MM (Axis) vs Nirosi (Allied) Nirosi welcome

[MagicMissile]

Hello,

I felt that the AAR forum have been silent for too long and I have to do something about it. I feel that the interest of the game is waning a bit based on forum activity but maybe an AAR based on the latest patch might be of interest to someone . I will not report on every turn and this AAR will not be in the same league as the latest one by Nirosi and Boldaire but I hope it might entertain a little bit,

I also want to honour and thank PanzerMike for his work on modding the game so I will use his map and units in these games.

I am playing Nirosi. We have played one game before. I was the Axis and after pulling off 3 fairly large pockets of Soviet units the Germans had a fairly easy time to hold on but we are not 100% sure how it would have ended because the game was lost in the last patch update in I think it was April 1944. I have played more games so I have more experience for sure but I expect these games to be close.

As to the state of the game I do feel that the Germans are very strong right now. Late war economy seems a bit too strong and manpower a bit too high or maybe the Soviet manpower is a bit too low. But I also feel that the Germans will very rarely win by conquering the Soviets nowadays that is hard to do but it is still very possible to deal enough damage to basically make any Soviet comeback impossible,

My strategy wont change. I still am mostly interested to check game balance in a standard copy of real WW2 play. So France 40 and Sovietunion 41 and try to survive to the end.

[MagicMissile]

Here is the tech. I do have some minor variations on this but I would say this is my standard nowadays.

Tech - kopia.png

Hmm I see something on these new forums have changed when it comes to pictures. I will try to do better .

[MagicMissile]

September 1 1939.

The war begins witht the invasion of Poland. I must say this might be the best start I have ever had. I only lost 5 ground and 4 air while making Polish survival until turn 3 impossible but I did use some supply truck which I usually dont do so there is a 30 extra production cost there so that makes the small losses less good I guess. In the west the normal bombing of Lyon and I also bombed Metz shooting down 5 French fighters for 0 losses.

WarPlan 2022-11-08 09_41_54.png (1.19 MiB) Viewed 1463 times

[MagicMissile]

End of 1939

1939 comes to an end. Poland and Denmark fell on turn 2 as usual. Nothng going on except moving forces to the west of course. The subs are doing ok but not amazing. Losses in 1939 was 24 merchants and 2 escort vs 2 subs.

My build with the Germans is 3 arm 3 mech 1 air superiority and 1 ground support.

[MagicMissile]

May 10 1940

In this game as well there were no cold turns so the real war started on May 10 1940.

Here are the forces and casualties up to 10th of May. This has been one of the best starts I have had as Germany with very low losses and a fairly good outcome in the Atlantic.

May 40 Forces.png (444.81 KiB) Viewed 1425 times

[MagicMissile]

May 10th 1940

I invade Belgium and leave the Netherlands for later.

I still only have 1939 tech on both Groundsupport and Infantry which is a little bit bad but I think they will go up in 1 or 2 turns. Looking at the French units at 6 strength I think they have not teched up either.

;ay 10.png (1.22 MiB) Viewed 1423 times

[MagicMissile]

May 24 1940.

I am lucky with the weather not getting any rain in May. I only make small progress setting up the attack on Lille. I usually want to get Lille as fast as possible since it is a pretty large part of French production.

MAy 24.png (1.43 MiB) Viewed 1406 times

[MagicMissile]

June 21 1940

The War photograhper have been taken care of as he forgot to record the history properly as the June 7 photos were lost.
So we Jump to June 21 instead. Progress is being made but not as fast as I would like still on the 2nd turn of July I hope to have Paris in my hand. I think that or the first turn of August is a standard outcome.

Not happy with how tired my mech units are but fairly happy with the airwar. Luftwaffe shoting down planes at about 2:1.

June 21.png (1.47 MiB) Viewed 1392 times

[MagicMissile]

July 5 1940

The Army closes in on Paris and Luftwaffe now control the skies. A sneak invasion of St Nazaire means that Paris alone is enough for surrender if I can hold on to St Nazaire one turn. Paris as planned should fall next turn.

In the department of war production there has been a purge as a large part of production was allocated to the navy instead of the armoured forces against the wishes of the High Command. I forgot to dial down the upgrade budget after infantry upgraded to 40 tech so I have upgraded the whole German navy to 40 tech. Yes I might take less losses sinking the Soviet navy but I will also have probably one mech and one inf corps less than normal going forward. Big mistake and not what I wanted for sure .

July 5.png (1.74 MiB) Viewed 1391 times

[ncc1701e]

Not happy with how tired my mech units are but fairly happy with the airwar. Luftwaffe shoting down planes at about 2:1.

Funny, as Allies, in the latest patch, I have another experience. I did wait three turns after the Low Countries invasion to engage my fighters at 100% effectiveness. With Germans planes at a lower effectiveness, I was able to gain air superiority. And I was able to slow down the German armor units by performing several ground strikes. Whereas, historically, this was a bloodbath for all Allies tactical bombers against the flak.

[MagicMissile]

Not happy with how tired my mech units are but fairly happy with the airwar. Luftwaffe shoting down planes at about 2:1.

Funny, as Allies, in the latest patch, I have another experience. I did wait three turns after the Low Countries invasion to engage my fighters at 100% effectiveness. With Germans planes at a lower effectiveness, I was able to gain air superiority. And I was able to slow down the German armor units by performing several ground strikes. Whereas, historically, this was a bloodbath for all Allies tactical bombers against the flak.

Yes one can have some success with the allied airforce. As I understand it almost too good if you build lots of Fighters. Something I have never tried. I try to use the French airforce first and then hopefully get some good engagements with the Uk vs tired Germans but usually it works soso for me. In general the Germans win the airwar fairly easily in the end. But I do recommend build one maybe even 2 German Fighters otherwise there might be problems.

[MagicMissile]

July 19 1940

The Germans get to Paris and Rouen. Unfortunately my brave invading divison marches off to 5 years of British food in a PoW camp.

Juyly 19.png (1.62 MiB) Viewed 1353 times

[MagicMissile]

August 2 1940

A bit of a Blitzkrieg turn. Invade Norway and The Netherlands and Yugoslavia. Pursue last UK forces to make sure they hopefully leave my new possesion France as soon as possible and hopefully dont come back in a long time .

Aug 2.png (2.85 MiB) Viewed 1328 times

[MagicMissile]

Sep 13 1940

Yugoslavia offers some resistance but falls.

Sep 13 .png (876.52 KiB) Viewed 1326 times

[MagicMissile]

October 11 1940

Since I have the time to do it I take Bulgaria. Production wise there is probably a small win since the losses are small so over time Germany gains a little bit but the main reason I dont like having neutral Bulgaria ports so close to Rumania and the oil. The Soviets always have the option to invade in 43 and 44 which can be annoying.

And that concludes the active campaign in 1940. I am fairly happy with the outcome. I will show losses and forces when 1940 ends.

Oct 11 1940.png (1.39 MiB) Viewed 1325 times

[MagicMissile]

I think I will let Nirosi read and comment. He has many good ideas so maybe that will make the AAR more interesting. I probably update maybe with a 4-6 turn delay

[Nirosi]

Nice AAR! Thank you for doing it. I will take advantage of this post to formally ask MagicMissile to stop sinking Allied escorts every turn! It is rude

Somebody mentioned the air combat in France. Well, I had forgotten that fighters have 6 range and not 5. So, some the French fighters did suffer a solid blow on turn 2 of the game (insert here not yet existing facepalm icon).

[Nirosi]

This mod looks very nice in play!

[canuckgamer]

I will be following your game with great interest as I still haven't figured out how to survive with the Russians. Even 36 strength point armies retreat at odds of 2-1 so I always end up with units being surrounded.

[ncc1701e]

This mod looks very nice in play!

Try it, it is very good.