Time of Wreak (Axis) notes not AAR

[gwgardner]

Just an occasional notes on my mistakes in my current game with Chocolino.

I'm the Axis. I decided to do something different, thinking it might be fun for a change to play against a France that actually stayed in the war. So I set the game up to give France a +50% on PPs (if I recall correctly). And I determined not to attack France. I'd go on the defensive in the West and stay there.

Crushed Poland. Chocolino was Russia, and he attacked Estonia and Latvia and Finland. Role-playing, I decided to take this as sufficient cause for a coup d'etat in Germany, overthrew the Nazis, and a determined but unorganized Army general staff decided to punish Stalin. I refused the partition of Poland.

Waiting for the winter of '39-40 to fade away, Germany took the Netherlands as a platform for the Luftwaffe against the UK, meanwhile positioning the forces in eastern Poland, trying to stay out of sight of the Russkies (2 hex fog of war).

My plan in Russia was to take Minsk immediately as a logistics base for a thrust north to liberate Latvia and Estonia. The attack was launched as soon as the snows cleared. Much to my dismay, Chocolino had a hard line of infantry everywhere I looked. I tried smashing through, to little avail (oh for the old RtV days, when breakthroughs were possible!). Took Minsk, then headed north. It was a slow slog. Short front for me, so I could concentrate my armor, but concommittantly a short front for him, so he could keep that pliant but rarely breaking front of infantry in front of me.

It has taken me the entire campaigning season of '40 to achieve my initial goal. At this juncture Germany finds itself stalled in Russia, and being hammered by Allied strat bombers. I have an income of 180 PPs a turn, of which 130 of that goes for Upkeep. And strat bombers are taking most of the rest. I am getting about 20 PPs a turn as a result. Not even enough to reinforce my beleagured armor, much less upgrading it.

I decided to get a few PPs in Denmark and in the Balkans.

Meanwhile I diploed Belgium and failed, so the UK and France were finally able to diplo Belgium to join the Allies. Thus my Western front was doubled in length.

Going into Winter '40-41 I am completely on the defensive except in Yugo. With the overpowering Allied strat bombers, I see only a slow death in front of the Germans.

By the next campaigning season I expect the Russians to be capable of launching limited offensives. Probably by '42 the Allies can declare war on Italy and thereby open an even longer front in the West.

Suffice it to say - mine is NOT winning strategy for Germany!!

[gwgardner]

Forgot to mention that the Luftwaffe has been completely useless against the Allied strat bombers. Out of approximately 20 direct attacks on UK strategic bases, the Luftwaffe suffered about 15 losses, the strat bombers 0.

Chocolino's apparent decision to pour every available PP into strat bombers was exactly right. Especially once he saw my rather weird strategy.

[Chocolino]

(Not sure if I should post here in the AXIS section but since it is not an AAR, I hope it is ok.)

You took a calculated risk by ignoring France for an early attack on the USSR. It was a novel approach away from the beaten path. As your opponent I salute you for this move. Since winning against the USSR is probably the only chance Germany has to win the game, it is a very valid strategy. You would have probably won the game outright in V1.6 against the USSR since I would not have build the same strong infantry line - preferring to wait and saving some upkeep. (The old RtV PBEM "Reprise" comes to mind where you crashed the USSR via the Caucasus!) In V1.7 the wastage event forces you to spend almost all PPs very soon so it makes sense to buy defensive units.

The strat bombers are deadly when launched not only from the UK but also from France since they can then cover most of Germany. If France falls early not only do these bases not exist for the Allies, the UK is probably also more hesitant to invest heavily in strat bombers themselves as they do look pretty awkward once German tanks land in the UK. In that sense taking France is probably a good idea. But I would not have realized that before it actually played out.

True, the Germans don't look overly threatening right now. But then (imho) there is no way to win a standard setting game as the Axis except for some serious luck. On the other hand the Allies or USSR have nothing yet to hurt the Germans either. With the new income from Denmark and the Balkans, who knows. You have still many minors to gain while the Allies have used up their DPs on Belgium (it took UK, France and USA influence).

[gwgardner]

Trouble with the minors is that they would be a weakness for Germany at this point, not a benefit.

Italy won't enter the war unless I pursue a more aggressive (ie futile) strategy against France. Italy is truly now the soft underbelly to the German position.

Similarly, I can't see any way to forestall Soviet aggression against Romania.

Those strat bombers are just killing me. I have the research advances to get my armor to level 4 now, but I can't. No PPs. If I had thought it out better, I would have ignored all research advances. I could have used those PPs better.

Suffice it to say, at this point, the only way the Allies are going to win however, is to become the evil aggressor against neutral minors. Let the burden of guilt fall where it will be deserved!

[gwgardner]

It's the Summer of '41 and Germany is holding on by the hair of its chinny chin chin. Allied strategic bombing has almost completely destroyed the German economy. Manpower constraints (which I take as one component of the upkeep factor) keep the army within its current size, with only rare purchases.

Back in the early days of RtV and ToW there was no upkeep, and the player could build at will. I believe Uxbridge, in his early mods, was first to institute a limit on army growth, then whether it was him or someone at Wastelands, who thought of adding upkeep, they made a really good game decision.

Three tweaks to the game would be good, based upon my experience in this current game,

1) give fighters some capability to defend against strat bombers. That would give the German player an incentive to invest in the air forces. As it is, such investment is so expensive, and with so little likelihood of being useful, that the German player pretty much stops such investment very early in the war. If higher levels of air tech are more effective against strat bombers, I'll never know, because the early absolute ineffectiveness makes it impossible to invest.

2) reduce the readiness of the Soviet Air Force in '40, '41. It's too strong too early;

3) don't allow the Soviets to get a war economy boost by attacking the Baltics. That's Chocolino's patented strategy, and I think gives the Soviets too much of a headstart in production.

[Chocolino]

I agree with most of what you say. I am always a supporter of giving the Germans a fair chance to draw or even win - not because it is historically correct, but because it makes the game more interesting.

1) give fighters some capability to defend against strat bombers.

Re 1) Yes, strategic bombing is too powerful in general. But our game is probably not a very representative case (France still alive and with bombers, UK can invest more in bombers since there is less risk of invasion). Usually, the effect is less severe. But I think you are correct nonetheless.

The manual states that local air superiority should have some effect on strategic bombing together with AA (Infantry) technology. This is not obvious in the game and the developers may want to check if this is implemented correctly. I would be happy to pay say 100 - 125% in bomber PP losses (repairs) as the Allies for every 100% of German production destroyed. That is the only chance for the Allies to get at the Germans in the early years. Currently, the ratio is more like 30-40%, a clear win for the Allies.

2) reduce the readiness of the Soviet Air Force in '40, '41. It's too strong too early;

Re 2) True, but probably no a big deal. The Russian air force in the game is initially large but of low quality. It was easily reduced by the Luftwaffe. It is not that useful and the Russians cannot afford the luxury to invest in aircraft technology. Currently (in our game) the Russian aircraft are rusting somewhere in the east and wait for better times.

don't allow the Soviets to get a war economy boost by attacking the Baltics. That's Chocolino's patented strategy, and I think gives the Soviets too much of a headstart in production.

Re 3) (Just the Baltics or not attacking anywhere incl Finland?)

In principle I like that there are incentives for the aggressor in this game. Otherwise we would just sit back at home and make peace right away. But I agree, the current settings make Russia a bit too strong. That is in part so because the "Russian shock" event is not implemented in PBEM correctly as far as I can tell. It does fire but has no effect on unit strength. That alone would make a difference. Maybe this effect should also last longer and go back even more gradually over time.

As an additional observation:

Almost all new features that were added to make the game more realistic punishes the Axis without much compensation (reduced mobility from weather and unit upkeep to name just two). Reduced mobility applies to both sides but the German relies much more on quick, mobile operations early on or is doomed because of the huge economic gap. When adding those new features, the dev. team needs to balance the effect out somewhere else.

[gwgardner]

Yeah, I think the Soviets shouldn't get any war economy boost due to aggressive actions against any of the minors, prior to Barbarossa. Just to give the Germans a chance for a historical Barbarossa, if he (like I prefer to do) waits till June 22, 41. I didn't wait for a historical Barbarossa this time because 1) I decided not to do a Case Yellow, and 2) I wanted to punish the dastardly Chocolino brand of Bolsheviks for hitting Estonia and Latvia. Unfortunately, the effect of my punishment was more a pat than a spank.

[gwgardner]

Oh, by the way, look to the west of the Caspian. Persian forces victorious!

[Chocolino]

Oh, by the way, look to the west of the Caspian. Persian forces victorious!

Glad you are having also fun with the Persian campaign - and west of the Caspian would worry me indeed .... but you are welcome to win decisive victories on the eastern shore in Turkmenistan. Bring lots of supplies and tents with you, there are no settlements for a very long time.

[gwgardner]

Decisive victory, indeed. One Persian division against hordes of Soviets, all of whom were completely wiped out.

[gwgardner]

It's Oct '41. Continued strategic bombing has sent the German economy over the brink, wherein PP production cannot keep up with weekly losses at the front, much less production of new units. As long as I could stay ahead of the losses, I was doing fine, but very soon there will come a time when that 6-3 corps that was just hammered down to 1-3 cannot be brought back up to strength in reinforcements. Then there goes the front.

To make matters much worse, I expect to see Soviet armor on the main front within a few months, now that Stalin's foray into Persia has ended.

With strat bombing like it is, I would expect to see Soviet troops in Berlin by about Oct '42.

[gwgardner]

It's Spring '42 and both fronts are beginning to crumble. Seeing the obvious, and not wanting to see the Soviet hordes enter Germany, the High Command sent the following dispatch to the Western Allies:

As the US is unwilling to pursue war against the USSR, the only other possibility is:

1) that the UK and France cease and desist their attacks upon the Germans,

2) the High Command will ceded a corridor through Denmark and the entirity of East Prussia as a base for British and French forces to take over the northern part of the Eastern Front;

3) while the German Army will take over the southern part from Brest Litovsk south.

Germany must retain an industrial base to be able to fight on against the barbarians.

In order for this to succeed, the British or French or both must land in Denmark unopposed and capture Copenhagen. The German Navy will scuttle all ships, thus leaving a free path for British and French operations in the Baltic.

If this is not done within the next two turns, it is definite that the Romanian front will collapse, as the High Command will be forced to continue to pull forces out of Romania in order to shore up the north.

[Chocolino]

The Western Allies HQ is not quite as concerned as the Germans about Russian troops entering German borders. After what Russia had to suffer during the German occupation, it is understandable that they want to eliminate this threat once and for all.

Keeping Germany a separate political entity will also not be acceptable to the general populace of the Western occupied countries (Holland, Luxemburg, Denmark). So for political reasons, we have to reject the German proposal.

But once the German menace is dealt with, we consider offering either Soviet or the W. Allied command to G. Gardner in order to either prevent Soviet world domination or (as the Soviet command) to achieve exactly this.

(In my opinion, it is much cleaner in a two player game to play this with 2 factions only)

[gwgardner]

but oh so much less interesting!

[gwgardner]

The 'strategy for failure' that I pursued this time very clearly illustrates how much the economies of the Low Countries and France sustained the Germans in WWII. That's the kind of thing I love to see in a war game - the realistic modelling of what actually did or could have happened.

Another aspect of the game that really hit me hard this time around was upkeep, which I have pretty much always ignored before. It did a good job of indirectly modeling such factors as manpower limitations.