Road to Kiev - New Player's AAR

[Josh]

ss= screen shot. [:)]

[Redmarkus5]

OK. Turn 6 and the AI's defence appears to have collapsed, but still no crazy rush to the East, as I saw in the Campaign game at this stage.

[Redmarkus5]

Start of Turn 7 and the AI has pulled back to attempt the creation of a new defence line. I'm not sure if it will go behind the river, but maybe not as the VLs are all West of the Dnepr.

[Redmarkus5]

Turn 8 and the AI is still awaiting my attack. I spent most of T7 clearing up behind the lines, moving my infantry forward and fixing the rail system. I have been moving my Luftwaffe bases forward every second turn or so.

I am not sure about those little rail units that detach from the HQs. The clutter up the map and you can't direct them. Much better to have rail repairs extend out from the HQs in all directions at a rate of, say, 1 hex per turn but without the little 'ants'.

[Redmarkus5]

Now, compare the current situation with the 41-45 campaign (below) vs. the AI, bearing in mind that I didn't have to fight very to get to these positions in the Campaign - the AI just retreated at full speed to this line. More comments on this later.

[Redmarkus5]

End of Turn 8. The attack on Kiev has commenced.

Now, I know I should be micro-managing more to get the best out of things, but I just wanted to test how the AI functions in a scenario game.

The game needs a short cut to tell all unengaged (no enemy ZOC) units in a single Korps where to meet, especially for the 1941 German infantry. Loads of clicking needed as you have to move every single unit yourself.

[Redmarkus5]

end of turn 9. Hopefully, I can take Kiev next turn, but it's strongly defended. I can't tell whether that's an AI decision or a designer decision as my recon showed the city to be empty previously.

In the centre I have broken through (let's see how the AI reacts) and Odessa is almost surrounded.

[Redmarkus5]

Well, I got my answer. the AI cut off both spearheads in order to reform its line. Nice going.

[PyleDriver]

Lmao...

[Redmarkus5]

Kiev falls. Odessa is barely defended - one lone Parachute Bde, although there had been lots of units there while I approached. Hmmm...

Nice AI moves in the centre - have caused me much stress.

[Erik Rutins]

Hi Redmarkus4,

Apologies if you already stated this, but out of curiosity which AI level and settings are you playing with in this AAR?

Regards,

- Erik

[Redmarkus5]

Axis minor victory. I'm reasonably pleased with that for a first full scenario, although I could have done better I think if I'd slowed down and played it over several days.

KEY OBSERVATIONS

I am impressed with the AI at Scenario-level, but not happy with how it seems to work at Campaign level.

The game is a bit of a click-fest and the devs need to give more thought on how to minimise that.

The Kiev scenario felt extremely realistic/historical in nature and was a joy to play.

Beautiful map but the units and icons could be jazzed up a little. I'd like to see some better unit pics from the modders in the info screens.

Units lose their combat power too quickly once cut off and there's no chance of a breakout with 1 week turns. This needs changing IMO.

Let's lose the little railway ants asap, please

ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE AI

In this scenario the AI plays exactly as I had hoped - like a 1941 Soviet General. It creates defence lines intelligently and attempts to hold its objectives, but it falls back at the appropriate times.

My uneducated guess is that the Campaign AI is written differently, as it has no objective flags to follow and the situation in campaigns is increasingly dynamic as the years pass.

I will happily play vs. the AI in shorter scenarios, but will stick to PBEM for Campaign games until major changes are made.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATIONS TO LURKERS

Buy this title - you won't be sorry.

[Redmarkus5]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Hi Redmarkus4,

Apologies if you already stated this, but out of curiosity which AI level and settings are you playing with in this AAR?

Regards,

- Erik

Hi Erik - everything is set to Normal - I didn't even open that screen

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks, have you tried the full campaign with 110 morale for the Soviets yet?

[Redmarkus5]

Not yet Erik. I've started a WiTE MP Campaign with Big A and I am also playing a WiTP CG PBEM game at the moment, so I won't really have time for a while. I'll give it a try over Xmas and report back - sooner if possible.

[PyleDriver]

You will find that this is the first of thousands of hours you have in this game...

[Redmarkus5]

Oh, I know that. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't have strong views on where it needs to go

[Major Bong]

Not meaning to hi-jack your thread, but I need some advice for this scenario. On turn 5 my first unit reached the edge of Kiev and from this turn on the Soviet AI created a defense in depth that required all my panzer forces to get close to the city.

On turn 9 I did a deliberate attack from 3 sides and failed miserably. My kill:loss ratio is still a decent 1:4, but the AI has so many units that I just run out of mp trying to encircle them or trying to break through, while on turn 5 things looked easy before all these units showed up.

This is under normal difficulty and the new beta patch.

[karonagames]

Taking on fortified city hexes with panzer divisions can be risky, as tank performance drops dramatically in urban hexes.

If you used infantry units with pioneer units attached directly, you will probably achieve more success.

Although the defence in depth looks a bit scary, a lot of the units are shells and have low combat strength, and can be swept out of the way with hasty attack.

To score a win in this scenario you need to get towns like Vinnitsa and Cherkassy as well as Kiev itself, and that is probably a better job for the Panzers. Check out Trey's "panzer puncture" tutorial in the war room section to get an idea on how to deal with the "blanket" defense.