I am new here but am pretty good at games such as this. Have done all the single player games and a lot of the different maps. But, this Insane challenge is giving me fits. I have watched the walkthroughs and read the older threads but the MANY and I mean MANY times i have tried to do this it just doesn't turn out the same way as the old walkthroughs. I do like everyone else does and grab my bonuses quickly and head towards the chokepoints. Thing is that by the time i get there, except for S Africa the bad guys are already there. In most of the walkthroughs the AI doesn't get to the chokepoints till turn 9 or 10. In all of my games they are there on turn 8.

Brazil. Scandinavia and Greenland are already being invaded on Turn 8. I was wondering if something has been changed in the game since the walkthroughs were done. Has anyone done the Insane Challenge lately? And if so can they post their games to help out a newbie? Any advice would be appreciated.

I saw your post last night and it inspired me to try this again. I am too technologically inept to post it, I'm afraid, but I finally beat insane last night for the first time. I doubt the settings have been changed, and I'm far from the best player around.

As others have noted in the past, there's probably a good deal of luck involved, but for what it's worth, I thought I'd offer what seemed to work for me. I did the standard path, more or less that has been described in the forums earlier.

In early expansion, I did not invest much in North America. I got up to Iceland North very early on without trying to get Europe at the same time and didn't get down to South Africa for the first blockade until I had to.

I kept the Americas as a place to limit AI bonuses, not as a place to get them. What seemed to work was invading Africa South fairly early. There was not much resistance going north there. I bided my time sharing Australia while keeping Indonesia and blockading Anadyr North when the opportunity came. The Russian bonuses were acquired gradually. In South America, I found that it's best to not corner the AI if you want to protect Africa.

I don't know why this was suddenly a feasible game, it always seemed impossible before. Part luck, part understanding AI logic I guess. But the big tactical lesson I have learned between my previous attempts and now is this: Don't try to acquire and defend every bonus. Secure the most important points and don't try to consolidate before you aggressively invade. Look for the easy opportunities.

I think you've heard this all before. But, you wanted to know if anyone has had recent success.

Thanks for the response. I think my problem lies with trying to hold bonuses that are gettint hit by large armies. I also try to take North America. Have has success in doing this but in every game i noticed that they eventually get into it and i spend too many resources trying to hold it.

In one game i did manage to get into South America S and Africa S on turn 10 but ran head long into stacks of 20plus in SAmerica and three stacks of 10 to 20 in Africa. I was up to 86 armies at one time but that only lasted one turn as i got hit on all sides and lost over 20points of bonuses.

Think i will try it by going into Indonesia and concentrating on Asia and Africa for my bonuses and will try and move into SA and Africa S.

Oh well. Off to give it another go.

Thanks again for reply.