Nightfall Mission Eight - Train Rules
 

I just beat this mission but I am fairly sure that I shouldn't have. Is there a rules reason that I missing for why the AI doesn't ram the train or force the the train to ram its Ogres?

Re: Nightfall Mission Eight - Train Rules
 

Nope. I'm very sure the AI is severely broken on this scenario. I saw numerous things that it did (or didn't do) that made no sense at all. It has no concept of what is needed to complete the scenario. The main thing I saw was it choosing to fire at AUs rather than the train or rails (multiple times).

Re: Nightfall Mission Eight - Train Rules
 

I had disarmed it before it was was in range of the train or relevant rails, so I didn't see that. It did however drive its (still M2) Mark V alongside the train without ramming, and drove its Mark III completely over the tracks instead of stopping in front of the train.

I suspect that if the AI wasn't playing stupidly, this would be an unbeatable scenario.

Re: Nightfall Mission Eight - Train Rules
 

Definitely not unbeatable. What I did would have worked with slight modification (cutting the road in the city section to slow movement, and stopping the Mark III a little earlier). I was one turn away from doing all of that without the weird AI things. I only saw the weird behavior on the last turn before the train left.

There is a note in the game's "how to play" notes that may shed some light on the non-ramming of the train, though.

That sounds like a fail in the scenario design that might make it impossible to ram the train. You should be able to park on the tracks (and it's kind important for winning/losing). I don't know what they think they were "solving" by changing that.

Re: Nightfall Mission Eight - Train Rules
 

Stopping all four Ogres completely with the forces given seems at least especially difficult. Although I suppose the last Mark V is ignorable.

Re: Nightfall Mission Eight - Train Rules
 

That's the point. Focusing on the scenario goal is key. Playing a second time, knowing what reinforcements are coming and when, it would be a lot easier to plan appropriately. I squeaked through the first time not knowing what forces I needed. The only mistake I made was not moving to intercept the Mark III sooner. I just ran GEVs up the railroad to take care of it, but I made it harder than it needed to be.

These kinds of scenarios are best the first time through. They lose a lot of replay value once you "solve" them. That's why being able to change them, play different sides, etc is so important.

Re: Nightfall Mission Eight - Train Rules
 

Found some more bugs:

[1] Lower left Howitzer cannot target anything. I lured an Ogre within range and it refused to fire. It won't even fire on the road hex right next to it.

[2] Deploy your units, then hit restart mission. The game resets with no howitzers or train.

Next move, hangs in fire mode. You can't target anything, even a road, and the end phase button doesn't work. Restart mission brings everything back to normal.

Are these bug reports being written down somewhere, or do I have to go through some extra steps?

Re: Nightfall Mission Eight - Train Rules
 

You should report them to Auroch. You can use the "Feedback" button in-game or just send it to the email address. The only reason I started this thread was to confirm that the AI was playing stupidly, and that it wasn't me misunderstanding some rule.

Re: Nightfall Mission Eight - Train Rules
 

I didn't have any bugs with this scenario. I won because the AI spent its time beating up my units instead of by-passing them to go for the train.

Re: Nightfall Mission Eight - Train Rules
 

As far as I can tell the game doesn't allow the AI to ram the train or force the train to ram its Ogres, which isn't a software bug technically but is an instance of the game not implementing the board game rules correctly. The AI apparently ignoring the train and the rails is probably more accurately a software bug though, since it shouldn't be doing this.