I've recently downloaded the demo, and having played about 5-6 games I've experienced nearly consistent stalemates in the area surrounding the rocky hill that stands between the southern most part of the Center trench and the West trench. You know what area I'm talking about? Where the trench splits into a Y-shape with one end being buttressed by a cobblestone wall and the other leading to the open field, with the hill standing between the fork of these two paths. It seems more likely to occur if you're coming from the Center to take the West trench. I'm talking about stalemates that go on for so long that the AI develops really obvious patterns and it just cycles over and over. Only once did I get lucky and break through to the West trench. I can't remember how I did it. Naturally, I've had stalemates in other places, notably the Hospital and the Hotel, but I've been able to take advantage of the AI's weaknesses to resolve them. But this one stalemate just gets the best of me every time. It really does wear me out.

I'm not saying it's a bug or a flaw, but the majority of the games I've played have ended up in seemingly endless stalemates in this one area. Anyone else seen this happen?

I know the place, and have also noticed that it's one of the more difficult areas to overcome.

Are you playing on a specific soldier count setting?

I've never gone above or below a 300 count. I can't afford to go higher since my personal computer is only barely a PC. (Emachines netbook.)

I just had a really interesting game where I hit the same stalemate position, us coming from the central trench. I ended up solving it by taking a rag-tag squad of troops and launching my own assault on the hotel. With that captured, I then launched an attack on the west trench from the south. That made west trench easier to capture and subsequently defend. The rest of the match was trivial from there, with the greys only having two other bases left.

Nice!