First turns as Axis

[Nero's Cat]

Hi all - am hoping someone can help as I'm proving to be absolutely useless at this game.

I keep reading in the AARs about people operating Axis troops over to the western front on turn one with a view to invading Benelux on turn 2 and still taking Warsaw on turn 2 - how is this possible? can anyone please give me a detailed explanation of the 'best' opening moves.

I appreciate things change all the time under different variable but some idea as to how to do this on a standard setting would be really useful

many thanks in advance!

regards

[Bromley]

I might be wrong, but I don't think they're taking Warsaw on turn 2 with that gambit.

EDIT: Sorry, Just reread Jollyguy's post about Sombra, and it looks like he did it in T2.

[ June 20, 2006, 12:52 PM: Message edited by: Bromley ]

[Sombra]

Yes you can take Poland , Denmark and Benelux quite fast in turn 2.

Step by step:

14th army attack Krakow corps

8th army attack krakow corps

vIII corps attack krakow korps

southern airfleet attacks krakow corps.

(Now at least it should be destroyed)

10th army moves to Warsaw

xvI tank moves to Warsaw and attacks Katno corps

V corps moves direction Warsaw and attacks Katno Korps

Rundstedt moves forward to secure supply and block polish movements

4th armny op move to 75, 16

XiV panzer op move to 76, 17

Bock moves to Frankfurt

northern airfleets op move west (west of Hamburg for example)

Cruiser moves into Königsberg habor. Königsberg corps => Amphib transport

Königsberg army attacks polish army.

München corps moves southern Siegfriedline

1 korps moves to northern siegfried line.

1 Corps stays in Dortmund is upgraded to 1 IW 1 AT

Western Airfleet upgraded

Berlin Corps op moves to danish border

(You have to sell rocket research)

Voila you are set up to take all three countries on the 2nd turn.

[ June 20, 2006, 01:01 PM: Message edited by: Sombra ]

[Blashy]

That tactic does not ALWAYS work (it has not for me) but it will make Poland fall on the third turn for sure.

[Agamemnon]

1 Corps stays in Dortmund is upgraded to 1 IW 1 AT

It appears you are talking about more corps than are actually there. Where is Dortmund?

AS Blashy says it will take some luck to pull it off. Leave Denmark for another day, and save the MMP's.

[Sombra]

Blashy if you put your HQs under auto assist and use your generals well your chances are:

Estimated total hits round about 12 for 10 strengh Krakow corps

Estimated 9-10 hits for a strengh 8 Warsaw corps

In the west it looks even better. You have an Army 1-1-1 , a tank, a corps 1-1 to do ground attack an upgraded fighter and a another fighter. + 1 corps in attck position on Kopenhagen + 2 cruiser + amphib transport.

Yes, you can always have bad rolls. Still this beginning is nor perfect .Alas, in SC1 the strongest beginning for the Axis (HDO) was developed only last year giving the Axis an incredible boost in power. Still much to explore in SC2

[Sombra]

Originally posted by Agamemnon:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> 1 Corps stays in Dortmund is upgraded to 1 IW 1 AT

It appears you are talking about more corps than are actually there. Where is Dortmund?

AS Blashy says it will take some luck to pull it off. Leave Denmark for another day, and save the MMP's. </font>

[Agamemnon]

Sure, my email is sillacoid@comcast.net

You dont have to fill up all 3 positions in the Siegfrid line

That's where I was coming up short, filling in the Siegfrid line.

[Blashy]

Oh the West is a sure thing, Poland is the one that not always falls on turn 2, even with your exact moves. But it does fall on turn 3.

I never mand the siegfried line, better thing to do, let the french take it, they'll loose faster.

[Rolend]

I still want to see you guys do this with the Railheads option on

[Blashy]

Not gonna happen with railheads on.

IMHO from testing railheads, it makes it much more difficult on the Axis than on the Allies.

The same with homebuilds.

[Rolend]

Yes I agree Blashy it does make it harder on the Axies another reason to have it

Homebuilds?

[Nero's Cat]

Wow - thanks for the replies guys - very useful - will go and try this out straight away!

regards

[Blashy]

Homebuilds means you can not build a unit outside of your home country.

So a Corps can not appear out of production on another city outside of Germany.

[Rolend]

Blashy isn't that on by default? I have never messed with it and that seems to be the way it works in all my games.

[Blashy]

No it is not. You can have a unit appear out of production on any city that is Axis and linked to the country.

So you could have a unit appear on Casablanca the same turn it comes out of production. Realistic? Well each turn is at least 1 week, so I count the traveling time within that time, so it makes sense for me.

[Nero's Cat]

Hi again - just to say thanks again very much for these replies - really useful and i've been making some advances along the way for a few weeks now before getting bogged down in Russia - presumably my next question needs to be what to do during the quiet period between conquering France and the DOW on USSR!

thanks again

regards

[hellraiser]

Hitting Benelux in turn 2 has its pro and cons. Yeah, you can hope for some extra good weather turns for an early push in France in 39. If weather plays tricks on you, it's useless.

The best opening IMHO is to throw everything at Poland and get it in turn 2, while spending your cash far more wisely than operating units around. For example, with the starting cash plus the cash from scraping the rockets and intel tech chits, you can buy 4 diplo chits - Spain is a wise choice, it can make a difference sometimes, given the fact that the UK needs some turns to get the cash to counter you.

[Rolend]

Yea if you take Poland in turn 2 then just move your troops, rather then operate them, through the winter for a big push into France in early 40. This works better for me fora couple of reasons, one was mentioned and that is to put 5 chits into Spain as early as you can, I had Spain come over to the Axies in one game at about the same time as France fell. The other reason not to rush France is it keeps US and Russian readness from going up earlyer thus giving them less MPP's in the long run. The less MPP for Russia before the start of the Russian push is a good thing. I am begining to think that the Axies should hold off on all minors untill the attack on Russia, then clean up on the minnors, which will give morale boosts against the Russians which can make for a good early push into Russia.

[TaoJah]

Originally posted by I am not a number:

what to do during the quiet period between conquering France and the DOW on USSR

There are several choices.

1. Do nothing between the surrender of France and the DOW against Russia. This seem to be the favorite choice of most people.

Of course, if you do nothing, you mights as well not hurry to take France and forget about the whole take-Benelux-in-turn-two scenario. In the real extreme, people don't even take Denmark so the DOW against Russia can be postponed as long as possible.

2. Do a Sealion. After taking France, attack London with your airplanes to un-entrench the unit there, move armies and tanks to ports and amfiby them, take London, move a HQ to the UK and push north to Manchester and the 3th UK city.

Make sure that the rest of your units are ready to tranfer to the Russian front, cause Russia will attack you alot earlier.

This will ensure you that the US will never seriously enters the war, because it's hard to do a D-Day without the UK mainland.

3. Take all the minors that you can after France. Take Norway and Sweden. Take Vichy France, Spain, Porugal and Malta. Take North Africa (including Egypt if you're good) and Greece.

4. Combine 2 and 3 : both do a sealion and attack all the other minors.

I do number 4 against the AI.

The tricky part of this is that Russia will attack you early and that your troops are away.

I counter that by

a) researching Advanced Infantry 3 : I put the first 500 German MPP's in Advanced infantry reserach and buy extra's when he reseraches level 1 and 2. this makes sure that got infantry level 3 by the end of 1940.

Spend all the rest of the German MPP's on corps and keep them ready at the Russian border. Be careful not to make the Russians more aggresive : you got to read the editor to know here to place the troops without upsetting Russia.

Those corps with level 3 can hold the front against Russia while your main troops are away, especially with all the moral boosts they'll get when you take all tose minors.

c) Don't do ANYTHING with the Italian MPP's untill you got 300 and buy an engineer with it. When he comes, move him to the Russian border and let him start building fortresses.

Use the rest of the Italinas only as garrisons in France, Norway, Greece and Egypt.

d)Only after all your main units are freed and ready to fight against Russia, stop defending against russia and start attacking it.

A good way to attack Russia is to move your front troops back when all your strong units are ready, only keep entrenched 4 units in Warshaw and Konigsberg. He'll storm forward and in the turn after that, you attack with your super-troops and kill them all : he is very vulnerable when he is on German soil.

You can even try to do this on the same turn that you make the UK surrender : kill all the UK troops with your main units, only keep one German corps in Egypt together with two Italians to garrison it later, move all your main German units to Russia and only at the turn that you move all your units from the Russian vorder, take Caïro with the German corps. This will give a HUGE boost to your units on the turn that the USSR is the most vulnerable.

It's not unusual that I can kill 12 Russian troops in that one turn, including his three tanks.

[ July 05, 2006, 12:43 PM: Message edited by: TaoJah ]

[TaoJah]

<double post>

[Lars]

Since it would take you about a year and a half to get that Italian Engineer, wouldn't you be better off buying it the very first thing as Germans? Gets you about a extra 8 months of building fortifications.