US reluctance to attack

[gengisjon]

I just finished my first game as the Axis and whooped up (everything on easy mind you). Which made me wonder a couple of things (I searched and couldn't find a response if this was already discussed please point me in the right direction). Why is the US so reluctant to attack? And why do they pull all transports back once the UK is defeated? They had a nice fleet assembled but as soon as I got Manchester they all went away. They also never attempted to assault France even though I left it empty for more than half the game. Just curious.

Thanks in advance.

[HolzemFrumFloppen]

Originally posted by gengisjon:

[QB]Why is the US so reluctant to attack? And why do they pull all transports back once the UK is defeated? They had a nice fleet assembled but as soon as I got Manchester they all went away. They also never attempted to assault France even though I left it empty for more than half the game. QB]

Hmmmm....

I find this to be quite realistic/historical American-AI behavior. The U.S. won't attack anyone unless it's a sure thing[/b .

Actually -- in my own SC experience as the Axis which I've only played as once so far -- the U.S. has played fairly aggressively for being so far away from the continent. The A.I. makes some pretty good moves in my games and is giving me some (good) headaches!

[BiggN]

not to sound like a dig or anything, but it was probably because it was on Easy..

Unfortunatly i've never managed to take the Brits out as Axis before the USSR are on my case and I still have the man / air power to take out England.

-BiggN

[gengisjon]

No problem with a dig or two about my using easy. I promise I won’t do it again. I was actually wondering if this setting would affect (Super Ted - if I used that incorrectly I apologize - I read your post and then forgot which was which) the aggressiveness of the ai. I would be interested to hear if that is the case.

[Hickmanj]

It sounds like the game truly makes big decisions differently from game to game (which is a GREAT thing!)

I played on easy as the Axis and was whipping Russia (had almost defeated them by September 1942). I hadn't attacked Britain though so that might be the reason. The Americans showed up in France (I had a corps in every city, an army, an HQ and two planes - so it wasn't exactly empty!) and landed about 10 units over three turns with combined assaults from ships and aircraft from Britain.

So it may be that your taking Britain made such a huge shift. Also, how were you doing against Russia? Were you slower going against them? Just curious

Jason

[Compassion]

FUnny. I played 2 games through to pointlessness (when the result if forgone and not particularly fun to play any more) this weekend as the Axis on easy and had 2 very different expereinces.

In game 1, the Germans owned all the standard stuff, but I gave the Italians a bit of help and got them going by giving them Yugoslavia, Greece, Vichy & Spain. THat way the med was sealed up tight and well defended by an italy that could afford a good sized army and some tech upgrades. The Germans were a rolling monster wit Lev 5 tanks, Lev 3 advanced subs & Lev 4 industry by summer of 41 (with a few pts here and there.... THe attack on Russia began in late 41 with a massive army that covered the front 3 deep... Blew through MOscow in by mid 42 . The Brits were pretty well bottled up with subs chewing up 30+ MMP's per turn. The Americans came to help, but most of the US units died in their transports after getting suprised by the waiting 13 pt. subs.. Brit and US forays into france were quite small and an Italian garrison of 2 armies and 3 corps did just fine (though I would have been in big trouble if the US units had been able to land.. those subs and the kriegsmarine's early grab for the seas payed off bit time). Ended game in early 43 as it was obvious that all that was left was mopup.

2nd game... Made same opening moves (fast Polish takedown followed by a medium strong Seaborne invasion of Sweden to kill it fast and take Norway before concentrating on France by mid '40... Things were going fine until France invaded Germany in early 40 in the south while my forces were still hoofing it from Poland (cheap bastard that I am I didn't want to pay for all those train tickets) and finishing off Norway. I had the beginning of my French invasion force in the north of Germany so I decided to go on the Low Coutries and get the cheap points. Unfortunatly the takedown wasn't quite perfect and the Belgians ended up with 2 pts left... needless to say that they were rebuilt to 10 and then I had to deal with a British attack coming through the Low Countries as well as a strong, well led Frech assault in the south... About then I started seeing US support trickleing into France... not many troops, but there was also the appearance of several very long range US fighters in Britain...

Then the Russian frontier opeend up and half a million russians poured out... AT that point the writing was on the wall.

Same settings, 2 completely different games. Was so pleasantly suprised to see the game agbot to work along completely differnet axes depending on conditions.

[ August 05, 2002, 05:14 PM: Message edited by: Compassion ]

[gengisjon]

Here is roughly how things went for me (Sorry for not keeping a timetable).

I took Poland and then Belgium and France. After I built up for Sealion. From demo experience I refrained from attacking anyone else. This kept the % chance of entry for both the US and Russia down. I bought a bunch of air fleets and attacked the UK. As I was doing this I bought 2 HQs and Corps to protect from Russian invasion. I isolated London and moved towards Manchester. Once London fell I moved 3 air fleets to Southern England to attack Manchester and the other 3 towards Russia. The US entered the war, sent transports over and landed a couple of armies. I then took Manchester and at the same time Russia declared war. The US retreated as mentioned in the original post.

All I did with Italy was to prepare for Yugo's entry into the war (HQ, tank and air fleet purchased). Once Yugo was defeated I took 2 armies, the tank, HQ and air fleet to defend against Russia. Spain, Bulgaria and Romania had previously entered the war. I struggled for the 2 turns that England stood while I was at war with Russia and had to fall back in a couple of places. But once I could focus only on Russia it went well (again referring back to the original post – I didn’t have to defend from the US). Incidentally the Italians ended up with all of the Russian MPPs because they were in position to take Stalingrad.

In order to keep me from having too many units tied up on multiple fronts, I declared war on neutral countries one at a time. (I think I went Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Vichy, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey and Iraq). I always made sure to have at least one air fleet and HQ to ensure quick victories. Often I transported/operated the same units for minor country attacks.

I stopped playing when my wife came down and asked why she had been gone for two and a half hours and I had not washed the cars yet. I figured my final assault on the US could wait until later.

The tech path I took was 2 in industrial then 2 in jets, then tanks. Finally I moved everything to long range fighters in preparation for the invasion of the US.