abukede

Turn 2 Here is the strategic map at the start of my second turn. Notice that Hungary and Finland have joined. If you look closely at the map you can see there are a number of soviet units that are trapped behind German lines. The Russians began first turn with 116 units. I destroyed 20 which brought them down to 96 and this turn as you can see the red army was reinforced. The Soviets are back up to 112 units. Axis numbers climbed also with the war entry of Finland and Hungary. These additional units will come in handy. With the entry of Finland Russia now needs to worry about another front. Here is the Southern Front at the start of the turn. As a player I have never ever been happy with the Axis force structure in the South. There will be some movement but the simply reality is that it will be slow going for a few turns until I can get some armor and additional German forces into the region. The soviets start with too many troops in the south for the Axis player to accomplish much early on. Notice how aggressive Russian forces crossed into Romania this turn!!! This is my position in the Center/South. As you can see I have very powerful units. They are all in excellent supply. I simply need to clean up a bit before pushing forward. I will shortly send a few units down towards the Romanian front. I pretty much swept everything aside as my offensive push continued. I was also able to secure the key rail junction for the region. Notice that some of my units are understrength… the result of combat damage. Next turn I will begin pulling some of the more damaged units out of the line to bring them back to full strength. I need to maintain their experience levels if at all possible. It is the one edge I cannot afford to lose. I conducted a number of successful airstrikes with no enemy intercepts. I took advantage of no enemry air cover by adding a strength point to both fighters.

Several German units start the game with no upgrades. I upgraded just their infantry value at the end of the turn. I cannot afford to upgrade their motorization and likely will not. In this game, you discover though you may have tech, it is not always necessary to upgrade all of your units to their fullest capacity. Remember, the Germans are chronically short on cash. You need to maximize your spending power and I would rather put my resources it into new units. The cost to upgrade a corps motorization and anti-air is more than half the cost of a new infantry division! Anti-air is now nearly useless because I have destroyed much of the red air force. Motorization is nice to have, but not necessary early on as I am going to quickly out-run my supply lines anyway. I will only end up upgrading a few select units, including mech and armor with motorization and that will occur later in the game. I purchased 2 German divisions each with 1 upgrade into infantry warfare and I also bought 1 garrison, which I will need shortly for anti-partisan duty. Notice the number of German fighters to be built. I will begin working on this slowly but will have all in build before October. They will be needed to combat a growing and more powerful red air force. The Germans have a lot to build and little to build it with. When you start taking significant casualties later in 42… it will be even more difficult to purchase additional units… so get what you can get bought now! I destroyed a total of 20 Russian units this turn. I could have destroyed at least 30, but that would have meant the majority of the Red Air force would have escaped. As you can see, I nailed 7 fighters and 3 medium bombers, which is the majority of the Russian air force. The Russians have around 7 or 8 air units left with 1 being a strategic bomber. This effectively means the Germans have near air superiority over the front. I only nailed 4 light tanks this turn but the real important number is the 5 armies. The more armies I shatter and destroy over the coming 10 turns or so will make it more difficult for the Russians to form an effective defense. The Russian armies, like the German corps, form the heart of the Russian forces. They will be my primary objectives followed by light armor going forward. This was the final picture of the strategic map at the end of the turn. As you can see, I have a number Russian units surrounded and effectively isolated. The reduction of the majority of these units will occur next turn. By the third turn there is a good chance I will be able to break out into the open and begin eating up ground.

In the North I exploded forward breaking through the enemy lines and doing a lot of damage. Units not on the rail lines are essentially trapped unless they are able to pull back. Even then those units are still at risk from the Germans advance. Notice some of my units are now damaged. Be warned, the first turn is not a cakewalk. You can easily take between 700 and 1,000 income worth of casualties. In the south, my options are not as strong as in the north. Axis forces in the south are without armor. The Hungarians are not even in the fight yet. My main body, in this picture, will move up to the town in preparation for a prepared assault next turn, when I can get bonuses for attack. Had I attacked this turn I would have taken significant casualties. I want to avoid all unnecessary casualties at all costs. Further south, my units are focused on surrounding this division and reducing the enemy HQ. The more units you can isolate from good supply the less casualties you will take the following turn. I keep harping on it… because Germany is always short on cash. You need to maximize your resources. There is an Axis air force in the south that includes 1 German Medium Bomber, 1 German Fighter, 1 Romanian Fighter and 1 understrength Italian Fighter. The German units here are not over-strengthened. Rather than risk them taking any damage and affecting their experience, I took this turn to over strength both. I upgraded the Romanian fighter to level 1 and moved the Italian Fighter up. These units will become the nucleus of a powerful offensive package when I manage to get some armor down to the south. Till then I am going to carefully manage their experience and work to limit losses while slowly advancing. The time for a fast advance in the south will come soon enough.

You may wonder why the enemy tanks are not my priority. The Red Armor units are in reality “light tanks.” The Russians start with bucket loads of them. They are extremely poor quality and once destroyed cannot be repurchased. If you try to save these units it may prove to not be worth it as they can’t be upgraded. They can cause damage… so it makes sense to use them while you have them. This is a regular Red Armor… notice it is not available till Jan 1st, 1942!!! It is also tougher and much more powerful and useful than the light tank. You can upgrade it! Not having access to heavy armor till January will cause the Russian player a lot of concern as the German advance moves closer and closer to Moscow. It calls for a very creative defensive strategy to slow the Germans down. Oh fyi… my favorite side to play is Russia for this very reason. This is the first real moves in the center with an attempt to begin to encircle and trap the units around Brest. Air attacks revealed this enemy fighter. He will not survive as his airfield is quickly over-run. Here is Brest nearly encircled. I was able to destroy 2 more enemy fighters and a medium bomber in the process. Notice the casualties on my one armor. Yes… though the Russian units were caught by surprise and are not dug in the Germans have been taking casualties. Nearly trapped, the enemy units should not be able to escape next turn. At this moment, the two most important units encircled are the para and the army. (I had a Russian player really surprise me once with his paratroops… later in the game… don’t want that to happen again)The enemy HQ is of low quality. I am not really concerned about him as the Russians have plenty more. I expect to get him too next turn. I would rather nail enemy aircraft, armies, paras and light tanks. In that order. Enemy divisions are way down on the priority list at the moment, so are HQ’s.

Germany begins with $400 income. Germany begins with 550 already invested in tech out of a total of 900, meaning you can invest 350 additional. You can only invest 1 chit in a given tech at a time. It is a bit of an adjustment from previous games where you could invest 3 chits in one tech and speed things up a bit. Game mechanics/balance-wise it helps to control excessive focus on one tech and puts the player’s attention squarely on tactical unit strategy, which is where it should be. Instead of blowing all of my starting income on tech, I will steadily invest in new tech over the next 3 turns. This way I can begin purchasing units, which will begin to arrive come fall. Gaining one secondary tech, like long-range aircraft is not going to immediately decide the game in your favor so spreading out the new technology investment over 3 or 4 turns at the beginning of the game will not be catastrophic. Even if you strike gold and gain an early critical tech advance it is usually not a shattering event to the enemy. This is simply due to the scale of operations in the game and the multitude of other factors like supply, etc. Concerning the investments already made for you… I would strongly recommend keeping those chits invested. When advancement in one of these areas occur (infantry, armor, aerial warfare and anti-tank) the player should immediately reinvest in that very same tech. Those technologies are critical to any hope for a victory. Secondary tech investment, at least in my mind, should be long-range aircraft, ground attack, and industry or production. My first purchase will be in Intelligence. Not only does intelligence reveal units hidden from view but each new level of Intelligence research increases your own research bonus by 1% and decreases your opponent's bonus by 1%. Always… always keep 1 chit invested in intelligence till you max it out. Long-term this one investment could prove to be a real deciding factor in the game, especially if your opponent ignores intelligence tech altogether. It is time to make my first moves. Due to the grand scope of operations this is the type of game where you may want to consider thinking before moving... like chess. Plan out what you intend to do several turns in advance and then work to make it happen. Do not be afraid to review the front for a few minutes before making your first move. First Moves: My first air attacks were on Vilna and Baranavichy to reduce the rail and supply heads. Essentially I want to isolate enemy units and reduce their effectiveness so that I can mop them up in subsequent turns lower levels of casualties. I also want to keep large groups of enemy units from retreating. Unfortunately, my attacks on Vilna this turn were not as successful as I had hoped in that I did little to no damage. I need to push some these units on the front back or destroy them so that I can get at the aircraft behind. My primary objective on turn 1 is to destroy as much of the Red Air force as possible. If successful this will guarantee German air superiority for months to come and reduce casualties significantly. You can see air attacks have weakened this fighter. One of the new features to the game is the retreat function… units can retreat one or two spaces. This is an example of an army retreating 2 spaces. I marked his point of origin. This function really adds to the game-play and fun. Units in other SC games that would not normally survive a retreat and the subsequent attack by another unit… now have the potential to survive and fight another day. As such, along an established front, units can retreat behind friendly units to safety. It is a very cool feature… and to be honest at first I disliked it. I found it annoying and argued against it… late game when things really heat up I discovered I loved it for the randomness and that it allowed my armor to survive time and time again when normally they would have been wiped out. Fighters are very good at hammering enemy air units on the ground. My fighter finished off this medium bomber.

So enough with the introduction… let’s get to the first turn. (Please note these are my strategies and how I fight this game. Other betas have their own strategies and the reader will likely invent some of their own.) You occasionally get strategy tips like the one below that pop up… read them carefully. Most are very important. This one tells the German player the war objectives needed to bring Russia to her knees. Looking at the map… you will notice Baku listed too. Baku may seem incredibly hard to get at an “early war” (summer of 1941 objective). It’s a long way from the front and due to the size of the map Baku seems even further out of reach but that is not always the case. In a couple games I experimented with an invasion of Turkey during the first summer of the war. In both cases I was able to get to Baku through Turkey before I even got close to Moscow! Attacking in August 41 is really your best opportunity to pull this off because Russia is nearly on her knees and has lost so many units that there are very few left to send to the Turkish front to block a German advance. It is all Russia can do just to slow the Germans down at this point. In fact, Germany should have a serious advantage in units over the Russians at this point, however that should begin to change as the game moves into September and Russian production begins delivering new units. Warning!!! There is a serious downside with this strategy. First the German player needs to dedicate a sufficiently large force to take Turkey with a quick knockout blow. The Turkish army is large, though spread out. Given time the Turks can deploy enough forces to slow Germany down. I estimate an invasion of Turkey, at the minimum, would require at least 2 armor (huge commitment of your overall armor force), 2 HQ’s, 3 corps, 3 or 4 divisions and at least 4 medium bombers with 1 fighter. The Turks also get a fighter. You may want 2 fighters but honestly you need those fighter assets in Russia proper. Anything less than the force structure described above and I think you risk a rapid conquest of Turkey. It is very easy to get bogged down in Turkey’s mountains, especially if the Russian player can spare a few divisions to ship down there. A failed knockout blow means potential disaster for Germany. Another concern is that you need so much force to successfully take Turkey in a knockout blow that it drains critical forces from your offensive drive against Russia proper, meaning that when the German player bogs down in winter, he will have taken less Russian territory than normal (less room to fall back). There is a lot of room to hide a potential offensive on the front and the Germans could find themselves spread too thin setting up a potential catastrophic situation that could negate any gains made in Turkey. The Russians also become very powerful during the first winter of the war and the German forces suffer terribly to winter alone! When the Russians finally launch their winter offensive against weakened German lines, having a large number of forces isolated in Turkey could prove to be a real liability. There is a lot of income to be grabbed in Southern Russia and Turkey. On the flipside… should Germany capture Baku and the surrounding oil it can really hurt the Russians production wise. So bottom line… Turkey can prove lucrative but also a costly risk. To invade Turkey or not to invade Turkey? That is the question. Let’s first take a quick look at 3 of the units I am about to employ against my Russian foe before we get into the first actual moves and attacks. Infantry Division Though this unit appears weak, when compared to a corps and armor, Infantry Divisions are versatile and will become a key component of your combat power. Do not discount them! In fact, I value these units so much that I typically build all of my infantry divisions first before building large numbers of other units. Divisions are inexpensive and deploy quick. Russia has an incredible production capacity that the Germans struggle to compete with. Remember I said that the German player is chronically short on cash and units. The quicker you get units into the field to match Russian numbers the better. Divisions take 2 months to build… so if you start building them in June you will see the first units begin to arrive in late September. German Corps The Corps is the heart and soul of your army. They take 3 months to build so if you began building them immediately you would not see the first unit till October, nearly on winter’s doorstep. You can see the corps is much more expensive than a division and more powerful. Lose too many of them and no matter how many divisions and armor you have on the field of play you are in trouble. I usually begin producing corps after I finish building all of my divisions. The process begins sometime in August, which means the first new corps begin arriving in late November and December, with the majority being deployed before a spring offensive… just when you need them the most. German Armor German armor is the key to your offensive firepower and provides serious punch. Most Axis armor starts deployed on turn 1. The German armor deployed is mostly very experienced and powerful. They remain powerful as long as they are in good supply. Supply will always be a concern when operating armor. Good supply keeps down casualties… poor supply increases casualties. You need to work to minimize the amount of damage your armor takes. It is very easy to lose focus and keep you armor fighting till they become vulnerable and or very understrength… meaning at best you have bled all the unit’s valuable experience away. Note: It is nearly impossible to keep your armor units in perfect condition. The player needs to find a healthy balance.

Here is a Birdseye picture of the Northern Part of the Front from the German Perspective. I have marked key targets to eliminate on turn 1. Remember the Russian fighters? I have marked them for destruction to keep the Russians from building up an effective air defense too soon. I want my bombers to roam uncontested over the battlefield for as long as possible. The towns marked are designated for strategic attack by medium bombers to prevent any Red Army forces from escaping too quickly. Think of it as bombing the rail yards. Notice the large concentration of German armor and infantry in the north. These are experienced armor and infantry. Most German units come with solid experience with many units being upgraded at the start of the campaign. This is a huge advantage against the inexperienced and poorly trained/organized Russian units that are deployed on the map at the start of the game. As the German player you also have to carefully manage experience to maintain the edge it gives you. Should you fail to manage your experience properly… as casualties mount on both sides you will slowly bleed away one of your key advantages. As the German player you need to do everything possible to keep this from happening… even if that means pulling units to rear areas to rest and rebuild. Replacements units typically do not come with experience… which means if the German player loses an experienced armor it hurts much much more as the replacement unit will arrive with no experience. We will look more at the north when I kick off my offensive. Here is a Birdseye view of the Southern Part of the front from the German Perspective Note that Hungry has not yet entered the war on the start of the first turn. To the North Finland has yet to join as well. Though you cannot see it, the Soviet forces in the south are very strong and the Axis forces are fairly weak in comparison. Experience and readiness will make the difference for the Germans… though notice the lack of armor in the south. This is a problem as the resources Germany needs to boost long term production are located in southern Russia. It will require a dynamic strategy which I will address later. (Also... please note that since this walkthrough began some of the positions of units in the south have been adjusted to reflect better historical accuracy. Since the game is in final development additional movement and modifications may be made prior to release)

Take a loot at the deployed unit chart, which shows the unit disparity. Pay very close attention to this chart each turn. It easily communicates the state of the game. We will look at this in more detail as we move deeper into the AAR. The Russians begin with 116 units, the Germans… 84. (Keep in mind this is all subject to change as the game is still in development.) As you can see the Russian player pretty much starts with more of everything, including a large number of units in build… trust me on this the Russian player will need everything just to hang on by the skin of their teeth for the first year of the war and the German player will be chronically short of units and cash. Both players need to pay careful attention to force structure… or you may wonder why deeper into the game 3 or 4 turns after you felt you were doing really well things just started going downhill in a hurry. I will talk later about how to carefully manage your force structure throughout the game. After the first couple months of the war… a good rule of thumb as long as unit disparity is within 30 units on either side there is near combat parity. Okay… let’s take a look at “some” of the new units: Over-all there are 9 new unit types included: - Division - Mechanized - Cavalry - Rocket Artillery - Coastal Gun - Armored Train - Light Tank (Russians have bucket loads of them at the start of the game: Once destroyed they are gone for good) - Medium Bomber - Light Carrier (one of my favorite… but I don’t think you will see them in this release… you will have to wait to the second part.) First Up: Mechanized Infantry These units are powerful and incredibly valuable and come with 2 attacks just like standard armor. There are very few of them deployed. Guard them like gold. The Germans only get a handful… in fact… as the German player you will always want and need more than you can have of just about everything. You have to be extremely careful in how you employ these units, because the deeper you get into a given game the more serious the meat grinder becomes and the easier they are to lose. Whenever I see one I try very hard to destroy it without risking too much. To give you an idea on how heavily involved things can get… I am playing a PvP match currently, where it is 1942 in August, and I am in the process of making the final push to capture Moscow before winter. Between the Russian player and myself, 106 ground units were consumed in 4 turns of fighting. That number is more than half of what is deployed at the start of the game for both sides! In that kind of environment you can see how easy it is to have your mechanized units swallowed up. Properly managing your Mechanized infantry along with your armor is critical. The medium bomber is a very powerful unit and at first generally not really appreciated for being such an effective tool. Ground attack is limited, but where this unit shines is in range, a limited strategic attack and the ability to de-entrench and demoralize. On the German side the majority of the ground strike aircraft you will have will be medium bombers. In past SC games I have seen players rely heavily on tactical aircraft to blast one unit away at a time. It can still be done but it is much more difficult and costly. As the advancing German player you will time and again run into stubborn Russian defensive positions where the defending units have had several turns to dig in… and are fully entrenched and rested. This is where medium bombers shine by helping to soften those fortified positions up allowing your offensive units to blow a hole in the enemy’s defensive line and exploit through. As a counter, a key aspect of the aerial war for the Russian player is building up an effective air defense challenging the Germans for air supremacy. Later in this post I will mark Russian fighters on the map for destruction on the first turn… There is a very good reason for that… as the German player you simply can’t let those fighters escape to build an early aerial defense. Aerial combat is an area where the Russians can easily bleed the Germans over a long period of time. Don’t neglect this aspect of the game! A neat facet for Medium bombers is the strategic attack ability. On the German side at the start of the campaign, medium bombers with their range can easily be used to reduce key supply/rail centers… cutting supply to Front line Russian forces, limiting the ability move/escape and lowering morale & readiness. I think you can begin seeing how this unit can easily change (strategy wise) how you look the war from a more comprehensive air/ground approach. On the Russian side Medium bombers can do everything German units can… but by striking enemy held supply/rail centers (towns, villages and cities) can easily slow the enemy’s offensive by lowering supply to forward units. This also has the effect of making these forward enemy units more vulnerable to counter-attack. The slower the Germans advance the more time you have to prepare a stronger defense around key areas. For both sides the aerial war is costly but critical. It is easy to let attrition mount and keep using the units till combat effectiveness has been compromised. For the Germans this is a real problem… as supply near the front is always poor and rebuilding morale and readiness takes time. It is a hard thing to do… but you must pull your medium bombers out of the line and keep them strengthed up when possible. The game is so long in scope that having one or more medium bombers out of combat for 2 or 3 turns will not decide the game. Properly managing your medium bombers is critical to victory. You will want to pay close attention to them. Upgraded Medium bombers with 2 bars of experience can be devastating. As you can see Tactical bombers have been reworked. They are fantastic ground attack units and can really pound enemy units. They, however, are extremely short-ranged and that makes them very vulnerable to enemy ground and air-attack. Essentially these units must be right behind the front line to be truly effective. They are extremely valuable and investing in long-range tech is a must for late game. Don’t let the level 1 tank attack fool you… these are great tank-busters, especially when upgraded and experienced. Use them as such, but protect them and over-strength them whenever possible. We will look at additional units in later posts, however the primary units you will use: German Side: Division, Corps, Armor, Mechanized Russian Side: Division, Army, Armor, Mechanized There are a wide range of other supporting unit types that you will actively use but the above 4 types will comprise the heart and soul of your forces.

This is a first, very detailed, look into AoC from the Single Player Perspective. I feel this is one of the more interesting SC games ever developed and when I am done I am confident you will agree. In a way I view this expansion of the series and the next one as a bridge to SC3. I know a lot of thought has gone into what SC3 should look, feel and play like and I have this gut feeling that we are getting closer. Though to be honest, Hubert has been very tight lipped about what is coming next. A lot of time and money goes into a game like Strategic Command… so if you want to see SC3… a great way to help push it along would be by purchasing this expansion. So keep your fingers crossed… if sales are good we could see SC3 sooner rather than later. As a quick side note: It is a pleasure being on the beta team for SC. SC only has a handful of beta bunnies, really SC alumni (some of the more hardcore SC players) most having played the game from first release many many years past. I think I speak for all the betas when I say we really love this series and are very dedicated to the point where many of us have more than 6 to 10 games (multiplayer and single) going at any one time. You might think I feel it is a pleasure for the sole purpose of getting our hands on titles early… honestly that is the fun part, but what comes next is truly work… perhaps even a second job for many of us. A second job? Really? Yes. Working with the development team is the real pleasure and keeps many of us going. Beta testing for SC is not like beta testing other games. Sure we are always on the lookout for bugs to report… but I think our true impact upon the game is more direct, translating into feedback on historical accuracy, units, tactics, strategy, placement, etc… the list goes on and on and on, at times driving the developers a little nuts. (I think we might have pushed BigAl over the edge on this release… though to be fair the cheese might have fallen off his cracker long before we even got hold of him.) Seriously though, the development team for SC are some of the hardest working people I know and what we betas appreciate is that they take the time to listen to us and actively work to involve us heavily in development and that is the real pleasure we take. You make a suggestion, there is a lot of comment, developers and betas ask questions, make opinions, take positions, debates are sparked, votes are held, arguments (always civil) and wars in text are raged… but in the end something happens and the game is improved in some small but measurable way. Here is a good example of this process at work… after having fought through several campaigns early in the beta process I came to the conclusion that the Barbarossa Air campaign needed a bit of reworking to bring the game a more historical feel… make it more historically accurate and I made a number of suggestions. One particular started along these lines… “I think we need Medium Bombers… and here is why… blah blah blah…” Guess what? In the end… the development team thought it was a good idea in relation to the scope of the campaign… and poof… medium bombers… well not really poof… I know we all may think Hubert is a magician and can pull a rabbit out of the code but I am afraid adding new units is a bit more involved than a little hocus pocus. I am confident Hubert groaned a bit after reading the virtual Magna Carta articulating my point of view via numerous posts and emails. In the end Hubert sat down and hard coded in medium bombers along with a number of additional new units, which I think you will either hate or love depending upon the side (Axis or Allies)you are on. So in addition to other units like “light armor” we now we have Fighter, Tactical Bomber, Medium Bomber, and Strategic Bomber units!!! Cool isn’t it? The medium bombers change some of the key dynamics and player strategy of the game for the better. It is no longer pick a unit and hammer it to oblivion with 6 or 7 air units. Surprisingly though medium bombers do have a more dramatic impact, but in a more indirect way. I intend to show you how to begin using them to great effect through this walkthrough. The great bit about working with the SC development team is that I can look back to a number of SC games and see my ‘personal’ direct impact on development as can every other beta! So what I am trying to get at is the handful of beta bunnies that call this game ‘home’ are in some ways just as invested in it as the developers… not only do we love this series deeply but we love being part of the development process and are truly honored to be here. So before we begin this epic walkthrough… I just wanted to say a quick thank you Hubert and the rest of the development team for allowing me the privilege to work on the SC series. So… let’s get down to business. This game currently comes with 7 campaigns, 6 historical and 1 alternate history. Throughout this walkthrough… please feel free to ask questions. I will do my best to answer. For this Walkthrough we are going to look at my favorite of the 7 campaigns, “1941 Barbarossa!” This campaign is a blast single player and even more fun in multi-player mode. Single player can be a real challenge as the artificial intelligence now has a much improved combat logic which translates into complex coordinated attacks, which I can tell you from experience can be quite devastating and usually always seems to come at the wrong time from the player’s perspective. The artificial intelligence has seen a serious reworking in general for this game… due to scope and size of the combat area. (Great job BigAl!) Multi-player mode is still my favorite and the most challenging… If you have never played an SC Game in PvP mode I would recommend it. As usual with any new release I will be offering a game for anyone who wants to go up against a beta. I am sure many of the betas will offer a similar opportunity. Lets take a look at the map. As you can see the campaign area is for lack of a better term… huge… colossal might be a better fit. As the German player, when you first look at it… there is an OMG or Great Scott moment where you suddenly realize just how far you have to go for victory. I marked out Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad. It is really a long way! From the Russian player’s perspective there is a very deceptive feeling that you have a lot of ground to give. Simply put… you don’t. One strategy that does not work is pulling everything back ahead of the German tide. This is not a winning strategy as it limits German casualties and allows unrestricted building on the German’s part. The Russian player needs to inflict casualties on the advancing German player and they need to be significant. More on this later. The map is beautifully laid out and well designed. Big Al put a lot of time and thought into it… and the Beta Team helped to perfect it. Later in the AAR we will look at the map in more depth. AoC requires you to pay very close attention to both supply and terrain like no other SC game before it. You find yourself actually studying the map more often than not. This is a good thing! On the German side supply is essentially the key to victory. Ignore it at your peril. Without effective supply your offensive slows, your forces begin taking more casualties and your armored spearheads become more vulnerable to a surprise counter-attack. Losing armor to carelessness early on in the game hurts later and can easily cost you the game. Also ignoring partisan control, essentially allowing enemy partisan units to run rampant throughout your rear areas, can seriously hamper forward operations. The German player needs to focus on maintaining effective supply throughout the game. On the Russian side… supply is your advantage in relation to defense and counter-attack. You build up entrenched defenses around good supply and counter-punch from good supply when the Germans out-run their effective levels of supply. Meaning… as the Russian player you look for advanced German units below 5 supply and try to hammer them. The map plays a huge role in your planning… as to where to hold and when to give. Choose poorly and or delay too long and you can find large numbers of your forces cut off and isolated. This will happen anyway as the German player moves very fast in the early stages of the game but you can manage this to some degree and limit unnecessary casualties. As we get deeper into the walkthrough, I will point out how terrain and supply heavily affects my planning as the German player.

Would you mind listing some of the changes you made beyond what is listed?

What's an SC3?

I survived the hurricane... lost power for a while but we finally got it back. After watching the replay of our last turn I am going to concede this match to Al. He has completely broken the Italian Front wide open. Even though I think I could continue to hold and fight with France and England... Italy is doomed and I do not have the troops to spare to send them reiforcements. I think that had I been able to hold Serbia a few turns longer the game would have been very different... unfortunately I made a couple mistakes with the Serbs that Al was able to take advantage of which really hurt me down the road. Yet again Al has played a masterful game and I would like to congratulate him. Now I am off work on a super duper extra special secret project for Hubert that I know everyone will love! Thank you all for following the AAR. I hope you enjoyed us beating each other up. Honestly, I think I am going to be a bit black and blue for a while.

Managed to get a rushed turn in. The power is flickering as I type. Al has really done a number on the French… I was able to reestablish a line but he is putting tremendous pressure on me in the South. I made the decision to put Russia out of the war and went on the offensive. I expect lots of casualties on both sides. In Turkey Russia continues to hammer the Turks. I took the city of Maan this turn, hammering Turkey’s NM. Also mauled a Turkish unit on the Jerusalem line. Italian front is in trouble. Need bad winter weather quick. Gotta run before I lose power.

Gonna try to get a turn in here tonight. We have a hurricane coming tonight and my wife has kept me busy preparing for it all week. Finally have everything done. At work at the moment. Heavy rain and good strong gusts of wind blowing out there right now. The real nasty stuff should begin tonight. Lets hope I have power when I get home!

Tough decisions for me in the West… I seriously considered counter-attacking the German advance, however the French have taken a number of losses in the last few turns and after careful consideration French forces in the south fell back to new positions. This really stung me as I have inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans… the problem is there are too many Germans. I left a couple entrenched blocking positions forward. It was time to regroup. UK forces have continued to flow into France and now occupy a large part of the Front. On the Italian front the Italian forces have been faring poorly. I was forced to abandon an NM city to reform a better line. Not good. On the Russian front I noticed German forces fall back and I took efforts to bring my two armies in the North together. On the Turkish Front Russian forces continued their offensive damaging a number of Turkish units but no knockout blow. I brought up additional forces and expect the action to continue next turn. On the Jerusalem Front the UK mauled a Turkish corps fairly heavily. The UK also assaulted the NM city of Maan this turn mauling that corps as well. British cavalry moved north and cut the rail line… so repairs are limited. On the Greek front not much of any action. One turn left of summer and we move into the Fall. Incredible game so far.

I think Russia was at 36% or below as of last turn. Al hold a lot of Russian territory, however with the capture of Trabzon and other towns last turn the bleeding of NM is slowing. I could drag Russia out longer but I am not sure I wish to... as once Russia is out Al should bleed NM fast without Holland. I actually feel that Russia is on a potential upswing power wise at the moment... so I am torn.

You have to understand that Al held back in the West and put his entire focus on Russia and Serbia during the first year and a half of the war. It took a heck of a lot of work to keep Russia in the game to this point... a lot of bluff, feints, falling back... gamesmanship essentially to keep him as occupied as possible. What hurt me the most was how rapidly Serbia fell. If Serbia had clung on another 3-4 turns Turkey would already be out of the war. The other factor is that with Al our games tend to be like chess matches... few casualties but a tremendous amount of strategy. Whoever makes the first major mistake loses.

Lots of fighting this turn. On the Western Front the French returned the favor and destroyed 2 German Corps. Additional UK forces moved into position taking up additional frontage, which freed up additional forces. The French also deployed 2 corps this turn. I think I have 3 more deploying next turn. No pictures this turn of the Western Front… operation security. On the Italian Front… the Italians are getting their butts handed to them. For the moment they are holding. I have 5 additional Italian corps deploying over the next two turns so that should help with losses I have taken. On the Eastern Front the Russians continued to push forward. They destroyed 1 German corps. Russian forces in Turkey began a major offensive on Trabzon. Al is spread very thin and as a result the Entente was able to take advantage of that… particularly against the Turks. This is the image after the offensive finished: The Russians also began a second offensive drive Erzerum. I expect that the Russians will now converge on that city from 2 directions shortly… front and behind. On the Jerusalem Front the UK offensive continued with the destruction of a Bulgarian corps anchoring his line. I also got to work on the Turkish corps holding the end of the line and softened him up. This was the result after my attacks. I also moved up additional UK forces against the city of Maan. Over all… fairly pleased with my progress so far. Germany dipped to 85% this turn. The French are at 60%, however with things heating up on the East, Russia should be out of the war shortly… probably in the next 6 turns or so… perhaps faster if I send out my navy or just attack with everything I have. Once she’s out… Al’s morale should plummet like a rock. I also got a hit on diplomacy with Holland this turn bringing her further into the Entente fold… now at 19%. One more good hit and she should begin supplying the UK 65 a turn. Fun game so far… Al’s still in the driver seat, however Turkey is now clearly in trouble. Unless he sends help fast she will collapse like a house of cards. So on one hand I am torn… keep Russia in the war and finish turkey or take Russia out early and move Turkey out of the war in a slower manner? Also… if I take Russia out of the war early it frees up a lot of forces to help out the A-H in Greece, and the Turks in the Middle East. Decisions… decisions… Here are our losses to date. I think all told last turn the CP lost around 5 or 6 units. You can see from the last time I posted the Germans have lost a number of units: Russia also got this interesting decision event:

Okay... lots of action this turn. The French struck back hard in the West eliminating 2 German corps. German morale fell to 87%. In the East the Russians pushed forward in the North against German lines supported by arty. The Rusians also launched a major offensive against the Turks and pushed as far forward as Trabzon with several corps supported by arty and HQs. With luck Trabzon will fall next turn. Russian forces also liberated Oltu. In the Middle East The UK pressed forward on the Jerusalem front and moved forces adjacent to Maan. I expect things to get very bloody across the map next turn. All in. My only real worry lies with the Italians who are not doing so well agains the A-H and I had to send British reinforcements to assist for the first time.

Okay... lets just say from my perspective the game is far from over. Al still has the initiative but he is beginning to find it more difficult to move forward as he likes. The French are dug in and there are a lot of French forces stacked up, including 5 arty supporting the front line. That said... I did little on the West Front other than dig in and restrength damaged units. Many French forces are now dug in on the frontline to entrenchment level 6. I also brought up additional arty assets. I expect a real serious assault this turn from Al, however I expect it to be costly for both sides. On the East Front... I debated a general offensive but decided to hold off a bit. I want to see how things continue on the West Front before I make my move. When I do make it... it is likely that the resulting combat could quickly usher Russia out of the war. The Russians did destroy a Turkish unit this turn in their continueing offensive. Beyond that there was a lot of movement behind the lines. In the Middle East a lot of movement too but little action. On the Italian Front the Italians deployed additional units including their first arty. All in all... not much to report as I am pursuing a strategy of delay. Al is trying to knock out France in 1916. As he has discovered it is slow going and costly. I expect some very serious action of the next few turns. Great game so far.

Okay... very little fighting this turn. In the West las turn the French lost 2 corps, the Italians also lost 2. I decided I needed to take a strategic pause and reorganize my lines in the West and build up my forces. I restrengthened my front line. Al should hammer it, and probably will take Belfort this turn. I placed my forces in a position to really hammer him next turn should he break my first line of defense and move forces forward. In addition it is the middle of June and I need to slow things down and drag his offensive out till winter. This turn also allowed me to make further entrenchments well behind the front line and bring up a few fresh units. In the Middle East Aqaba fell this turn. If you recall Aqaba is a NM town. It hammered Turkish morale. As a Result the arabs really rose up in revolt and TE Lawrence HQ deployed this turn. The town of Maan is next. The Russians continued their offensive in the Caucuses and in Southern Russia pulled back a bit and reorganized my lines there as well. Al has a lot of force in the area and I have to play careful. In the North Russian forces continued to attack Memel while moving powerful forces forward and around Al's lines. Russian morale is at 46 this turn... not great and I need to play very carefully. Russia must stay in the war long enough for Turkey to fall... which in the coming turns I will rapidly push along. I think there is a chance I could break Turkish morale this summer. On the Greek front... Greece has deployed additional forces yet again! So all in all not a lot of action but a lot going on behind the front lines.

No pictures this turn…. Operational Security. I hope you understand. A lot and I mean a lot is going on. We had some extreme heavy fighting this turn. In the West the French launched a major counter attack supported by 3 Artillery units. 2 German Corps were shattered. I almost got a 3rd facing Belfort. He was reduced to strength 1, which is almost as good. The French brought in additional units to the front, pulled back damaged units for repair and brought up fresh reserves for the next round of action. UK Cav also occupied Verdun… so I guess that means we will shortly have the 4th battle of Verdun… but it made sense from a NM standpoint for the French. He will likely destroy the Cav but if he occupies the fortress he will lose another corps which is good for the Entente. So basically on the West Front we have had heavy fighting for the past 4 turns… with little movement. French morale went up by 1% this turn, which German morale dropped significantly. On the Eastern Front… the Russian forces in the North continued their offensive shattering a German corps in Siauliai, liberating that town and pushing on to Memel where they found an Marine unit with no fortifications holding the city. He is now strength 3. Al marched reinforcements to Kovno and I was very tempted to push my main body (20 units) in the North forward. I think Al has stripped much from this front. It is clear he is rushing reinforcements in as a stop-gap… as I have destroyed 2 corps and caught the marine unit completely without fortifications. I may test his strength next turn. He is facing a powerful offensive fighting force driving forward in the North and another one fully entrenched just above the swamps centered around Minsk. This army is very strong, well-rested and like the force coming from Riga supported by artillery. In Southern Russia I fell back from Kiev which fell to powerful A-H forces last turn. I also pressed forward in the Crimea and was able to isolate 3 A-H corps and an HQ. The Russians pushed forward with serious force. So it will be interesting to see how Al responds. On the Turkish Front Russia pressed forward her attack and almost succeeded in destroying the Turkish defenders at Oltu. The defender was left at step 2 strength. Hopefully I will be able to secure and liberate that town this next turn. Russia has been seriously building up her strength and I am seriously considering throwing her all in. In the Middle East the Siege of Aqaba began with a strong attack. If I recall correctly I think the defending corps is down to 2 or 3 steps. That town should fall this turn and since it is a NM center it will bring a big hit on Turkey which is hemorrhaging morale. I think she is down to 65%. So my second front in the Middle East is now open giving Al another headache to worry about. I was also able to bring in additional forces to the theater this turn which have begun moving up to the front. In Greece I was pleasantly surprised to see Greece call up a large sized army this turn. This really made my day as things could get interesting for the A-H on that front. Pretty quickly Al is having to worry about more Fronts than just the East and West. As a quick summary there is the Russian front in the Caucuses, the Jerusalem Front, the Aqaba Front, Basra Front, Italian Front and now the Greek Front… So all told last turn… Al destroyed 3 Entente units… this turn I destroyed 3 while almost getting 7 units. Came real close on those other 4. As a result of the heavy fighting I was pleasantly surprised to find German morale had dipped to 89% at the end of this turn. It is beginning to slide fast... catching up with French morale. German losses for this turn almost totaled 1k in cash. Also you have to take into account that each unit destroyed was experienced. This has been a really fun game and honestly… it could still go either way.

So it was a rough turn for Germany… Despite the poor weather the Russians attacked on the Riga front this turn, destroyed 2 German corps and retook a town. Part 1 of the Offensive Part 2 of the Offensive It is clear Al is spread very thin as a result of his preparations for an offensive in the West. On the Turkish Front the Russians advanced and took the town of Rize while battering entrenched Turkish units. I expect when the weather turns fair that the Russian offensive drive against the Turks should pick up steam. I also got this decision event which if answered “Yes” can help Russia’s staying power. Of course I selected “Yes.” Interestingly Russian morale increased this turn from 49% to 50%. Russia deployed additional units and is very strong. Russia also has excellent arty tech so it should help with offensive action. A Reinvigorated Russia… Russia on the move in 1916 with multiple fronts has got to be of some concern. In the Middle East I was content to hold the line along Jerusalem. I did open a second offensive front by advancing powerful forces toward Aqaba. I expect Aqaba, a National Morale Center, to fall quickly and then Al will be faced with a Second Front against the Turks from the UK alone… 3 if you count the Russian Front. I also have a fourth planned… Just getting forces into position. In the West the French attacked two German corps, one in Nancy and the other facing Belfort. The Nancy corps was destroyed while the corps facing Belfort was mauled. I could have destroyed him also but decided to remain in my trenches. Besides Al has to make a decision to repair him in place and pull him back and advance another unit. Each advance Al makes forces him to come face to face with entrenched French forces where I get can easily counter attack with plenty of arty support. French entrenchment is level 4 which allows troops on the line to dig into 5 levels. I noticed after my turn that Al was kind enough to post his offensive force. So I thought I would post my defensive force waiting for him. Notice how many units I have backed up that are entrenched almost as many as he has preparing to attack. I have more that are just out of view as well and with the British taking over more and more of the French line additional reserves become available. In addition I moved up a powerful force of British reserves in Northern France. Al has Cav employed on the line so he can clearly see my preparations to attack in the North. It has to be a little unsettling. Good weather this coming turn… so the slaughter in the West should begin. Al should be able to rapidly take Belfort and destroy a 3 to 4 units. Should he advance my counter-attack should destroy a similar sized force. As I said… I would have waited till Russia was comfortably out of the war and then used all of my forces on France. Well… we shall see what happens. German morale was 92% at the end of this turn. One more graphic... at the beginning of the turn these were the losses to date. Add 3 Corps to the German number. Keep in mind a good chunk of the Russian losses are Serbian units... and a good number of the UK are Belgian.

Some action this turn in the West. Al moved forward another German corps next to Belfort. I mauled him down to just 2 steps. I could have moved forward a French unit to kill him but it would have meant leaving the trenches right before a major German offensive. Al has moved up against my line near Nancy. He probably will be able to take that city this turn as he used his arty to remove my entrenchment last turn. We are about to enter Spring so things should shortly get ugly. German morale is now 94% and seems to be falling each turn. Killing a few German units should help accelerate this decline. In the East the Russians moved over to the offensive in the North around Riga and moved forward against German lines. In the South the Russians continued their offensive against A-H forces destroying a corps I had worked over last turn. The Russian navy also got into the show bombarding A-H forces in the Crimea. The Russians also continued their offensive against the Tukrs damaging another detachment. In the Middle East I took another turn for a strategic pause to upgrade UK forces. I expect that to end this coming turn.

It is late January and unexpectedly this turn yielded a great deal of down and dirty fighting around the map. In the West Al pushed forward with the intention of taking Belfort and Nancy. Unfortunately the conditions were mud so I was unable to launch a full counter offensive… however using ground attack I was able to destroy the corps that moved adjacent to Belfort. Using arty and ground attack I hammered another corps that was near Nancy… forcing him to retreat with only 1 remaining step. I used air attack in the hopes that I could destroy him but no luck. Al should be able to take Nancy soon. The city is exposed and he has plenty of arty support. In fact the French can see 3 arty along my front. I brought up additional arty assets and about 5 additional corps to prepare some heavy fighting once the weather turns fair. The UK also assumed additional front space this turn and landed 3 additional corps in France. I should be able to land an additional 3 next turn… so UK buildup is going great. With the level of entrenchments that the allies have I expect it to be one heck of a slug fest come fair weather. I think Al jumped a couple turns early. The weather is poor and really not fully conducive to fully breaking the French lines. He can easily have some local success but it will be more costly and slow going… I could be wrong but it is my feeling game flow wise. Sorry no pictures of the West Front this turn... operational security. I hope you understand. On the Eastern Front the Russians struck hard against German forces which had pushed forward. In the North they destroyed 1 German corps and heavily mauled another… before pulling back the first layer of my lines around Minsk. German supply and readiness were weak which I took advantage of. In Southern Russia the Russians struck hard with a winter offensive against 3 A-H corps causing significant casualties on 2 of them. A-H supply was poor and readiness suffered significantly. I expect to continue my offensive next turn. On the Turkish Front Russian forces continued their offensive destroying a Turkish detachment and retaking the city of Sarikamish. I expect to continue my Russian offensive against the Turks next turn. The British offensive in the Middle East continued with the assault on Gaza. I destroyed the Turkish corps there but elected to not take the City. My next push forward will be against three Bulgarian corps Al brought up before Haifa. The British brought in additional reinforcements this turn as well. I expect that shortly I will be opening a second Front in the Middle East. Al is about to besiege Basra with a large Turkish army. I am betting he wishes he had not sent them so far from rail as they are badly needed in Russia. All told it very a turn filled with action. German morale dipped to 95% this turn… a hair above 94%. Turkish morale took a serious dip as well. The UK also scored a diplomatic victory on Holland this turn bringing her closer to the UK favoring the Entente by 9. If I get another hit or two she will begin economically supporting the UK. Game wise I think we are in a very interesting position. Al has sent significant forces to the West. It appears as if he stripped forces from the East where the fighting has been heating up for several turns now. Russia is far from out of the war at this moment and she may be in a position to launch powerful offensives against both German and A-H forces come spring around the time when fighting in the West should really be heating up. Al had planned on a knockout blow to the Russian army last year. Simply put he did not succeed and as a result he is now beginning to take serious casualties as the Russians fight back. Should he put his summer offensive in the East as opposed to the West (based upon his actions… it is clearly the West) he could easily knock Russia out of the war this summer. Yes my morale is eroding but with each kill I slow that erosion and cause Al additional morale loss. That said I think Al is in a better position than I am… however in the next few turns he has to be very careful as the game is his to lose.