Strategiclayabout
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Posts posted by Strategiclayabout
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- Well done for Sealion but the timetable will now be a bit more complicated to invade USSR. I think some german aerial support could have sped up a bit things in Greece but it seems to have worked fine anyway.
- I've seen turn 28 second pic somewhere... Turn 27 maybe
(just kidding) ? UK surrender won't be that easy because of capital transfer like France and USSR/USA are gearing up... -
@ DrunkenLuftwaffe: hahaha, welcome to the NSDAP (National Sucking Deutsche Arbeiter Partei)
.Hi Amadeus
,I don't think nobody wants to play you, it's just that most players need to toy a bit with the game before going against MP/human foes (especially if they are experienced ones ^^ ).
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- I'm following both AARs so it's easier "to be right" since I know what the other side is doing
. Maybe your move back to England will prove crucial later 
.- About reasons for having a tank in Antwerp:
0) Sealion
1) just not enough MPPs to operate it to the east (yet)
2) a feint, as you said, to force UK to keep more units in England as long as possible
3) to prevent/kill any funny british move when Barbarossa starts (landings, paradrops)
4) deception about tech level, showing lvl 1 tank where you have lvl 2
5) trying to lure you in bombing it with carriers or ships to trap them with stukas/subs
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- Unusual and bold but interesting plan. I'm very curious to see how that will unfold
. Your agressive use of Axis navies seems to have put UK on the heels. Will you be able to blitz England before the russian bear wakes up ? And I wonder if those italian tanks are as good as Benito says, he boasts so much about everything ... -
- Actually, for Yugoslavia, it will probably come very close to your side but not 100%, you'll have to invest at least 1 chit to finish the job but usually Axis decides to deal with the threat first and invade, sparing you the cost
. - Your little venture in Greece is doing well so far, calling back your sailing units is an interesting choice given the cost. A bit surprised not to see more air support in Greece, one stuka would have done terrible damages and speed up things a lot for Axis though I know (and you know) operating/upgrading units can be punishing MPPs wise.
- Otherwise, fun game with unusual moves and a lot of naval action. Don't worry too much about USSR state, I've seen far worse. My first SoE campaign was a mess on both sides (bad production planning) with nearly no troops for Barbarossa: no defense in towns but not enough nazi units to grab them all
. Tanks lvl 2 is a very good hit for Soviets in early 1941, that will do a lot of damage if Germans arn't cautious. -
Hi,
The display intercept range option (yellow circles) shows only 1 tile range for fighters, that's a bit... short
. Escort range display (white circles) seems to work fine (see pic below):
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Hehe, thanks for the answer, well it's just a minor thing anyway so I'll continue destroying towns
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- Your USSR plan is interesting, I can't (and won't) say bad or good because many things depend on what Axis will do and how it will do it. Well you know it and I suppose that's why you keep your strategy flexible.
- Location of fortifications are an important factor in how well nazis will do. You choice is a bit different from usual strategies but it adds some surprise to the whole plan
. One thing I can add without spoiling the game: did you hit the "P" key to see partisan tiles in USSR ? Can be of use to plan with that in mind . -
Thanks for all details on USSR plans
.Crete:
- As far as I know Crete becomes Axis when Athens is captured/Greece falls so I suppose UK have to send something there before that to retain the island.
- There is also a pop window for operation Merkur when a german unit come close to Heraklion (even if it's already Axis
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- When capturing towns in USSR as Germany I get the "crackling" sound for destroying fortresses and the pop message "(town name) destroyed" not sure if it was supposed to be that ? Looks like Axis is exterminating every single civilian in the way :eek: .
- There is also a short railroad (1 tile) out of Lviv (towards the west) leading nowhere ?
- One romanian HQ is named "Constantinesc" instead of "Constantinescu" but maybe it's because the name's too long to fit in
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Hi there ^^ ,
- Regia Marina has good numbers in 1940, Benito has spent a lot to build it before the war, however it's hard to maintain or improve it with Italy small industrial base.
- Good job using all those french ships to kill german and italian MPPs, that's the best use for them
. Looks like you've discovered how ù^$* big Atlantic is and how easy it is to lose contact with german raiders, but don't worry, they always come back (until they're sunk) .- Nice stand in France despite early Benelux invasion and those paratroopers disrupting your plans.
- BEF exit was quite "hot", could have been a disaster with some subs waiting for your transports but your western "Dunkerque" saved most of your units.
- One question since you invested a lot in british army: I remember Gort HQ being quite awful (level 4 ?), have you considered sacking him to get at least a 6 or even a 8 ? Combat results around Paris would have been better for sure.
- Do you have a plan for USSR already or are you just waiting to see what axis will do for now ?
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- Catching up a bit after being busy, I see you made good use of those paratroopers
. But don't forget Allies will have them too at some point.- Most Axis players usually avoid combat with french navy if they intend to accept the Vichy event. Can still be interesting to be agressive and push Allies to invest more in naval tech/repairs while ransacking UK convoys.
- Seems you're whipping those Italians big time, anything to do with their poor performance in the last war
? Just keep in mind their industry and research suck, you'll have to give up on some areas if you want to be strong (or at least not weak) somewhere.- From your moves I think you've already understood that initiative is a big advantage in this campaign (more than for WWI). You have less time to react given the speed of offensives/range of units so surprise can be truly devastating ^^ .
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I have a question about the event formation of Vichy France for anyone watching; will the French fleet disappear if I say no? I would quite like to have Spain join the Axis, as I fancy their tank corps and the extra income, and the control over Gibraltar. However, if the French navy doesn't surrender then it may not be worth it- anyone know?
I'm a bit late on that one but page 4 of SoE manual for WWI Break says:
"However, if the Axis player decides not to form Vichy France then the French will continue the fight from Algeria and their reinvigorated resistance will provide a small but significant boost to France’s National Morale to enable them to fight on.
Should France manage to survive through to October 1940, then her National Morale will improve. Thus the Axis have a significant imperative to invade and conquer France in the spring and summer of 1940.
French National Morale will receive further boosts if she is still in the war in March 1941, and also if she is still in the war when the USSR join the Allies."
So french navy will continue to fight but you should have an event helping Hitler to get Franco on his side if you refuse Vichy
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Hi Altaris
,- You can only edit your post for an hour or something after making it so you'll just ahve to add new posts.
- I like the game as it is though it's true taking Lemberg as historical is nearly impossible without upgraded artillery.
- Nice move to put an AAR video, gives a different feeling to see all those corps move "by themselves"
.- Between that and your mod should have taken some work, so thanks for your efforts doing all of that !
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First, congratulations for finishing your first MP game ^^ ,
Since Sapare ahs covered many things already, I'll use more "overall" tips but with a screen from your AAR to better point out some things for both of you when needed:
- Diplomacy
- It's far more tricky than just putting chits here and there, it's a mind game
! There are several "weak spots" at start (Norway/Holland/Bulgaria...) and various strategies to use.- You can just maximize chits as MPPs are available on one country and let it roll but only the side with most chits will get a result so just count how many chits CP and Entente have and think about how big a difference OE and Italy entry can make in the diplo race.
- Remember you can see how much each side invest in diplomacy in the stat screens but you won't know WHERE (which country). You can save MPPs to invest all of your chits in one turn on one target hoping to achieve a result before your opponent can match your investment (busy with tech chits or unit building/replacements).
- But you can also spread chits on several targets and wait to see where it will hit first then transfer all/most chits there. Alternatively, you can transfer chits on a country where you didn't hit, luring the other side in investing where you won't.
- All in all, it's balanced, but countries outside of events will rarely join or it will be one minor on each side unless CP or Entente give up the diplo game. You can see it as a MPPs attrition game though it's also a way to hide your strategic focus (USA or Romania ?).
- Strategic things:
* Frontlines
- Both of you had enormous gaps in your lines at some point, guess what ? It isn't good hihi. Letting Germans advance freely in northern Russia was a bad deal, better give some ground in Poland and fall back on a narrow front between marshes and behind rivers.
- If you have to let holes open in your lines, try at least to hold supply centers (cities and towns) as long as possible. Let enemy units advance in forest and bad supply areas while you keep the rairoads open in your back. As a rule of thumb, if you havn't enough units to build a continuous line or block enemy moves with bad terrain and unist zones of control, fall back, shorten your front and free some units as reserve to fill future gaps.
* Detachments
- They don't look like much but are the backbone of your strategic flexibility because you don't need them on the front and their recruiting/operating costs are very low. Spending some turns and MPPs to build many early for all countries and keeping a couple at hand to send on a tile you forgot to block or to guard an unexpected weak spot is always a good idea (fortresses, cities, ports, mines...).
In your game, look at Russia when Prussia had to operate OE detachments to guard the rear. Or Russians taking Lemberg without a figth when the polish pocket was crumbling just because there wasn't enough "rear duty" units available for CP.
* Look for the weakest front (here red arrows)
- It was your first game but I was a bit surprised to see Germans just push forward in eastern France. Once Strasbourg was retaken and french offensive died, there was a chance to shift forces around Verdun and attack the weakest front in the center (HQ, detachment, cavalry... all have poor defense stats, some shells in and it's gone).
* Railroads
- In the polish pocket for Russians and here in Belgium, both players neglected rail crossroads. They are your lifelines, to get better supply and reinforcements.
Russians should have defended their last railway out towards Ukraine, a chance to redeploy units on other fronts. Encirclements are bad enough so try at least to have a 10 supply source in the pocket
. * Strategic bombing
- In Belgium, CP western units only have 1 direct railway through Bruxelles to move in and out, reduce it under 5 and CP will have problems quickly operating units especially if you time that with a land offensive on Maubeuge (secondary railway) and amphibious moves.
- UK pushed too much along the coast and it only shortened CP front while puching them back towards their supply centers and railheads. Just bombing Lille to 5 or under means CP HQs around will go from 10 max supply to 8 and combat units from 9 to 7. Then some units on difficult terrain or at the end of the line can fall to 5 or below and you'll have a chance to get NM bonus or prevent their rebuilding at half-price when killing them.
* Amphibious moves (here blue arrows from sea)
- First, try to land on clear terrain tiles to avoid casualties, the better is a clear tile with a road to reach an adjacent objective but it can be worth it to just take the casualties and grab the city or town you need quickly.
- It's hard to invade Germany like that (far away even with tech) but Belgium has many spots to land in the back of main german forces if undefended. Only 1 detachment can mobilize several enemy units to deal with it and capturing any objective (fortress, city, mine) your enemy won't take back will keep threatening its back.
- Another use is just to kill enemy ships sheltered in ports/forcing them out to face your navy. A more vicious move is to capture a free port at 5 supply where you can send an army group with regular naval transport (you only need to spend on one amphibious unit, saving a lot of MPPs).
- Last but not least, landing in critical areas just to force your enemy to move units from other fronts and waste MPPs matching your own amphibious costs or waste units to guard all dangerous spots. Then just amphib back (or better/cheaper: transport back if you managed to capture a working port) and land somewhere else to make him crazy/paranoid hehe.
- Tactical things:
* HQs
- As I said before: don't expose your HQs if possible, the only "safe" frontline locations are fortresses and only without artillery around.
Aircrafts, even early ones without tech, can always score a lucky hit on HQs or artillery, costing supply and/or MPPs, no need to add infantry to that and I don't even talk about artillery.
* Frontline organization
- Usually, it isn't good to mix troops from different countries piecemeal because you need HQs to be effective. However in some cases it can help a lot.
Here France and UK have their own neat fronts but as long as you have HQs, you can have your corps like that:
UK-FR-UK-FR-UK-FR
- The goal is to spread casualties (and NM losses) between FR and UK in enemy offensive zones when one of them is hard pressed.
Germans did it in your game with Austrians but only because of urgent need and with lack of support.
* Upgrades
- When important upgrades are here/coming (mostly infantry) prepare reserve units to switch with frontline ones so you can minimize the number of turns you need to upgrade around main objectives.
- One side note about navy upgrade, especially for CP: the dreadnought (naval lvl 1) upgrade is costly but has a lot of power. Better avoid sending battleships and cruisers into battle without it. A CA with lvl 1 is very dangerous for regular BBs.
* Deceive your opponent
- It's good to make big plans expecting your enemy won't have a clue but sometimes you can only do with what you have and it isn't much. You have to use units spotting range at your advantage. Cavalry can see up to three tiles but only what kind of unit is around, not its strength unless it is adjacent.
- Sometimes, its' better to have a 1 step corps than a 10 steps detachment. If you gather offensive units somewhere like artillery and cavalry, you're expected to attack and units on the other sides probably won't come out of their trenches or close enough to see all your troops are actually depleted !
- On the other hand, just vacating one or several hexes of strategic value when hard-pressed on another front will usually lead your opponent to believe you're stretched thin and weak there while you're just waiting for him to advance where all your reserves are ready to counter-attack when he'll be in low supply.
- That's where keeping units already produced in the deployment queue can be very valuable: you'll be able to deploy a mass of units without operating costs and without them showing in the stat screens as long as you hold them back ! Just deploy them a bit in the rear because they'll need at least a turn to be combat ready (better have a 8 or 7 HQ with them near a 10 supply source to speed up morale and readiness).
- Regional tips
* Adriatic Sea
- I'll let you discover the details but there is a way to defend there for AH navy, you'll have to invest some MPPs to keep at least 3 units combat ready (preferably one of each type DDs, subs, BBs/CAs). Just use the narrow strait towards the Med and blockade it.
- You'll lose some navy steps but as long as you bottle up there, Entente superior numbers won't be able to deploy well and you have the advantage of nearby well supplied ports so you can rotate units in and out.
- Land crossing straits are a bit different (Suez area, Marmara Sea...), you can block them with land OR naval units but it makes naval units vulnerable to land units attacks so be careful, those tiles offer a lot of possibilities for traps or creative moves !
- Several times I saw naval units sheltering in ports near enemy land units. I think the italian landing move showed both of you it's better to protect ports on the land side if enemy units can reach them or tiles adjacent to them.
* Mountains (Carpathia, Italy or Caucasus)
- You saw it by yourselves in the East, any offensive there is a double-edged sword. Both sides can just defend around Kolomea to shorten their lines (anchored on neutral Romania/mountains) or send cavalry to wreak havoc in the enemy's backyard. A full offensive needs a lot of forces and secure supply along the only road.
- Just remember that with forced march, cavalry has 10 AP meaning it's possible to go over two mountain tiles as long as they're friendly tiles (you can use another unit to "make it friendly" by advancing on or adjacent to it
). Mountains are very difficult terrain but it's possible to move there to make surprise attacks (better capture a supply source quickly on the other side, though).- On the other hand, in your game, Italy didn't make use of all those good mountainous defensive tiles. Most units were detroyed in the Po valley on clear tiles trying to survive against Austrians with 2 more infantry levels (meaning 6 attack vs 3 defense) and massed artillery.
- When you're overwhelmed like that just... run for the hills (mountains) like the Serbs do. The mountain line north of Rome not only have good defensive value but it is deep and pathes to go south are narrow, enemy supply will fall as they advance and a moutain tile swallow up 4 supply without a road linking to a supply source.
- You could also have sent Brits to the autrian border earlier and build a trench line behind the river near Venice to buy time for Italians (more tech an more units). I think you had enough UK units in the West for that but understand you tried to break Germans there (and you actually managed to draw austrian corps there but it wasn't enough to weaken CP offensive in Italy).
* OE
- You can't attack everywhere and you have some critical places to defend at all costs (capital/Marmara sea), you have to set an objective and use all your remaining forces to reach it. However, as OE enters the war late you'll first have to consider CP situation and make your choice accordingly.
Caucasus is difficult for offensive but if Russians neglect the area there will be chances to grab several NM locations.
Suez can be worth it if UK weakens troops there or advances without caution.
(however, Entente will usually send ships to gun all coastal tiles unless you control the straits)
Iraq has low supply, anything both sides attempt there will need a sizeable force and without rail, no way out for a long time.
And many many other things left to be discovered !
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My turn
,- About attack order I see things a bit differently than Sapare but not much. I'd say use first units that have less chances to take casualties and will reduce morale/entrenchment:
Artillery (rail guns if any then heavy artillery)
Aircrafts (those who can deentrench but only if trenches not at 0 yet)
Ships (not if enemy on a ressource/supply tile because those will be targeted first)
Tanks (demoralization bonus OR can be used last to grab the tile and get great defense)
Infantry Corps (obviously, those with better odds first)
*
Cavalry (can't deentrench, used to finish weak units and/or grab the tile using their 5AP)
Marines (attack between cavalry and detachments)
Aircrafts (if not used before to finish off weak units)
Detachments (if everything else failed or just to grab the tile)
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Thanks for your work Abukede, it was nice to see general winter in person
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Thanks but keep in mind I'm only a player, not a designer so it's only my view of it
,- On the turn before you want them to drop, use the unit menu and select "prepare", your para will have a nice "P" on it meaning next turn they will be able to fly 8 tiles (anywhere, even over neutral territory, but they can't drop ON water tiles or neutral tiles, you need some land you're at war with
). Available drop tiles will be reachable while moving the mouse over the map.- Para can move/operate and then prepare, they can also attack after being dropped. If you drop them over a tile occupied by an enemy unit you didn't spot, you will take casualties and paras will be moved to an adjacent tile
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Hi Sapare
,- I may be mistaken but I think that was discussed at some point before however I can't remember where.
I believe one of the point was though not 100% practical as long as you have saved turns you can take screens of before/after combat by reloading them.
- Maybe there was also some issue with storing whole campaigns many moves in game folders and replay speed or something, my memory fails me, sorry.
- Anyway, no idea if it will be implemented next (SCGC3 or whatever).
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- Anti-tank are of big use against... tanks
. Actually they are like corps with increased tank attack and defense (+4 = 5). Better used on defense, they are:1) cheap to buy
2) working with infantry tech to increase their stats (+1 by tech level)
3) weak against infantry (1 soft attack/defense like corps)
4) able to deentrench like infantry (1)
5) slower than SF, tanks or corps (4 like armies) so they'll tend to lag behind in any offensive unless you force-march them
They are usually put behind an infantry screen or at crossroads/cities in the rear to prevent tank exploitation. That is if you can guess where enemy tank groups will strike
. SF units and planes are natural enemies of AT units.- Anti-air, I'll admit I havn't used them much, the base unit attacks any air unit (thus the "0" strike) targeting the tile where they are and all adjacent ones, tech can increase that range and attack power. They are cheap and can be used as defensive land corps if necessary but better avoid to waste them like that, you'll need them to guard your main supply/MPPs sources against enemy bombers.
Hope you'll be good with that
. I'll add some things on your WWI brainstorming thread later.
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Hi there ^^ ,
- Soft build gives an advantage to the side who has more MPPs, usually it simulates Allies advantage in manpower and industry giving them the ability to bypass their historical force pool at a cost.
- However it also allows more flexibility in your battle order for both sides. Each unit you buy over your base force pool limit will cost more than the previous one. As it is your first game, you can go with soft builds just to keep options open
.*
- First, don't expect artillery to be as efficient as in WWI campaign (only 2 base shells, 1 deentrench and 15% demoralization), it's nice but not as many shells or destroying power as your prvious heavy arty (though those 2 shells come back every turn), it's mostly a cheap deentrenchment tool.
- Second, fighters have a base 4 tiles land (NOT naval) spotting ability (not other planes) and it grows with long range tech so use it well (land units have only 1 or 2)!
- Third, tactical bombers have three main uses:
1) kill unentrenched units on open ground (2 soft attack, as much as an army), especially tanks
2) weaken entrenched units (2 deentrench bonus, 30% demoralization) usually after artillery and before SF units
3) kill naval units/transports
(don't expect your stukas to destroy half of a fully-entrenched army in a city with one strike)
- Fourth, I'd advice to toy some turns with units in Poland to get a grasp of basic changes before launching your campaign
.*
- SF units probably are the most polyvalent unit of the game, consider them as "assault/shock troops" and don't waste them on defense if possible:
1) they have better mobility than infantry armies (+1 = 5) and can be used as "mechanized" infantry to follow tanks
2) they can be used for amphibious operations anywhere (no need for ports, think Sealion, Med or Black Sea), especially since amphibious move/range is quite big (10)
3) they have demoralization (30%) and deentrench (+1 = 2) bonus so they're good to weaken a city or fortress before other units attack (but after artillery if you have any around)
4) they have an attack bonus against tanks (+1 = 3) so they can soften enemy armor units before your own ones come in
5) in exchange they have lower attacking stats against air and naval units
- Paratroopers are what you make of them but usually they are used to grab undefended/poorly defended objectives or raid enemy rear to cut supply as they have:
1) big operational range (8) without any MPPs cost
2) same defense stats as an infantry army but lower attack against tanks
3) small demoralization bonus (10%) but weak tank attack (-1 = 1 lack of heavy equipment)
4) however they are vulnerable to interceptors and rough terrain when landing
5) they can't be used on rain tiles
(though they are currently allowed to drop on a rain tile at the edge of a rain zone if starting their move in a clear tile...)
Alternative uses are:
1) reinforcing encircled or poorly supplied forces
2) helping amphibious assaults
3) deep recon in enemy territory (be ready to lose your unit)
4) working as a frontline tactical reserve
(to drop near that annoying 1 step unit who refused to die despite all assaults)
(to plug an unexpected gap in your lines)
I'll continue next post ^^ .
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Count me in ^^ ,
- The only valuable thing about Lw field divisions were the 88 AA guns they had and could be used as anti-tank
(and some other veteran regular units would have make a far better use of them). Same for the Hermann Goering "paratroopanzer" (whatever that strange beast is ) division tanks.- I remember some of those divisions (7th, 8th and 15th) were sent to help lift the siege of Stalingrad, everybody knows what happened around there I presume huhu ? Other than GAR duty they wouldn't be of much use, they were mostly the product of Goering's desire to have his own pet (land) army to compete with Himmler's growing political power as Waffen-SS units began to multiply like rabbits.
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@ david12345:
- I think xwormwood suggested ways to improve the game not anything about you wrongly reporting your game
. As I understand him, what he says about tanks 2nd attack is actually:* tanks have two strikes
* tanks could forfeit their first strike to increase their chances on second strike
* tanks will then have only one strike but with better chances
* I suppose it would simulate the fact that an armor unit decides not to keep any reserves for exploitation or counter-attack and just throw everything at the enemy seeking a "punishing" blow (I can't defeat you but I can make you suffer).
(just kidding) ? UK surrender won't be that easy because of capital transfer like France and USSR/USA are gearing up...
,
. Maybe your move back to England will prove crucial later 
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AAR - "1939 Storm Over Europe" (Allies) - Return of the newbies!
in Strategic Command - World War 1: The Great War 1914-1918
Posted
- Grim situation for UK but USSR industry gained valuable time to heat up and any Barbarossa will be far more complicated for Germany. You also have good chances of saving most of your first turn pop units including planes and tanks (which will be at lvl 3 quickly enough
).
- True Hitler will have more MPPs from England (and probably Spain) but he will also have to keep some units there and of the country hasn't fallen yet. Also, since USA already have amphibious lvl 3, things will get interesting very soon.
- And looking on the bright side, your new british capital being in Egypt you'll be closer to defend all those oil wells
.