Strategiclayabout

Here you go again ^^ , Thanks for your work x13fox, I'll follow this AAR !

Hello ^^ , - Launching the 1939 campaign with SCGC Gold 1.03, I get the split USSR event at the end of my first axis turn. - Sorry for the stupid question but isn't that event window supposed to pop after USSR collapse ? Or is it just easier to make it like that ? If it's the later, maybe you can just change the text claiming: "With the USSR soundly defeated..." Well, that's blitzkrieg for you . Thanks for reading !

Hi everyone , - My bad, seems I made a mistake here (in red). There is a NM bonus for destroying an enemy HQ but it must be below 5 supply (and not below 6 like for other units). - An HQ with 10 steps will have 5 supply even on a 0 supply tile and give no NM bonus if you destroy it in 1 turn. - However, if you weaken it, wait a turn for it to go under 5 supply and then destroy it, you'll get the NM bonus. Was it designed that way ?

Hello Aryaman , In the unit production screen, you have something like that: ..... # PD HQ (4) 3 (4) is max number of that unit type allowed/remaining to be produced 3 is the number of turns needed to produce that unit type (PD for Production Delay) If you buy an HQ (4) will become (3). When you're at (0) you can't buy that type of unit anymore. However, it's still possible to get more by events even if you're at (0). Hope it answers your question .

- Argh, I understand your frustration , going all the way in the Valley of Death, oops I mean Serengetti Plain to be pinned one tile away from your objective... - You can say to yourself some german staffer looked at the map and said it was "open" to horses while it was a vertical cliff some dumb colonial geographer called "hills" (something like the Qatarra depression in North Africa). - Another way to look at it is starving men without ammo are in no condition to climb hills and try to seize a town with more or less hostile civilians in it ^^ .

Thanks for your work/AAR crispy131313 ^^ , Nice read with interesting events, seems Axis is in big trouble but I'm sure they have secret weapons to win the war .

Hi again, - Found another text error so I'll use the same thread while I'm at it . Oh and I'm playing hotseat, not against AI, maybe it changes unit amount/type and fit the text ? - For Reds' Horse Army event, it says you will receive "three" experienced cavalry units +HQ while you get 4+HQ, see pics below :

Hello , Playing RCW with WWI break 1.02 - In the last sentence of this event text, it should be "corps" instead of division since you get a corps when saying NO (see second pic below, 5th insurgent corps). More tempting to say NO now, isn't it ?

You're welcome Papafourtwo , The highlighted part is good, see ingame pics below: - Pic1: german cavalry unit is at 0 supply with 1 AP and can't go back to friendly territory because forest tiles are 2 AP, only option remaining to move are 1 AP open ground tiles. - Pic2: german cavalry unit is at 0 supply with 1 AP but can move on any adjacent tiles (except those blocked by lakes) since they're all 2 AP. - You can capture a town whatever the tile terrain/AP cost if you can reach it following a road/railroad since it negates terrain/weather penalties for movement.

Thanks for the clarification Bill .

Hi Amadeus , It also say all land units are limited to 1 tile move at 0 supply but when you check ingame you have that: Cavalry has 5 AP over 5 supply Infantry has 4 AP over 5 supply Cavalry falls to 4 AP under 6 supply Infantry falls to 3 AP under 6 supply Cavalry falls to 1 AP at 0 supply Infantry falls to 1 AP at 0 supply Not that it makes much difference as a result. Maybe the manual isn't up to date or it was a table error ?

Hello Papafourtwo , - All units with 0 supply have a 1 AP movement. - However, If I remember well, they also have a 1 tile default movement if all adjacent tiles require 2 AP or more but the default tile(s) where the unit will be able to move are always the one(s) with the lowest AP requirement. - Meaning if you have mountain tiles (4 AP) all around except for 1 hill tile, you can only move on the hill tile (2 AP). Hope it was clear ^^ .

Hello everyone , - This answer is more for Ataman, especially the red part below but anyone can read it of course. If I made any mistake understanding how it works, you're welcome to jump in . - Overall, I don't think CP need any NM boost, see why below. UNIT LOSSES - Seems UNW/blockades have been very well explained above by Bill and others so I won't add much: ships are your preciouuuuus because unlike land units, you always get full NM bonus for sinking them (and they cost a lot). - Killing land units with low supply (under 6) is very important since you get their whole MPP cost in NM bonus (destroying a corps at low supply = +225 NM, a detachment +75 NM). So it's good to encircle enemy and cut supply before attacking if you can. However, no bonus for HQs, their cost is big enough as it is. - Another point to keep in mind is that units of minor countries entering war are at 0 supply on their first/deployment turn, meaning each one you destroy will give you the full NM bonus. (you can see it with Belgium on first turn when Germany declares war on it: those two border detachment will give 75 NM bonus when killed) NM LOCATIONS - First thing I notice is that you only own very few enemy NM locations, especially in Russia. Remember that occupying those locations increases your NM while lowering the other side's one. - That's why advancing in France and/or Russia early is interesting when/where there are "easy" grabs: FRANCE (103 NM) 1x 25 NM Lille 2x 15 NM Briey Loos 4x 12 NM Sedan Maubeuge Arras Calais BALTIC STATES (123 NM) 3x 25 NM Kovno Vilna Riga 4x 12 NM Libau Ventspils Jelgava Siaulai POLAND (194 NM) 2x 30 NM Novo-G Brest-L 2x 25 NM Warsaw Lodz 7x 12 NM Kutno Radom Ivangorod Lublin Syedlets Kovel Bialystok - If you decide to go heavy against Russia early and maximize Germany NM, at best, you can have up to +600 NM / turn gap in your favor: Germany gains 194+123, Russia loses 194+123 = 634, nearly 3 corps... Ukraine is also a rich prize for later offensives: UKRAINE-CRIMEA (>200 NM) 7x 25 NM Cities 3x 15 NM Mines Xx 12 NM Towns XX - Another thing to consider in Poland is you can decide who (Germany or Austria) will benefit from some NM locations. Can be good to give some to Austria to compensate early losses (usually Tarnopol, Cernowitz, Kolomea, possibly Galician oil fields). - On the other side, any location Russia can grab will help and delay NM fall. The objectives above don't look like much but it's still quite an easy 12+12+12+15=+51 NM / turn and some MPPs without many losses. And if you add the two galician fortresses (30+30) it jumps to 111 NM / turn + events NM hits. - That's also why an offensive in Caucasus can be interesting NM wise for OE or Russia at some point since they don't have many enemy NM areas to grab: CAUCASUS - RUSSIA (109 NM) 1x 25 NM Kars 7x 12 NM Polti Batum Ardahan Oltu Sarikamish Erivan Amamli CAUCASUS - OE (160 NM) 4x 25 NM Erzerum Trabzon Mus Van (2 Industrial centers) 5x 12 NM Rize Baiburt Erzincan Eleskirt Bitlis MINOR COUNTRIES AND EVENTS - Capturing some locations (fortresses,capitals,NM objectives...) triggers NM events where you win NM % points and/or your opponent loses them, for Russia with a 40,000 NM basis, 1% = 400 NM, so losing Warsaw should be around -3% = -1200 NM. - War entries / exit: usual ones are OE (+CP), Italy (+EN), USA (-CP+EN) entries and Russia exit (-EN). To illustrate: when OE joins CP, Austria gains around +3% NM = +900NM - Minor countries (Belgium, Serbia...) locations don't yield any NM so any offensive/losses sustained there are only for strategic or MPP gain, not NM. - You have to think about it for OE in the Palestine-Mesopotamia: you'll lose some MPPs if you retreat but no NM for most locations (you still have some NM objectives/events) unless you take heavy losses to defend them with low supply. - However, some minors have strings attached to them: Holland will hit Germany NM and MPPs each turn if leaning towards EN Romania will hit Austria NM each turn if entering war on EN side - In your case, Romania already being on Entente's side in 1916 is bad news, meaning Austria will take an NM hit each turn due to the "food import" event, see below, especially the last two parts. Looking at your strategic map, it also looks like it is the result of losing Lemberg/Przemysl and Transylvania = more NM hits / turn and by events, the worst possible combination . Thanks for reading !

Hello ^^ , Playing Russian Civil War with WWI Break 1.02 After selecting YES for this event: Vilnius becomes polish but there is still a lithuanian division arriving in the city when Lithuania enters war whatever the side (white then red below): I suppose it should not pop at all or deploy in Siaulai instead ? Thanks for reading .

Hello Stuka JU87 ^^ , - As xwormwood said, air force can help a lot, tac bomber (even better with ground attack lvl 1 or 2) or carrier strikes can deentrench, reduce morale and/or finish the job. - Bombers can reduce supply to 0 and prevent the chinese unit in the town to be reinforced but you will have to block nearby tiles to the north (road/railroad) to avoid other units coming in. - You also have a special force unit in Japan at the start, if you use it against Nanning it will help (2 deentrench + lowering enemy morale when attacking) - You can also replace your general in the area (I think it's Okamura lvl 6) by a lvl 8 one (sack/replace in HQ scrolling menu) - You can take Indochina first and send an HQ and units there to attack Nanning from the west and support your main assault. - Getting infantry tech lvl 2 early will also help to capture Nanning.

Hello Baron , - Someone asked that before but I don't remember the answer, maybe an engine feature or something thet didn't allowed it easily but I can be wrong. - Still, I agree it would be better to toy with Free French research but I usually say to myself that modernized units are part of US forces while regular "blue" FF units unable to upgrade are "light colonial troops" without much men or equipment sent to secondary fronts or used to divert axis focus. - The good thing is that you can "waste" FF corps to recon with amphibious landings because they're cheap ^^ .

Hello ^^ , Some answers for you: 1. Yes to both: US and UK share supply. 2. Not sure here as I never tried that, sorry (but Hubert or Bill will come to the rescue, no doubt ). 3. No, same for Axis: Japan doesn't share supply with Germany or Italy BUT Germany and Italy do. 4. Yes, since US and UK share supply. You have an US HQ popping in Australia after US war entry, you can see how it works there. It also works for US units in China (you have popping air units and an HQ coming there by event around 1944).

Yes and no , - Because Singapore is overseas (not railroad linked to your capital), MPPs arn't maxed out so you'll only get 10 MPPs/turn out of it (5x2 as capital). Also, it doesn't provide any convoy lane once activated (like some other UK minors do). - So you'll get around 150 MPPs a year plus a corps at 5 strength worth 75 MPPs (need 25 MPPs to replenish it though you can only max to 8 without an HQ so 15 MPPs). All in all, when Japan begins to knock on your door, you'll barely have gotten back what you spent and I didn't add the cost of shipping/buying the necessary troops to bolster your defense .

Hello , DESTROYERS - Not an actual drawback, it's more about MPPs allocation. By accepting the event, you get "free" DDs to hunt u-boats, at 200 MPPs/unit that's a good deal but: - you lose Trinidad and its oil well (15 MPPs/turn) (true USA gets it so it isn't all lost but it digs a hole in UK MPPs) - you lose ports where your units can shelter/reinforce themselves (at least until USA war entry) - and more importantly, you'll have to replensih/equip all those free units with LESS MPPs meaning you'll probably have trouble repairing/upgrading other ships (especially carriers and BBs) if you keep spending on tech or air/land units at the same time. * - that event is also part of a string of decisions that can kill UK MPPs if you say yes to everything (Singapore and such). Same for the aerial production event when USA can give free air units (supposed to be delivered to France) to UK: what's the point of having free air units if you have barely enough MPPs to max them out and then move/repair them on the frontline (think about how much it costs to operate/replenish bombers) ? * SUDAN - In my opinion it mostly depends on what the axis player do as Italy, if he says yes to the italian HQ event, you'll be happy to have even the understrength Sudan HQ around to give some supply. - Also remember that if Axis decides to make a stand in Ethiopia, your Sudan forces can be wiped out quickly by tac bombers if they arn't reinforced at least a bit (think about what german elite stukas can do to a 3 strength HQ on a desert tile without entrenchment: it's ugly). - UK has a lot of "useless" ally/commonwealth HQs (not beng able to command other UK units is a pain) but you can always use them as supply sources/part of supply chain in remote areas. * INDUSTRY TECH - You're rigth, industry is one of the better tech investment available (with intelligence not far away), however it's usually 125 MPPs so you have to think about your max research capacity. For Japan and UK it's 650 so you'll have to put another chit in a 125 MPPs area to max out research (not mandatory of course) and with only 1 chit on it can takes quite some time. - Usually that means 4 100 MPPs chits and 2 125 MPPs chits. You can put your 2 125 MPPs chits in industry but it'll delay other "critical" 125 MPPs areas like naval or long range tech. - It's also possible to invest 3 125 MPPs chits early in industry and bet you'll get 1 chit back quickly when reaching lvl 1. However, it'll deny you the use of 2 100 MPPs chits as you'll go above your max research capacity (3x125=375, means you have only 2 chits left to reach 650 = 2 100 MPPs chits or 1 of 100 + 1 of 125 instead of 4 of 100). - Remember you can get back your already invested starting tech chits for half of their value and it's usually a good thing to reorganize your research to suit your strategic goals. Hope it was clear enough .

Hello ^^ , (only my opinion) Pros: - delays/stops Japan's advance in early 1942, buys you time - very good defensive position (jungle/narrow) - blocks the main/shortest naval way between Japan and India - RN can operate more or less freely in Indian Ocean - allows you to launch preemptive attacks against Thailand or even Brunei to deny Japan easy wins - allows you to reinforce/protect DEI quickly - will probably distract some first strike japanese forces from other key objectives - a good chance to evacuate troops quite safely to India it everything goes bad Cons: - event cost a lot of MPPs you could need somewhere else - organizing a solid defense will eat even more MPPs and units - low supply so you absolutely need a HQ to make a stand - you'll need at least one fighter unit to cover your land troops - heavy japanese naval/aerial superiority to be expected on the east coast - constant threat of japanese amphibious assaults Hope it will help .

Thanks for the answers both of you , So that was it, costly mistake for me but good to know !

Hello ^^ , Playing SCGC v1.02 I conquered Gibraltar in early 1941 and sailed a sub and a cruiser to the Med from the Atlantic. On ally turn (replay), a whole UK task force followed them TROUGH axis controlled Gibraltar port (supply 0, blue color) and sunk my poor ships :eek: . The ally turn I received to see the replay (.zip): http://www.sendspace.com/file/ew6j3t

Thanks for the answer Bill101 ^^ , Yes that should explain it, I'll keep an eye on it next turns/games. And having something "strange" happening sometimes is good (adds a bit of surprise like: "hey boys, I found a way around Cassino" ).

Hello xwormwood ^^ , - I thougth of it but on the other hand, you can't do that with the mountain tiles south of Sian (central China). Usually you'd need forced march for units with 2 MPs to climb there (the jap corp for 1) had to do that to occupy the mountain tile where it is). - So I'm not sure as I also had the case when japanese armies (1 MP) couldn't move in the tile they were attacking after destroying the enemy (Yenan fortress when attacking across the river from the east, no problem for units on roads from the western side). Anyway it's just minor things .

Hello ^^ , I spotted two small things in V1.02: 1) Units with 2 MPs are still able to advance in some terrain tiles requiring 3 MPs, here a jap corps (2 MPs) NW of Nanning is able to enter mountain tiles (3 MPs) to the N and NW: 2) I red the air movement part of the manual (p67) but didn't find anything about flying over neutral territory. Here, a german tac bomber can relocate in northern Italy by flying over Switzerland. Given what happened in June 1940: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Swiss_Air_Force#Defense_of_Swiss_airspace I don't think this should be allowed . Thanks for reading .