So yesterday I downloaded a trainer for Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11, and decided to mess around with the challenge scenarios. I've already beaten them all but some have interesting branches that you can't easily get to. For example in the Defense of Xiang Yang there's a branch where Xu Huang arrives to help you make a final stand, except he gets here so late, you either would've already died or already killed the attacking forces. So I decided to give the Unification of China scenario, rated 4 stars, which is 'slightly easier than impossible'. In fact I don't think that scenario is beatable without using some serious AI exploits on the final battle, though before that the scenario is beatable by your usual save & load magic. Looking at the percentages needed, to pull off the string of strategy & tactics to win will be well under 1 in a million, but with the ability to save after each success, 1 in a million is actually pretty easy.
Now the trainer gives me the ability to attack an infinite number of times. So I go to the first battle against Dong Zhou. You start with 5 units against around 12 enemy units and you're hopelessly outmatched, but at turn 6 or so massive amount of reinforcements arrive to help you out. All in all, this is one of the few battles you don't actually need to cheat to win. So with the infinite moves I found took my strongest units, and after attacking something like 200 times, killed off all the enemy units.
And then there was a cutscene that where you talk to your reinforcement guys and they apologize for being too slow to assist in the fight.
Now let's work out the math. My strongest unit need 200 attacks to win. I got 5 units and 5 turns before the reinforcements arrive. Even if the AI simply stands still for those 5 turns, you'd still have no chance of killing them before your reinforcement arrives. Yet there is a special cutscene/branch in case you were able to beat them without the reinforcements.
So maybe this is just an isolated case, next part is a two part battle, land against Yuan Shu and water battle against Sun Jian. The first part is trivial, but on the navy front, your entire navy can't even defeat Zhou Yu or Zhou Tai's unit let alone the entire force, and once again some seriously powerful units will arrive to help you out somewhere around turn 6 because it is entirely possible that your navy would've been wiped out by turn 6. But obviously beating them on first turn is no problem with infinite turns.
And another cutscene occurs explaining why your reinforcements are too slow to help you! Also, unlike the first part where you're just limited by attack power (it is possible through use of terrain to eventually beat that force with your starting units if you're lucky), here not only are you limited by attack power but survival. Once your reinforcements arrive, the AI will go into the serious mode and you'll realize that the AI could've killed you on the first turn if it wanted to if your reinforcements didn't arrive.
As I look back, it's not just ROTK that gives you impossible scenarios. I remember in Heroes of Might and Magic 4, several campaigns are impossible on the Impossible setting because they forgot to increase your starting troops to compensate in campaigns where you don't start with a base, so you'll never be able to take even your first base no matter what. Most of the final challenge scenarios from the 5 Star General series (Panzer/Allied/etc General) require loading about 50 times per turn until you get the results you need to actually beat them.
In fact, the only game I can remember that has a 'next to impossible' setting that wasn't actually impossible was Civilization series. The Deity/King setting sure was pretty hard, and you got to save pretty often, but it's not like you have to save before EVERY attack. I realize these games take a very long time to play, but if you're going to make some final super tough scenario, is it too much to ask to actually test it to make sure it's beatable, and preferably beating without having to save before every attack until you get the results you want?
Now the trainer gives me the ability to attack an infinite number of times. So I go to the first battle against Dong Zhou. You start with 5 units against around 12 enemy units and you're hopelessly outmatched, but at turn 6 or so massive amount of reinforcements arrive to help you out. All in all, this is one of the few battles you don't actually need to cheat to win. So with the infinite moves I found took my strongest units, and after attacking something like 200 times, killed off all the enemy units.
And then there was a cutscene that where you talk to your reinforcement guys and they apologize for being too slow to assist in the fight.
Now let's work out the math. My strongest unit need 200 attacks to win. I got 5 units and 5 turns before the reinforcements arrive. Even if the AI simply stands still for those 5 turns, you'd still have no chance of killing them before your reinforcement arrives. Yet there is a special cutscene/branch in case you were able to beat them without the reinforcements.
So maybe this is just an isolated case, next part is a two part battle, land against Yuan Shu and water battle against Sun Jian. The first part is trivial, but on the navy front, your entire navy can't even defeat Zhou Yu or Zhou Tai's unit let alone the entire force, and once again some seriously powerful units will arrive to help you out somewhere around turn 6 because it is entirely possible that your navy would've been wiped out by turn 6. But obviously beating them on first turn is no problem with infinite turns.
And another cutscene occurs explaining why your reinforcements are too slow to help you! Also, unlike the first part where you're just limited by attack power (it is possible through use of terrain to eventually beat that force with your starting units if you're lucky), here not only are you limited by attack power but survival. Once your reinforcements arrive, the AI will go into the serious mode and you'll realize that the AI could've killed you on the first turn if it wanted to if your reinforcements didn't arrive.
As I look back, it's not just ROTK that gives you impossible scenarios. I remember in Heroes of Might and Magic 4, several campaigns are impossible on the Impossible setting because they forgot to increase your starting troops to compensate in campaigns where you don't start with a base, so you'll never be able to take even your first base no matter what. Most of the final challenge scenarios from the 5 Star General series (Panzer/Allied/etc General) require loading about 50 times per turn until you get the results you need to actually beat them.
In fact, the only game I can remember that has a 'next to impossible' setting that wasn't actually impossible was Civilization series. The Deity/King setting sure was pretty hard, and you got to save pretty often, but it's not like you have to save before EVERY attack. I realize these games take a very long time to play, but if you're going to make some final super tough scenario, is it too much to ask to actually test it to make sure it's beatable, and preferably beating without having to save before every attack until you get the results you want?
