Strategiclayabout

- I think you should have reoccupied Metz if possible to focus enemy artillery fire and buy some time but easier said than done. It's also true it's becoming more and more a NM game for the Kaiser. - Pressure is high in the West and infantry lvl2 for Brits is bad news as well as more french guns it seems... That said NM gains from the East should help from now on and there is still more to be gained especially for Austria in western Ukraine. - Now you'll have difficult decisions to think about: rush in Ukraine for the mines or break the russian army in the north, when to transfer the bulk of your troops to the West. - Nice sneaky approach in Iraq, I hope you'll be able to seize Baghdad back quickly. It's already looking good in the Caucasus and in the Balkans I don't think you have much to fear (at worst any unit there won't be in France making trouble). P.S.: nice and fair trial for Galicia's butcher, who lives by the sword... !

Mails received: Strategiclayabout (Axis) - Amadeus (Allies) game started Pacestick (Axis) - Strategiclayabout (Allies) waiting first Axis turn

Hi , After asking about AoD ladder game settings I wondered if I had everything right and if there was an option to go back to default settings. So maybe I missed something in the game menu but I don't see it anywhere. There are not that many main settings but it would be nice to have it.

FINLAND Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Marshal and (maybe) saviour of Finland. Bitter figthing on the Salpa line. * * - And the disaster continues for Mannerheim with 5 corps wiped out west of Viipuri (7 army, 6 & 97div). Seems the poor Finns are at the end of the road and can't stop Govorov and his Leningrad front anymore. At least they didn't flee this time and fougth to death but it doesn't look like the Salpa Line will hold with demoralized and understrength units. - 8 corps being the last force with some combat ability is ordered to reduce 97div bridgehead though to no avail. On the good side it bought enough time to unpack a late shipment of german weapons and reequip 10div in full. Plans for a new Kotka-Kouvola defensive line are discussed but there is a little problem: how to man it ! - On the other side of the Gulf it is the end for Friessner and his remaining braves from the Polizei div as they're scattered by a furious torrent of russian hordes. We can only hope the friendly population from Estonia will help them to reach safety by land or sea... *

BIELORUSSIA & BALTIC STATES * - Well the picture around Minsk doesn't need much explanation I think as it's now or never to escape. The southern railroad to Baranavichy was cut by roaming 2G cavalry and partisans while a thrust by 31 army reached the last open one to Vilna. Manstein himself had to fire some shots to avoid a morale collapse from growing panick and restore order in the rear. He was clearly aware forces available there couldn't do a thing with 20 & 43 corps below 30% and 2 hungarian at 20%. - Fortunately german hedgehog around the city is strong adn Soviets declined direct assault. They only sent two divisions (25 & 44G) to probe our lines while 51 army halted in front of 10 corps in the southeastern suburbs. 134div punished enemy 25div badly during one day of bitter fighting in the woods perhaps convincing red commanders to be more cautious than needed... Further north our isolated FBD 4 div was quickly submerged by 33G & 69div but several groups of men managed to escape to Postavy. - Surprisingly Reinhardt's blunder at Polotsk didn't have any consequences as after taking an undefended Polotsk Bagramyan launched a frontal assault over the Dvina. Our 29 & 52 corps under the threat of an encirclement fared better under such conditions and though the 29 had to retreat the 52 stopped the Ivans (Mobile mech & 62 armies, 93 & 391div). Having Guderian in the back sure helped to motivate the men and his logistical skills were the key to maintain a narrow lifeline to supply them. - Hansen wasn't that lucky as without 18th army to guard his left he was easily flanked. 16th army previous berserk charge in the masses of red infantry certainly saved 3rd panzer army but butcher's bill didn't wait. Maslennikov came down from Pskov with 3 armies (2S, 8 & 42) and obliterated 72 corps while Yeremenko erased 4 corps near Ludza (1S & 65 armies, 16div). Loch barely saved his skin but had to leave behind most of his HQ equipment only after sabotaging it of course ! * - Given the situation Manstein can't delay Minsk evacuation anymore and several units are immediately operated to Poland including 29 nebelwerfer. 134div os ordered to secure the railroad to Vilna by eliminating remanants of 25div still lurking in the woods north of the city. Other units fall back at full speed on a new temporary line behind the Neman safe for 10 & 43 corps plus 134div holding a defensive bridgehead east of the river. - Due to geography and diverging retreat pathes 3rd panzer army is attached to AGN or what remains of it. It's the last organized army with combat ability in the area so it is badly needed to keep all the fragments from other units together. The Dvina line is evacuated with only speed bumps left behind at Postavy (207 & 371div) and Ovinsk (81, 93 & 300div). Now our one and only strategy is running faster than Russians with corps first and light units behind ! *

Hi Will you gain the right to read the following part of the chapter. Happy ? About AGN there isn't much left of it so that will be cheap . I "just" have to outrun Soviets and reach railroad tiles first. More about that below ! I had plans for rockets but no MPPs to spare. They are interesting for one thing: killing advanced soviet supply from afar without exposing Luftwaffe. Say they take one town that is their only supply source around and you keep it at 1/0 supply with rockets you have more chances to face and destroy red units in bad supply.

CH10: Operation Aster (13-18 August 1944) - Time to pause a bit after two monthes of heavy fighting so let's take a look at the historical situation for 19 August at the end of operation Bagration. There are some similarities with our ongoing campaign though we lost less ground overall. The front is closer to Bucharest in the south but follow the Carpathian Mountains otherwise and is right on the hungarian border northwards. In Poland we own Warsaw, Radom and Krakow but also kept Brest-Litovsk and Bialystok in our hands though those are already on the frontline. - The main difference is in the north where we still control Minsk which should have fallen one month and a half ago ! Most of soviet objectives in AGC area wern't captured with Kaunas, Vilna and Ovinsk safe while Polotsk, Vitebsk and Mogilev are now back under the despicable communist rule. However AGN had to retreat to avoid a complete collapse and Pskov was lost as well as Narva with Tallinn and Tartu about to be seized by Stalin. Finns had to evacuate Viipuri but are still in the war not a bad deal. * * - Now about what happened this turn: congratulations to Will for winning the "What will Stavka do next ?" contest : D . As you can see above Russians actually went north in Poland probably trying to bag AGC and AGN in one go. Ivans concentrated their efforts there against those two army groups with nearly no activity in the south. There is nothing left to stop the red rush in Estonia so Operation Aster was ordered calling for the evacuation of the Baltic States and by extension Bielorussia. - However the pressure also extended to Finland giving a bleak (and mostly empty) picture of what was once seen as the strongest part of the eastern front. We hadn't that many units (7) destroyed since turn 5 and the end of the Kessel Battle but three of them were already considered lost (1 HQ & 2 GAR). That said 3 corps and one division out at this stage is still bad news leaving us at 92 units to 122 on land. - Actually we even reached a low point at 88 before our beloved Fürher snapped again and ordered 4 volksturm corps to be raised out of nowhere (but even thin air has a cost as you can see below...). They will be deployed in the back to entrench in german cities and will be our last defensive line if the front crumbles (uh ? it already has ? : p). NB: their upgrade cost is equal to Axis allied corps meaning not cheap at all so no modern weapons for them as long as I can avoid it. - Because you see Speer is a bit short on MPPs those days though he promised everything will be better very soon. For the second soviet turn in a row Ostheer lost more than Red Army at 897 to 682 (18234 to 20591 total). At this rate we're just digging our own grave but getting out of fortified positions to retreat has a cost. At least we avoided full encirclements and reduced as much as possible the casualties in experienced personnel... * * - OKH overall situation is quite clear below with its evolution from one month ago between the various army groups: 1) Finland's forces continue to slowly melt away unit by unit though they're still worth around 8% of all Axis forces. 2) AGN was gutted by losses and transfer of units losing half of its power and now below 10% of Ostheer total strength. 3) AGC maintained its combat abilities by sucking out most of available reserves but has clearly declined (below 25%). 4) AGNU becomes the main force as planned concentrating around 35% of our means and still rising. 5) AGSU hadn't much to do and was able to relatively increase its share near 25% with the same number of troops. *

Thanks for the news Amadeus , Interesting turn of events with a fated rematch for the semi-finals. And I get to play Pacestick in the ladder tournament, lucky me !

Congratulations for your soon to be victory Hyazinth . CP technology advantage (and great leadership of course ) was decisive. It was nice to have some action int he North Sea for a change too !

Hi , More a suggestion than a question: maybe create a ladder thread where people say game as started is underway or has a problem and when there is a result. Or maybe use the rules and scoreboard one ? Probably better than spamming your mailbox ?

- About that in a late AoD game with Amona I'm trying some things just to see if it works and you can actually send axis air support to the Pacific from Europe if you conquer Portugal and get Timor. You operate air units to Dili (I think that's the name) and then can move them manually over DEI islands. - The funny thing is Japs share supply with western axis in eastern conquered countries (Burma, DEI, Indochina...) so you can upgrade western axis units there but operating doesn't work. However in Manchuria/Japan/jap islands you won't have any supply.

Oooops my bad didn't think you were one turn late, sorry for ruining your fun er... well maybe not the better choice of word given CP situation .

Russia: - Unless it changed with the last patch, when you make "peace" with Russia you lose the benefit of all NM/MPPs locations you conquered. Since all those locations will either be on your territory or inside neutral borders. - To make up for it you get reparations MPPs and the ukrainian grain event thing plus you can transfer most troops to the West. So it's truly a matter of NM managing vs troop boost. - Not sure about Romania since I never met that situation. * - EN made a wise move keeping the Balkans active, not letting Austrians rest on any front. It managed to keep pounding CP one aside at a time and when Russia is exhausted, it's the West burning with the fall of Metz while the Turks lose Baghdad... - Consecutive NM hits are a bad deal already with a more than 20 points difference (safe for Russia). I can already hear prussian generals screaming bloody murder about some kind of civilian backstabbing that lost the war in the rear . - Diplomacy investments may save the Kaiser's skin if Holland and Norway keep trading with him. EN is a bit too close to mines in the West for my taste and losing them could cripple german war effort badly. - Superhuman Italians got lucky with infantry tech 1 so quickly. One strategy against them is to mass troops at the border before their war entry and punish them before they can even try anything. Where to find those troops is the problem ... * - Now we can clearly see the effect from the lack of western mines and NM locations: 2 mines + Lille + Brussels = 24+24+8+8 = 64MPPs (plus 10 MPPs from Ypres as a capital). France lose 30+10 = 40 MPPs (mine+city Lille) but gains two mines in the south (increased arms production) for 60 MPPs. So it's +20 against +74 quite a good deal for Germans. NM side we have Lille + mine at 15+25 = 40 NM plus usually 3 towns (12 each), maybe more so at least 76 NM more per turn for the Reich AND 76 NM less per turn for France. It's worth 2 detachments destroyed in low supply each turn !

Interesting way to sum it up with activity/tactical/strategic . - It sure is an interesting campaign with heavy blows dealt on both sides and the advantage swinging back and forth. Clear advantage for EN in the West, the opposite in the East (safe for the fall of Baghdad). - Stupid question: the Belgians where UK colored starting the game but are now french blueish, how did that happen ? Maybe a new patch thing when Ypres was captured and they went under french control ? - The best thing I see is the incredibly high morale for EN with 20+ points more than CP. A lot will depend on how the Kaiser handles Russia. It can give a lot of NM/MPPs for a while before collapsing. - Congratulations for taking Metz in one go, seems you're becoming a fortress assault specialist, next stop Antwerp hehe ^^ . Well Germans will have a good chance to retake it quickly but can they afford the casualties without eastern troops ? P.S.: About Italians I'm sure you'll find some vicious ways to use them .

Better late than never, I'd like to join the fun too ^^ . Question about campaign settings: is it hard or soft builds ?

Hi , Was browsing production tabs in AoD and I have two questions: 1) Any reason USA doesn't have mechanized infantry units ? 2) I'm curious about why strat bombers have lower costs than med bombers ? Thanks in advance for any answer !

- Black day for the russian army, what a massacre... Maybe giving some ground to buy time and upgrade would have been better with winter coming but you can celebrate . - Pressure in Italy is dangerous but still manageable as long as it's quiet in the West. Austria can hope to gain back NM locations in the East soon to stop the bleeding. - Looks very tempting to finish Russia quickly with that push in the Caucasus and their NM already nearing 50 but it's still menacing in the West (and in the Med with all those british raiding parties).

Ouuuchiiiie... - Now Russians will have to make difficult decisions to avoid a complete disaster. But at least Austrians seem to be badly overstretched. Maybe Entente should advance on Vienna instead of Metz ? - Caucasus: always better to keep something (even detachements) in the border towns. Without artillery Turks won't be able to do much there. Well Germans can still operate artillery... - So the NM chicken race is in full swing with the Tsar ahead at 58 followed by Austrians at 67, place your bets gentlemen ^^ !

- Gaza ? You mean Basra ? Because Gaza seems to be firmly in OE hands... Maybe poor Hamilton had too much brandy celebrating his victo... vigorous assault . - Well done at Gallipoli ! Should force Turks to burn some MPPs answering the threat. By the way any news from Caucasus ? - German inf tech 1 is bad news, how bad will depend on how long Russians and Frenchies will trail behind. I suppose it will also delay any action against Metz... - It's always an interesting debate about the "no man's land strategy" (having a row of empty hexes between enemy lines in the West). It let Germans upgrade freely a lot of units in one turn but gives some more breathing room. Keeping the two lines adjacent means more risks but also a lot of trouble to upgrade units (including entrenchment levels lost). - Italians have enough forces to replace Serbians in the backstabbing role so Austrians will be kept on their heels but will the Tsar keep ordering bloodbathes in Galicia with Prussians growing stronger and stronger in the north ?

Very interesting turn of events with inf tech 1 for Germans ^^ . - It will undoubtely buy you time in the West. It's always a hard decision when you have units engaged to stop and upgrade or keep the pressure with higher losses (don't forget Bulgarians need Reichmarks to buy new weapons and not austrian Krones ). - Krakow: of course it was a brilliant maneuver to bait a russian corps into a death trap ! Who's saying it wasn't ? Ah... "men" from the rear yeah riiiight ! - Gallipoli: bad luck but at least you know where that marine unit is and the amphib operation cost some good MPPs to Brits. If they push further there you can railroad reinforcements quickly to that new trap in the making... - Talking about traps, that UK HQ and artillery without protection near Suez seems fishy. A try to lure von Sanders forward maybe ? By the way what is going on in the Caucasus ? - Absolutely heartbreaking butchery in Galicia. Austrians look ready to crumble not in the trenches but in the rear with a lack of everything safe foes to continue war... Go Kaiser go !

- Mmmmh looks like your pressure in Blegium is helping Russians a lot to contain CP and even make significant gain (congratulations for taking Lemberg ^^ !). - Italia also joined in time to keep Austrians busy before Serbia fell though with Bulgaria on CP side it will soon be a massacre down there... - Infantry tech gave no advantage so far with UK and OE tied but I wonder who will get it next... If it's the Germans it will be a problem in the West. - Fortunately, NM wise it's looking good for Entente and austrian navy is ripe for the taking. As long as the Tsar doesn't give too much ground it's going well !

- Very interesting breakthrough at Vilna ! That gives you several strategic options and I'm curious to see which one you'll chose . - The loss of Lemberg is bad but not that bad given Prussians progression in the north. Seems you'll finish Serbia just in time to face Italians. - What I find alarming is CP NM already 10 points below UK-France for Prussia-Austria. The lack of french NM locations is hurting there. - With minors locations not giving morale per turn it makes Serbia and Belgium NM "wastelands" but you'll get more russian points veeeery soon . - Sad to see poor von Sanders already cancelling operations but maybe it's for the better to leave Brits bleed in the sand while attacking instead !

Congratulations for achieving group phase to all players and good luck for those still aboard ! You did well keeping everything together Amadeus :cool: .

COMMENTS General der Infanterie Johannes Friessner commander of the Narva "army". * * - Thanks to various counterattacks well executed the loss of 41Pz is easier to accept. With 4 armies and 1 AT destroyed plus coming reinforcements OKH jumped back from a low ebb to reach 95 land units against 117 a net difference of 10 in one turn ! MPPs count wasn't bad either with 340 to 599 or a near parity over two turns (17,337 to 19,909 overall). - Despite heavier losses than expected my plan to attack in Poland very soon is still on track. Soviet forces move as expected and Stavka's offensive assets are dispatched all over the front with artillery units in Romania, Hungary and Finland. Knowing the Kharkov tank group won't be in Poland any time soon is also a good thing as it will be easier to achieve local superiority. - I'm a bit mad at myself about those two corps near Polotsk. They were supposed to join the fun but instead will have to fight for their lives. Not sure what Stalin is doing in Romania but there shouldn't be any surprise possible down there given the amount of tanks on other fronts. - Speaking of that Russians ability to pop new tanks seemingly from nowhere is veeeeeery demoralizing . Each time I think that's it another one appears and makes a massacre. It's especially annoying when your panzer numbers are dwindling continously (by my own fault ok ). They are clearly trouble magnets as the Reds mob them each time they have a chance but maybe I'll be able to use that fact to my advantage at some point. * Anyway time for some stat screens in CH10: Operation Aster (13-18 August 1944)

CARPATHIA & ROMANIA * - Very quiet front in Romania as the Soviets retreated to reorganize north of Bucharest after failing to force their way towards the Capital. 26 corps immediately seized the chance to buy time for nearby 123 engineers and claimed back the valley entrance. It received support from 1rgt/45 & 1 bulgarian div to secure its retreat path once Russians counterattack. *