I just beat the crazy challange twice more to increase my horrible speed was 56, lowered it to 39, then to the current 31
then decided to try the Insane again.. since i have grown more accustomed to warlight in the months since i started, and think of myself as a decent player...

first game, i spread out my attacks as i thought possible and lost 2 attacks that were kind of important, so i restarted.. 2nd time 1st turn turned out better, but my luck was still down.. abotu turn 5 i was getting upset, and checked my cumulative luck to notice a -8.89... i continued, out of curiousity, until turn 10, when i first met the AI's, i didn't have nearly as much as i would of hoped, and had failed getting bonuses several times, even when i had put extra armies.. a cumulative luck of -24.19 on turn 10...
I know this has nothing to do with strategies, just the complete fail of my luck this game inspired me to write about it, and wish the single player games were saved so i could post it

and now, it's time for me to go back for try 3...

Finished the Insane level a week or two ago. It took me 47 turns, so I'm obviously not the one to give advice about it. I restarted multiple times. I didn't bother to continue if I didn't capture Central America and India in 2 turns and Central Africa in 3rd turn. Does anyone keep the record of how many people have beaten it ?

Pretty sure Randy does. I'd guess 15-20 players now, but it could be more.

I won in 53 turns, time for Insane:)

38 turns and I won Insane. Give Challange 4!

Grats Snake. I still think it's quite an accomplishment to beat the Insane challenge at all, that's why most haven't:)

what about the abandon cards? Do you use them? How and where?

Finally beat challenge 3 in 37 turns. My luck ended up being neutral by the end, and nearly every single game Ive played on the challenge my luck was massively negative, so I think a good string of luck at the right times would go an awful long ways towards improving speed. My win was not fast by any means (partially out of caution at the end, but that made maybe a 3 or 4 turn difference at best), but is enough where I feel I can give a few tips that may not be clear.

First off, I agree completely that you should attack vital neutrals with 4 armies and neutrals that immediate capture is not essential with 3. Also, if you dont capture central america, the india bonus and Central Africa bonus by turn 2, you might as well restart.

In my opinion, a very major determining factor in success is whether or not the AI ends up causing each other to lose bonuses by expanding into one another, and if you have sufficient time to get into some of their bonuses to deny them income before the border build up begins (ideally you can avoid this buildup in a border or two by forcing them to chase you around their territories). Also of significance is if your attacks against neutrals are lucky or unlucky. Get 4 or 5 unlucky attacks in the early going and it is game over.

Personally, I go for N. America, most of Africa and Asia while heading for Europe. When I enter into their world, I usually do it through N. America (making a b-line there from Africa after I capture a few African bonuses), S. America, and Africa after I clean up Europe a little of invading Comp. I also like to let the comp that comes through Europe to head east and capture leftover neutral Asian territories. I just mop up behind the comp so they spend resources taking neutrals and losing territories to my follow up advance. I've been able to pull that trick off pretty consistently so it seems that AI Africa is easily trapped in that way.

I use abandons depending upon where the buildup is impossible for me to maintain, or if I have an extra abandon to throw around and can anticipate the attack of a comp. Once you get behind AI lines, it is important to spread as quickly as possible to deny as many bonuses as possible, while spending enough to keep them from retaking their bonuses until such a time as you can manage to actually capture and hold their bonuses.

by far THE MOST REWARDING WIN EVER!!!! 57 turns, nothing heroic, but my first win against insane... may come back to it for a speed challenge if I'm every feeling like John McClane in the future.

ahem

I hadn't tried the insane challenge for well over 2 weeks... the mind numbingness of receiving your ass from past losses just kept me away from ever wanting to brave stepping foot into double earth ever again.

very odd start, all initial income straight into west Africa, and somehow got really lucky in still capturing everything with 3's the the other two bonuses. With the added forces in Africa I was then able to quickly control all of Africa and move into Svalbard S by turn 7, whilst meanwhile moving quickly acquiring first east then west china.

by turn ten east Russia was mine, and I had made progress toward Svalbard N, with a turn away from capturing the Europe bonus. Here was when I decided to be very aggressive, as I had beaten AI to Australia S, I rushed 29 armies desperately toward China S. Meanwhile I kept anticipating AI in Svalbard N, quickly overpowering it before it had moved into much of West Russia. I then dropped an abandon in Svalbard S on turn 12.

Turn 15 saw a small strike force of 30 enter Africa S, whilst my remaining attack squad in China S got as far as messing up all of Australia, Indonesia, and India before quietly dying.

Ah! I dropped my second abandon in Brazil on turn 16, and to my horror my abandon in Svalbard S was broken through in the same turn! This ate up a lot of my forces for basically the entire game, as i furiously defended the south of my African Bonuses!

For some strange reason, I was left very much alone in Africa and I was able to quickly take control of all the bonuses whilst the AI was fighting over Greenland with my defensive forces. By turn 21 I had control of Africa S, and all of Greenland.

By turn 24 I had taken South America S, and was making my way in capturing Canada N. Also somewhere along here I had to drop an abandon in Japan (which I think is a very good investment btw) as there was far too much pressure from AI attack my East China N chokes.

Things turned for the worse at turn 31 when AI had broken into East Russia N with well over 120 armies and me losing all of south America S and my progress in Canada N.

I thought screw this and accepted my fate, and decided I would force my way into Svalbard S, dropping my entire income for two turns straight into south Africa. Then luck shined on me and AI fell straight into an abandon cleverly placed on the edge of east Russia N. (more desperate than clever tbh)

From then on I muscled my way into Europe S and West Russia S... dropping an abandon on the edge of central Russia S, when AI let all hell rain loose on my forces.

I still had no idea I was on the path to victory, however as I was able to continually hold off their attacks throughout the Middle east S and Caucasus S, whilst slowly conquering both Americas N & S... My final abandon was to wipe their huge defensive line in the Middle East S, playing upon the AI's "attack the weaker territory" mindset.

And then victory came to me like a gentle summer breeze, as I shouted Yippie-ki-yay mother****s!

Nice work, Botch! Fun read :)

28 turn insane challenge walkthrough on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9usAAYy9CDY

Key points:
* I tried to take all 3 starting areas on turn 2. Failed in CA, but decided to keep going rather than restart.
* I tried to conquer the most efficient areas (most reward/provinces ratio), such as India, Caucasus, West Africa, East Africa, West China, early. I left the least efficient areas (S America, Australia) for last.
* I got lucky, fighting the same opponent (teal) in both Europe N/Africa S, and N America N/S America S. As long as I could just concentrate on one AI opponent, I could coast. Even when I got a second opponent (purple, in Australia), I was OK. It was only when red came in Asia and brown came in S America N that I thought I was in trouble, as they each put 30+ strength armies in one province, that took me quite a few turns to deal with.
* Invaded S America S on turn 11, but got kicked out. Came back later.
* Abandoned Svalbard S with 22 units (becoming 110) at turn 13.
* Invaded Africa S on turn 11, and stayed, fighting tooth and nail until turn 17, when I got a full area (West Africa), and knew I was there to stay.
* Abandoned Anadyr S turn 18. This was debatable, since I was actually winning against purple there, but I was having a much harder time against red and brown, whom I couldn't wall off, so I walled off the opponent that I could.

I can't seem to beat insane. I consistently have a better start than the youtube video posted but when I start running into the AI they are posting up 20-30 unit armies on round 11-12 and I just can't keep up when I'm facing 2 or 3 of these at the same time. It seems like the AI was much less aggressive on the replay than it is when I face it.

Last time I had an income of 48 on turn 9. Saw the AI on turn ten with an income of 51 and they already had an army of 9 waiting for me in Argentina. After holding off an attack of 20, they have another 20 waiting on turn 11 and I'm also dealing with a group of 15 in Sweden at that point. By turn 13 I'm looking at over 70 AI armies pushing into the North map. How is it possible to compete with that?

Is it just about getting lucky and having a poorly playing AI and I just haven't seen it yet? I've gotten to this point at least a dozen times and always hold the AI for turn 11 and 12 and then get swamped at turn 13 or 14.

> Is it just about getting lucky and having a poorly playing AI and I just haven't seen it yet?

Basically, yes. And well-timed abandons.

Well, got my lucky break. Wasted a bunch of turns though, i don't think i appreciated the statistics on losses when playing with really large stacks until this game.

Wow, nice vid! Thanks for sharing that. I'm sure that is going to help others out tremendously

Well, first, sometimes they will win. My YouTube postings aren't all the ones I play, I also lose some. :-)

Argentina on turn 10 seems early. Is this Argentina North or South? Either case seems early. Early on, before you meet the enemy, you want to take the areas in the order of most efficiency as much as possible. Those that provide the most income for fewest provinces. This means (most optimal to least):
* India, Caucasus (4/4 and 6/6)
* W China (6/7)
* E China, E Africa, W Africa (5/4)
* C Russia, E US, W US (7/5)
* C America, Scandinavia (4/3)
Those are the ones you should try for first. South America and Australia are absolutely the worst of them, at 8/4. Those are the ones you want the enemy to spend their forces on taking, don't try to take them yourself.

When the enemy drops a huge stack of armies, think twice before meeting it head on. Consider instead "guerrilla warfare": advancing in several other places, and just making sure the big stack doesn't take an entire area so the enemy doesn't get extra builds. You can generally keep a huge stack to taking only one province a turn, and retake the one it leaves.

After much struggle, finally won Insane (in 36). The win sort of snuck up on me. I didn't have Central America by turn 2 (like George--an awesome player btw), and my luck was terrible throughout the game--always lower than all AI's (defensively I got lucky at the end for some reason). Two elements helped me win, I think. First, I got the central purple (6 pt) continent in about two turns after getting my initial 3. Second, I was able to carry off some skirmishes in S World to divert AI's troops. Usually, they seem to come through Africa early, but this time I was able to get down and lay a barricade around Sweden S, hemming them in and denying them those bonuses. If I have to lay a barricade in my own territory, (like S. Africa North) forget it, might as well quit there. Once I had them hemmed in they didn't try to move. Then I had some skirmishes in N. America North, but fended them off, and they were quite late coming through Asia North. Once I laid my barricade down in the cape, North, it was basically over for the AIs. That was fun, after so many defeats! On with the rest of life now. Thanks for the great challenge, but never again.

Congrats Major Joe. The reason you probably had good defensive luck the last few turns was because you had an overwhelming numbers advantage against the AI and they were no doubt throwing attacks into much bigger stacks and losing the full amount of attackers. I don't think it's possible to have negative luck result from attacks like that and it may cause you to have positive luck. At least that would be my theory.

any1 beaten challenge two in 18 turns?? i have... epic :D

shayne, you haven't even beaten challenge two.. and you took 19 turns to beat level two..