Well, Impaller, sounds like we do it exactly the same way. You just do it better:)

I was n an epic arm wrestle with the AI when I was called off to bed. My strategy was to get India and Central america first two turns, then West Africa then Caucasus, then spreading to West Europe, running up through West US, Grabbing East China, and getting east Africa next, Typical to my strategy, where I normally lose around turn 15. But, this time I got to South Svalbard and rushed through Greenland to mess with him. He beat me to three bonuses, Canada, which took ages to win back, South America, which I saw him breaking through right as I reached his Canada, and quickly took right back, and Australia, which I failed to ever take. I played very recklessly with no heed to strategy after turn 20, because I am 13, and have a bedtime. I think, with the right moves, this could be a winning strategy. Tomorrow will tell.

A winning strategy indeed. 43 turns, and though I set no speed records, it is a very easy strategy to win with, and I had nearly no problems. I may go for it another time, but for now, I am finished.

I actually beat Challenge 2 on my first try. I didn't know I was supposed to lose! I beat it in 47 turns but I was having fun toying with the enemy, mocking them with my large forces as I slowly surrounded and liquidated them.

Now the last Challenge, "Insane", is just that...insane. I can get all of Africa, South America, parts of North America, most of Europe, most of Asia, Australia, and a few into the other "double" world, but after that I am slowly driven back.

Anyone even come close to beating Challenge 3!?

Charles, this thread is actually about Challenge 3. It used to be called Challenge 2:) If you read through the thread, several people have beaten it.

I read through most of the posts and I am just now realizing that it's about Challenge 3.

This challenge is outta my league. I just don't have the time to do it. But congrats to all whom have done it.

I found this two days ago and its a lot of fun. I have spent about 6 hours trying to beat challenge 2 and with no luck at all I have yet to kill a single AI. Can I ask a few questions of those who have completed it.

Do you give up areas of your own world in favour of entering the other world? (I say this as my most luck has been not building in America at all.)

How many units do you attack the neutral armies with?

What are the first 6 bonuses you gain in an average game, on what turn and in what order?

Thankyou for your help. I just found the forum and realised I have not entirely got the hang of how the AI attacks yet either which I might need to study a bit.

I don't usually give up areas of my own world. The exception is that the AI beats me to Australia and South America (and often takes Greenland before I wrest it back).

I attack the neutral armies with 4 attackers when it's imperative that I capture that spot, and 3 attackers otherwise. If I'm trying to take a bonus, I send in 4 attackers almost all the time. Occasionally I'll attack a neutral spot with like 7 or 8, but that's only when I think that the AI is going to attack that spot earlier in the turn and I want to capture it after they do.

You can actually get away with letting the AI into North America, as long as you balance that by getting into their territory (Usually South Africa) faster. The AI will waste a lot of time in North America, and you can make spoiling attacks to keep them from getting bonuses. The downside is you have a lower income, at least until you have some success on their side. The upside is you can concentrate more on cleaning out the AI in your Europe/Scandavia and getting to their side that much faster.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something here... I have yet to see an abandon card, and when I open the settings window when I start a game, it only shows that Reinforcement cards are available to get. Am I doing something wrong?

Skifree, this thread is about the Insane challenge. It used to be called Challenge 2. The current Challenge 2(Crazy) doesn't have abandon cards, that may be what you're looking at.

Finally finished it last night. This was my strategy, but I think a lot of luck was involved...

1) expand to central america, west africa, and india in 2 turns or restart.
2) Then expand to rest of africa, and east US
3) Then west US, and Canada, and China
4) It's important to get to the choke points at this point at both Anadyr's, both Svalbard's and drop the abandon at Svalbard S.
5) From here the most important strategy (in my opinion) is to run interference within enemy territory to prevent them getting bonuses. Expand rapidly in enemy territories without trying to hold anything.
6) step 5 allows you to move up your own boundries steadily, making progress into enemy Africa and consolidate your asia.
7) From there you're basically just wearing him down, running interference, placing abandons carefully if needed, and moving up your borders.

A pretty new player here. From what I read, challenge 3 used to be challenge 2. That nice.

Anyway, I need help on the current challenge 2. There are times when I have all of North and South America, and then one team gangs up on me with huge forces and I can't win. Any tips? This is hard since everyone's position is randomized.

I currently get stuck on Challenge Crazy (1 vs 3AI+3AI).

I hate the Foggy level in this stage. If Challenge Insane is Foggy too, I will give up now.

As mentioned by Doushibag early in this thread, there are too much luck involved to win. Yes, it is possible to win but I do not think it is funny to win a lottery.

With Foggy level, you can plan nothing at all. This does not make sense. Quite often after ten minutes of play you found you have no chance to win (a waste of ten minutes). Games with uncertainty involved such as a card game take many rounds to get the "luck" evenly distributed. Worse, in Single Player game, it makes no difference whether you lose at the 10th turn or the 100th.

With Moderate or Light Fog, a smart player could take one of the few best paths out of thousands to beat even more than 6 AIs. And if the player finds out he is surrounded by AIs at the beginning, he could reload it to save an hour.

Thanks Randy for this free game.

Well, I beat the crazy challenge. It does seem that luck is involved. My winning game had me start in eastern china. Allowing me high bonuses early on. Though I did meet an AI a bit early in the phillipes and Austrailia, he must have been busy with another AI from Antarctica for a met little resistance with him.

And yes, Insane challenge is fogged, but you starting posistion is not randomized. You play on the double earth map. The top half has you thinly distributed along with nothing, while the bottom half has 6 enemy AI out for your blood. All on the same team.

I think the Crazy Challenge was easier, but requires much more luck, meaning more restarts. It really depends on where you start, and how many AIs are near you. And then how much they fight each other.

The Insane Challenge seems impossible the first few times you try, but is beatable with less luck involved.

Yeah, I know it took me less tries to beat the Insane challenge than it did to beat the Crazy Challenge. Even now, I've considered going for breaking the record in the Crazy Challenge, but it just doesn't appeal to me because it would require infinite restarts to get that perfect mixture of starting spot luck that is needed to not only beat it, but do so in the less than 20 turns or whatever is needed.

Also, if you ever decide you want to make any more changes to the challenges, Randy, I would suggest lowering the luck to like 20% from 50%. I think that would save a lot of headache, and make for more consistent attempts.

Crazy Challenge: just be prepared to re-start a few times to get decent starting position- it is not always bad to meet an enemy early- if you can kill off one AI fast then slowly expand/ expend most of your resources fighting the team with 3 AIs remaining that often works out very well.
Sometimes you can war with an AI early and later discover you've been warring with an AI from the team that is generally losing to the other AI across the map, in which case you've been helping to dig your own grave.

Insane: there seem to be some strategies posted, I'll post my experiences and hope people can learn something. I have beaten it a handful of times but it still seems to be hugely luck based.
The best thing to do is expand as usual, get to a situation where you've obviously lost then surrender and review the history and see where the AI moved to.

Generally speaking I'll take the first 3 bonuses, get East Africa next, send an invasion force of 4 armies en route to Australia every single turn while work towards capturing Caucus, East China, Middle East.

Once those are achieved/ once I hit the south of Australia I aim to push my way to Andyr S and hold it all game long, expand south through south africa with a view to placing a ~30-40 abandon while baiting an attack at Svalbard S.

If you can achieve these two things then rather than 1v5 you'll be fixed into a 3 front encounter for a long time: you holding Andyr S will mean that either the East Russian starting AI gets landlocked there or the central american AI gets landlocked- one of those two will take Canada S and tend to landlock the other. (The Central american one can expand south and attack your north america but it seems to get cut off in south america by the african ai instead)
The West Asian AI will just build up his armies behind your Abandon at Svalbard S.

The three AI you fight are the African AI coming through your Europe/ North America, the South Asian AI coming through your East Russia and whichever enemy ai takes Canada and comes through your South America.

While this is happening you can choose where to expand up north in your world: I advocate minimising your commitment to North america and focusing on taking afroeurasia, holding your own Andyr and Svalbard and wresting control of your south america back, disrupt both North americas while pushing the enemy back through your Europe into his Africa.
The clock is ticking at this stage- you need to take his Africa and hit the Egypt/ Algeria borders before the west asian AI breaks your abandon.
If you can hit the west asian AI's southern borders at Egypt/ Algeria S then he'll stop massing his army behind your abandon, maroon whatever troops he has there and just start reinforcing his middle east/ spain borders.

If you can get to a situation where you control all of your world except disputed north america and take his africa and disrupt a few areas (australia, his south america, his canada) then you're 90% finished and can't really lose.

@Impaller

>>>Yeah, I know it took me less tries to beat the Insane challenge than it did to beat the Crazy Challenge. Even now, I've considered going for breaking the record in the Crazy Challenge, but it just doesn't appeal to me

I beat Crazy in 20 turns, which I think ties Mor's record, but I couldn't guarantee I could ever do it again. It is kind of like you need the perfect storm of luck, unlike the Insane challenge. Not that you don't need some luck for Insane too:)