RUSE

[Niall]

http://ruse.uk.ubi.com/

Anyone tried this? I've been playing it since it's release, on and off when I've had time. It's a war strategy game and it is SO HARD it actually runs you through the mill! You feel totally spent when you finally win on a mission! I've currently stuck on one level that's driving me insane, and I'm playing it ON EASY!

The graphics are relatively simple, although when you zoom in there is a lot more detail, but still pretty simple stuff. It does require a pretty decent system to run it on as the maps are very large in the main.

You have to strike a balance with units in group so you've got cover against the varying waves of attack. Mainly I'll set up my defences first whilst creating supplying lines (without which you cannot generate income to create units) which have a limited supply to force you to continually expand your base and/or create secondary headquarters so you supply trucks don't have as far to travel, thus speeding up your income.

The main problem I have is that most enemy types will have some form of long range artillery which flatten buildings. Some tanks cannot attack ground units (which is daft, but does force tactical solutions to stop you doing steam roller tactics with one unit type), others cannot attack planes, some anti aircraft can attack planes with great efficiency but not ground unit, and other anti air ground units are all rounders so you have to double up (at least) with them. The long range attack of the enemy forces you to create your bases and have an airfield so take out these units, but you need support on the ground to stop AA guns taking these out. The level I'm stuck on has two groups of three AA guns outside a base, a second area to the east that you have to capture and defend to stop the enemy getting their supply to 2000 (or you fail the mission), all the while constantly keeping two of your bases camouflaged, creating defences and troops stopping the enemy supply lines.

The closest I've come is by creating bombers as quickly as I can (whilst covered, so cannot use blitz tactic to speed it up), then taking out the artillery base to the west, after bombing the AA guns in the forest to the west. While doing this, in the east I'm defending a second base, which is a problem in itself as it forces the enemy towards my main base, which gets kicked to cr*p! At the same time I have to send bombers north east to stop three supply lines, then send paratroopers in to capture them.

That was the best I've done. I'd stopped pretty much all supply lines, but there were three still supplying the enemy that  caused me to lose the mission (for the fifth time!), which is rather annoying. I'm not sure how I'm going to do this mission, although my final idea is to quickly send paratroopers to the outside areas and work my way in.

I've got a bottle of Chardonnay on the way, so that'll help calm the nerves

[Rik]

Order a second, Niall.

[Niall]

Well my idea worked. Sadly on the next mission I was going fine, had all my units in position to complete it and I accidentally left clicked an area instead of right, and it sent the unit I was supposed to be protecting straight to it's death. It's okay I thought, I'd just passed a check point, but apparently this game doesn't record specific information and the enemy that I'd just wiped out easily by a forest was now in a different formation with MORE units, which proceeded to wipe out my two tanks protecting the rear, then my base that produced the needed tank units that destroy the buildings I needed to clear to provide extra cover. Annoyingly the additional units it provided the enemy were AA units too so they stopped my bombers going over the second time, which worked the first time!

All because I press the wrong button I have to start again!

[Rik]

Think of it like life, Niall.

[Niall]

Oops, I just realised this is in the wrong forum section