?

(I agree don't put tips in the game) Especially as you have such a good forum to ask on

Did you try to set the A.I. difficulty level to EASY?

is this the level where you only have lavs, mortars, and a city with bombers in it where you try to repel a heavier invasion force of tanks?
(I know how to beat it!)

Ah, I see. Let me say, that probably the best tactic is to fight mortars and lavs with mortars and lavs. Before the enemy has a chance to invade your country, coat the borders with the cheapest crap you can find, preventing him from entering your country and cutting off your revenue.
If any units enter your country, focus attacks on them alone and try to fill the space they left in your wall.
If another enemy nation isn't bothering you, don't bother it. Instead, try to build up forces and invade the attacking enemy's nation, thereby cutting off his revenue and not having twice the battle (by attacking another enemy nation). Also, try to use your shots to a.) Finish off the biggest threats first. b.) Eliminate as many enemies as possible. c.) Make sure that if your units are going somewhere, that they move in that direction before they fire if they can.

The moral of the story is: "Don't bite off more than you can chew!"

Strategos,

No its actually one where you start with a single country (3 revenue) (with lavs, 2 mortars a heavy bot and a rocket launcher)

surrounded by 2 enemy countries with small foots, mortars, bots and annialators, and a secret ally which you have to reveal (2 revenue), which has another heavily armed enemy behind it.

The problem is the enemy start with quite a better arsenal and more revenue per turn.

Concentrating your force on one front means you can take it out, but by that time you are running out of revenue turns and typically the enemy has broken through at least one of the other fronts (losing revenue)

If you have a distributed attack on all fronts you are quickly over run as they can kill more lavs than you can purchase.

I will try the difficulty, but I'd like to know how to take this scenario properly

(advanced training as it is )

Ah, the "Battle Hammer" scenario, right?

I tried to create a replay for you showing how to beat the AI, but it turns out I'm having a little trouble myself. I believe the trick is to simultaneously take control of the two neighbor AI allies while blocking the far away invasion with cheap fodder.

Thats the one

I'll give it a try

I loved battle hammer! Possibly my favorite!

Yes, it is nigh impossible to keep your right ally's border intact, so as Deestan said, cheap fodder to hold them off as long as possible is needed.

I chose to use a stationary line to the south with mortars and LAVs as that was a smaller front. With that combination I wasn't going to break into the enemy territory easily, but I was destroying enough of their equipment to keep them from breaking into mine.

Finally, I chose to apply all the remaining firepower to the north. That enemy ally was the one I wanted to focus on taking first.

So the idea was to keep my left ally's borders (the one covered by two enemies) intact, while trying to break into the enemy ally to the north.

Even with all this planning, I was barely able to win this scenario. I believe I had one rocket launcher left, thats all .

How do you keep the enemy to the right from overwhelming you while taking the north border.

I can almost always take the north border, but by the time I do, the enemy on the right is up against my country, I have only 1 or 2 revenue rounds left on that country which is used patching holes with lavs.

Usually they then over run that country and I retreat north, but they have an extra $12 from taking my main country and I get quickly overwhelmed.

Is it better to buy rocket launchers which can stay out of range longer or 2 mortars as artillery for this one?

Any suggestions? A replay from someone perhaps?

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has traouble with this scenario

Whoo Hoo

I finally beat Battle Hammer (with troops to spare )

This is a scenario where my Rocket Launcher obsession seems to have paid off!

Here's the replay

Sometimes it may be beneficial to let the enemy invade so you can bolster your armies with guerrilla forces.

Remember that:

a) Guerilla forces are only two turns revenue, if you can't drive the enemy out in that time, you've lost out.

b) You will have to keep the border secure from then on since you won't be getting any extra assistance.

Okay...I've only just discovered MA (played through the entire demo this weekend). Good game. Looks like the boards are somewhat inactive, but this point caught my eye and I wanted to respond...

Really there isn't much new to the game style in MA. It's been around for decades (even centuries when you consider games like chess). It is the style of computer gamers that is "new" since most have come to wargaming through RTS games. TBS games are fun, IMO, because they afford you an opportunity to think about what you are doing. I love games like Rise of Nations and Warcraft, but when playing against real opponents the game is often decided by which player has learned the hotkeys the best. TBS style games allow you to think about what you're going to do and put some thought in it. MA's simplicity allows you to concentrate of decisions like what troops to buy, where to deploy them and how to use each individual unit. I've seen other TBS games that get so complicated (Stars! for instance) that you really get bogged down just managing your forces and territories and it seems more like work than fun.

However, there are at least two glaring things missing in MA (at least in the demo):

1) Opportunity fire: It would be nice (and wouldn't affect the simplicity of the game, IMO) if units that didn't fire (or maybe move or fire) on their last turn would fire automatically as soon as an enemy unit passes within range of them. That way, approaching an enemy defenisive line would be more difficult and afford the defenders a chance to fire before being decimated.

2) Air defense: If you have opportunity fire, you could have a special unit type (flak battery or SAM site or something...maybe a ship type, too) that can fire on planes.

Some other interesting additions would be:

Strategic Bombers: Longer range bombers that can deal one point of damage to enemy units or reduce an enemy city's revenue by 1 point (cities could "heal" at a rate of 1 point per turn or something)

Fighter/interceptors: These planes don't damage ground units, but automatically attack enemy aircraft that pass withing so many hexes of their base and can be used to escort bombers.

WMDs: No wargame is worth its salt without some sort of nuclear option (okay, that's an exaggeration). Weapons that can damage a larger area of hexes, permanently destroy all revenue in a certian city, etc.

Just some ideas for the future...

There will be superweapons in MA:PR.
But there definetly won't be opportunity fire because there this feature is rather complex for MA ruleset

MA has good ways to defend without opportunity fire. But they come from tactical position, and won't allow anyone to create a fortress (easily). Forteses tend to stall the game.