AI Campaign Feedback

[Nihilistkitten]

Hi y'all, so I returned to WiTE after my abortive attempt a few years back, flush with new operational knowledge. My last campaign didn't do very well, but I think this one has a good chance of succeeding. This is vs the AI and it is my second game. I am looking for feedback as to where I can improve to fine tune my play. I am planning to play the Soviet side next but it seemed harder from a micromanagement perspective, whereas the Axis is fun right away. Keep in mind I am very much a new player so I doubtlessly made many mistakes.

The situation is turn 38 right after blizzard but I haven't done most of my moves yet.

Rules:

Soviet +1 Attack
Normal Blizzard (Harsh)
Normal AI

And a few self imposed handicaps, mostly due to laziness/roleplay:

No micromanaging support units or ToE beyond locking HQs to a certain level
I do allocate and replace leaders, but I do try to give some of my best leaders higher command (at least Army level), for example Model, Manstein, Guderian, Rendulic, etc.
I don't micromanage airforce beyond giving squadrons to airbases and rotating out squadrons that are below 60 morale

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How we got there (Overall picture)

I pushed hard throughout the campaign season and did only minimal digging in. This came back to bite me hard in the south as I wanted my winter lines to be anchored on the Don-Donets bend and take Rostov. Operational objectives were standard: Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov. Subsidiary goals included destroying the industry at Kharkov and Stalino and causing a large amount of casualties. Moscow and Rostov fell by the end of campaign season 1941 (Moscow in snow). Leningrad took until February 1942 as the AI seemingly loves massing forces there while leaving the south empty. Trucks were disastrous during the blizzard however, now sitting at 95k(144k)

OKH is led by von Kluge

Soft factor set to morale in all pictures.

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Here's a few screenshots of the situation (more to follow in separate posts).

AGN (GO Heinrici)

AGN Situation

Leningrad was the toughest nut to crack and actually fell during the blizzard. I did the right hook as the AI didn't strongly hold the Valdai hills. After isolating the ports, which came shortly before mud, I still had a gigantic pocket to reduce. I also only got Riga turn 2 (still need to figure out the micro to get it turn 1). Pskov fell turn 4 or 5? but I didn't overly focus on it, trying to push east before the Soviets reinforced the Valdai. I took it with the infantry when the FBD caught up. The rest was uneventful.

I did well during the blizzard in AGN because I was very close to rail lines and the terrain was very defensible.

[Nihilistkitten]

AGC (GFM Kesselring)

AGC Situation

I think I did well in the center. Cut the rail to Minsk in turn 1 and made a decent sized pocket. I got to the land bridge in turn 2 and held a position there while keeping the Soviets weak with my panzers until the infantry came up. One of my major oopsies was using one of the FBD to repair a line in the Pripet (It's a central position guys! >.>) Smolensk fell around turn 5-6, mostly because I delayed to make two big pockets around Veliki Lukie and Smolensk itself. I then made one last pocket before Moscow before moving on to seal the city just prior to mud. Alas, the industry escaped as I just couldn't cut the last rail line in time. I then mostly moved my infantry to take the place of the panzers who did the encirclements. Tula and Orel were secured and Tula became an anchor in my winter lines.

I put most of the Panzers in Moscow on Reserve for the blizzard and the entrenchments the panzers started helped the infantry a lot during blizzard. I had to screen the northern side of the Moscow bulge lightly and sent infantry divisions to reinforce as they became available. If AGN did well, AGC did okay for the blizzard. The area around Moscow held strong thanks to panzer reserves but the flanks definitely bent. I thought I was going to lose Tula on the last turn of blizzard but a few counterattacks by the panzers stabilized the situation (from inside the city).

[Nihilistkitten]

AGS (GO von Weichs)

AGS Situation

The south is where I thought I was real smart during the summer. Standard Lvov pocket. I got to Kiev on turn 3 and secured a bridgehead across the Dniepr. The front lagged a bit as I moved to contest it along its length and then unhinged the reds from my bridgehead. D and Z cities fell on turn 6-7 I think? After a few pockets it was mostly walking to be honest. I got the industry in Kharkov, D Town, Rostov and Voronezh. My line at the end of the season encompassed Voronezh, the Don-Donets bend, 3-4 hexes west of Boguchar and I screened Crimea without entering it.

Panzers were wintered in Kharkov, Voroshilovgrad and Zaporozhye.

This is where my fuckups became most apparent. I had to put the Romanians and Italians in the line due to planning poorly. As I wasn't right on the rail line (especially in the northern part of AGS around Voronezh and Boguchar) AGS consumed ungodly amounts of trucks. This led to my units becoming ants rapidly (about halfway in the blizz) and combined with less defensible terrain + less unit density made for a really desperate situation, which I somewhat enjoyed. I felt in AGS what actually happened to AGC historically.

Crimea broke out near the end of the blizzard, but was content to rout the Romanians and then retreat to their lvl 3 forts.

I had to throw ants and unready units in the line. Romanians after routing tried to dig some forts behind the MLR. In the center, between Voronezh and Boguchar, the Red Army massed its armored formations and cav corps and pounded my units repeatedly. By the end of blizzard I was holding desperately to the Don Donets bend and Voroshilovgrad, which soon almost became Festung Voroshilovgrad (thanks Hungarian light brigade). Voronezh was isolated last turn of blizzard but freed in snow. I took a close up of the situation in the bend (next post).

I had to commit the Voroshilovgrad panzers to hold the bend and the Kharkov motorized divisions to hold the center.

The result is that AGS is in awful state right now. I've set it as a whole on Refit to concentrate replacements there but I am going to have to bring in panzers from elsewhere to squeeze the big bulge in the center of AGS.

[Nihilistkitten]

Fighting in the Don-Donets bend. You can fit so many unready divisions in this bad boy!

[Nihilistkitten]

OOB.

Overall I'm very pleased with where the OOB sits at. I maintained 3.3 mil Germans in the field throughout the blizzard and now after getting the first wave of blizzard replacements, I feel 3.6 mil is very good. I kept the Soviet OOB smaller than me in AFVs since the big pockets in the center and it was smaller than mine overall during the blizzard. I think with reshuffling of forces, I will be able to mount 1-2 strong offensives in 1942 and get the Decisive victory.

[Nihilistkitten]

Casualties.

I think these are decent results? The German casualties might be a bit high as obviously I didn't manage my blizzard optimally. Some of these will return of course. I think the Soviet casualties are where they should be.

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Future plans

My plans for 1942 amount to the following. In march I want to use local panzer forces to cut off bulges and make better lines while inflicting casualties on the Red Army. Then, I plan on dividing my panzers between AGC and AGS for the summer offensive.

AGC will try to get to Gorky as the industry there seems really tasty. The cities to get there should get me close to the VP needed in conjunction with the AGS offensive.

AGS will try to get Stalingrad and maybe cut off the Crimea (not sure on that one). Then it'll be a matter of VP hunting for the last few VPs I might need (not 100% sure what cities I need). At that point I might make a save and avoid getting the victory to see how far the Red army can push me back for the rest of the game.

I'm looking for feedback or points I might have overlooked for the overall game, as well as stuff I could do to improve as a player. The goal is eventually to play against humans of course. For reference I just figured out how to manage my air squadrons like 5 turns ago, and I haven't touched SUs yet. Also what do I do with my AP as Axis? Even after assigning good leaders, I have a massive stockpile (300+) in march since I haven't used HQBU since the 1941 summer offensive and didn't build too many FZs.

[tyronec]

I think these are decent results?

Looks like a fairly easy win for you in '42 with the Soviet OOB below 4M.
Use APs for more HQBs. Also for moving SUs around and changing the HQ hierarchy as the situation demands. Not much point in building all those forts as they don't look to be doing anything useful.

[tomeck48]

I have also started playing the Soviet side after playing a number of games as the Axis. For my 1st game I set it to Easy since I was using it as a learning experience. You can get some valuable insights from that. Game was easy peasy. I only played to March '42. Next game was at normal level. More learning. Played this one through the start of '43. Also pretty easy. I'm now playing Axis at 120 and soviets at 100 level. This is a more aggressive Axis but the AI is still as dumb as a brick. While he was wiping out the Minsk pocket (and taking too long to do it) it left about 5 divisions by passed at the border. So I invaded Occupied Poland and have torn up his border network.[X(] Both AGS and AGC have no rail supply. Meantime he's pushing hard with AGS. He's attempting encirclements and I'm glad I'm not dealing with that on all three fronts. It would certainly be more competitive if I hadn't torn up his rail network.

I think learning how to ration your Admin Points between new leaders and SUs is a very important part of the game. New leaders cost a lot and you only get 50 points per turn. And you do need an adequate supply of Sus.

I hope this was a little bit of help.

[Nihilistkitten]

ORIGINAL: tyronec

I think these are decent results?

Looks like a fairly easy win for you in '42 with the Soviet OOB below 4M.
Use APs for more HQBs. Also for moving SUs around and changing the HQ hierarchy as the situation demands. Not much point in building all those forts as they don't look to be doing anything useful.

The forts in the center were for a fallback line in case shit hit the fan, they were built during the mud. Honestly I was trying to find something to do with my AP, but yeah, I didn't build them anywhere else.

SU management is probably the next big thing I need to learn.

[Nihilistkitten]

ORIGINAL: tomeck48

I have also started playing the Soviet side after playing a number of games as the Axis. For my 1st game I set it to Easy since I was using it as a learning experience. You can get some valuable insights from that. Game was easy peasy. I only played to March '42. Next game was at normal level. More learning. Played this one through the start of '43. Also pretty easy. I'm now playing Axis at 120 and soviets at 100 level. This is a more aggressive Axis but the AI is still as dumb as a brick. While he was wiping out the Minsk pocket (and taking too long to do it) it left about 5 divisions by passed at the border. So I invaded Occupied Poland and have torn up his border network.[X(] Both AGS and AGC have no rail supply. Meantime he's pushing hard with AGS. He's attempting encirclements and I'm glad I'm not dealing with that on all three fronts. It would certainly be more competitive if I hadn't torn up his rail network.

I think learning how to ration your Admin Points between new leaders and SUs is a very important part of the game. New leaders cost a lot and you only get 50 points per turn. And you do need an adequate supply of Sus.

I hope this was a little bit of help.

From what I've seen, it seems like the AI is better at defense than offense, so I will probably have to crank it up when I move on to a Soviet campaign. I found leaders to be not that expensive, but it's true in the first 10 turns with the competing demands of HQBU and new leaders it can stretch your points. I try to avoid too many early promotions to help with that.

[AlexSF]

To be honest the AI is unplayable on the German side as you saw by yourself. The only way you can play this game solo is as the German against the Soviet AI on challenging difficulty level.

[Nihilistkitten]

ORIGINAL: AlexSF

To be honest the AI is unplayable on the German side as you saw by yourself. The only way you can play this game solo is as the German against the Soviet AI on challenging difficulty level.

Yeah, it seems like the AI would not have the ability to think multiple turns ahead, which is direly needed for the Axis. I will probably still play a quick game against the AI to learn the Soviet mechanics however.

[AlexSF]

The worst is its inability to breakthrough and surround Soviet armies. It just grinds forward.