posted 06-26-99 02:51 PM ET     

My midgames tend to have a lot of annoying missile wars. I defend my borders pretty actively so the computer must resort to lobbing those irritating triangles at me from far away.

Since the computer AI cheats like mad, I decided to put some scout patrols as designated defenders in the bases that were getting hit by missiles. The computer peeks into my base, does the math, figures that a scout patrol is much cheaper than a missile, and decides against firing on that base.

Aerospace complexes in most of my bases prevent the AI from dropping troops into my interior, so usually I don't have to worry about invasions by "real" troops.