Axis vs. AI my first attempt

[Jim D Burns]

After spending the last few days learning the system form the Russian perspective, I decided I’d screwed up enough stuff to scrap that endeavor and try anew from the Axis perspective this time. My plan is simple, push as hard and as fast as I can towards Leningrad and Moscow to see if I can reach both before bad weather or the Russians halt me in my tracks.

I’ve decided to give Russia a nice boost with the difficulty settings. Morale is set at 100%, forts 150% and everything else 200%. I don’t like units to fight differently than they would .vs. a human opponent, so I left morale at 100 so everything behaves as it normally would during combats. But I do expect to cause a lot of havoc to the AI so I gave him considerable help everywhere else.

My opening turn went well enough, though I did run into a little trouble at Riga and Brest-Litovsk. At Riga I spent too many movement points with the 8th Panzer division grabbing the rail lines west of the city as it moved up. Therefore it wasn’t able to attack the city this turn. The 1st and 6th Panzer divisions both attacked the city, but it was able to hold and I had to stop one hex short.

I was over confident at Brest-Litovsk and failed to take the city on my first try with two infantry divisions. My second attack with three infantry divisions managed to route two defenders and forced the third to retreat. But due to my assumption that I’d take the city on the cheap, a large portion of the 4th Army’s Infantry divisions had too little movement left to go much beyond the area of the city.

This forced me to use units from the XXXXVI Panzer Corps to clear the area east of Brest-Litovsk, so my drive towards Minsk to seal the southern side of the Bialystok pocket is weaker than I had hoped it would be.

I also diverted two Corps from 2nd Panzer Group to drive south and clear the area north of Kovel to help form a pocket there. The formation of that pocket went well enough, until I realized the 16th and 25th Motorized divisions were frozen on turn 1. This forced me to break down 3 Panzer divisions so I would have enough units to keep every hex on the east side of the pocket occupied. As it is, there is still a one hex gap on the east side of the pocket were units can get out without passing through a hex in my ZOC.

Near Lvov I initially broke down the LII corps infantry with the intention of creating a regimental line of units all the way to the rough hills northeast of Parkhach. But when I got into the grit of the turn, I realized the IV Corps infantry simply didn’t have enough movement to get around to the east and then do anything, so I then drove due south with that Corps instead.

All in all not a bad first attempt at the Axis side. But this being my first time there were bound to be screw-up’s and I made a big one. One of the downsides of waiting to read the manual until the printed version arrives is you end up making a lot of assumptions. And I had assumed that rail repair units would work automatically if I simply moved them along the rail line.

By the time I figured out you had to click the RRC text on the units icon in the right panel display, it was too late for the FBD 4 unit, so no rail line repairs were made towards Riga this turn. Oh well, live and learn.

Here’s the front line after all my moves and attacks:



These are the battles I discussed. Top is Riga next two down are the two Brest-Litovsk fights:



Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Not a lot of activity occurred during Russian turn resolution. Several Russian air bases and HQs were hit by small flights of my bombers as they moved.

Russia made two attacks against the thin regimental line of defenders I have northwest of Lvov. One battle saw the regiment hold and the other saw a retreat, but Russia suffered about twice as many losses as I did.

The most disconcerting thing about the turn is Russia simply abandoned Riga and Minsk. I know from other posters messages on the forums that the AI likes to make thick defensive lines in front of Smolensk, so it looks like wholesale abandonment of these two cities is part of that strategy. At least I hope it is part of an intentional strategy and not the failure of the AI to recognize good defensive terrain chokepoints.

Here are the Russian attacks I mentioned:



Jim

[JudgeDredd]

Jim

What size monitor do you have that you can take a picture of such a large front?

[Jim D Burns]

German turn 2

With the Soviet wholesale evacuation to the east in front of my advances north of the Pripet Marshes, I had to intentionally restrain myself from going hog wild. I advanced to within about 5 hexes of Pskov and roughly 4 hexes from Mogilev. I then pulled my armor back a bit to try and get a decent ZOC line formed to prevent any Russian moves to isolate my exposed tanks.

I steadily closed a good chunk of the Bialystok pocket this turn. There are still about 16 units left inside at the end of the turn, but they’ll be quickly dealt with next turn. Here’s a look at the losses screen at the end of my move before turn execution:



In the South I intentionally played it safe. I finished closing the Kovel pocket, being careful not to move next to any routed units or HQ/airbases, so they wouldn’t be allowed to escape the encirclement. It appears I’ve trapped 7 or 8 divisions, 2 of which are armor and 2 motorized. Recon also detects an airbase and 3 HQ’s along with a few small regimental units.



Jim

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd
Jim

What size monitor do you have that you can take a picture of such a large front?

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. [;)] But I use a Samsung 24 inch LCD flatscreen.

It's a cut and paste of about 4 cropped screen captures. It would take 5 or 6 for me to get one of the entire map from the north edge to the south edge.

Jim

[Enigma6584]

Excellent read.  Very much enjoying your AAR.  Thanks for posting.

[Jim D Burns]

German Turn 3

Nothing of note occurred during the Russian turn, so no entry for it. Russia did however stay in keeping with its strategy of abandoning its ground and running. Lvov and everything around all the way up to the Pripet Marshes was empty of most Russian units at the start of my turn.

Due to a general unit shortage in the south compared to the north, I kept my advance a bit timid as the majority of the available infantry north of Lvov was used to reduce the Kovel pocket this turn. My armor advanced as far east as a couple of hexes east of the Goryn River. They formed a ZOC line south that turns west to run through Tarnopol. Next turn with my infantry free to move I’ll feel more comfortable pushing a little harder to the east.

In the north I pretty much stayed on my lines with my armor formations. This turns screenshot will show you why. Recon spotted two massive buildup areas. One near Pskov and the other between Vitebsk and Mogilev. I don’t want to get into it with these strong buildup areas until my infantry arrives to help out the armor.

Parts of the Rumanian army was released this turn and I made some small gains across the border this turn.

I just upgraded to the most recent patch (have been running non-patched so far) so hope nothing happens to my game.

Jim

[hgilmer3]

I salute your attempt to do an AAR on the full campaign.  I was trying to work up one for the Road to Smolensk and it is an amazing amount of work!

[Redmarkus5]

Jim, do you have a view on the way that the AI piles up a thick carpet of units in the centre while apparently abandoning the south? In other words, how does that make you feel about this as a game vs a simulation?

[JudgeDredd]

Isn't the south very difficult terrain though? It might make sense to thin it out a bit...I don't know...just shooting ma mouth off [:'(]

[Jim D Burns]

German Turn 4

The end of my turn 4 moves has my infantry about one turn away still from reaching the Russian current front lines, so not a lot of action today other than moving stuff forward. There were a few attacks I made though.

4th Panzer Group in the north hit a few units west of Idritsa along the Sinyaya River to begin clearing that line for next turns hoped for breakthrough. The plan is to drive east to Idritsa then drive north as far as they can to begin to form a large pocket of Russian defenders around the Pskov area. German infantry will hold the western side of the pocket.

Below that the 2nd and 3rd Panzer groups will push east and work together in an effort to form a large pocket of the defenders between Vitebsk and Mogilev. Though only the 2nd Panzer Group made any attacks this turn, as it began clearing the area west of the Dnepr in the region northwest of Gomel.

In the south the 1st Panzer group drove due east as far as Zhitomir this turn. Resistance was very sparse with only a few combat units seen. I flew lots of recon missions around Kiev this turn, but the city appears to be abandoned. I hope this is wrong, else I feel my game vs. the AI is going to come to a sudden end and a hunt for a human opponent will begin.

With the rest of the Rumanians released this turn, they and Army Group South cleared the rest of the border and began heading east. Army Group South will turn southeast and form a pocket around the Odessa defenders over the next few turns.

Here's a shot of the entire front line:



Jim

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: redmarkus4

Jim, do you have a view on the way that the AI piles up a thick carpet of units in the centre while apparently abandoning the south? In other words, how does that make you feel about this as a game vs a simulation?

I won't know till I hit the defense in earnest. I must say though the apparently abandoned city of Kiev has me a little worried right now. Though it very may well be my recon simply failed to spot the defenders this turn as I’ve boosted the AI to 150% fortification levels and they may be too dug in to spot easily.

Next turn should tell the tale. I can’t think of any better defensive terrain than Kiev and the Dnepr River line for Russia to defend in the area, so any abandonment of the line in favor of another location is a mistake in my book.

Then again perhaps the AI read the forums and saw that said I planned to drive hard on both Leningrad and Moscow, so it sent everything north. [;)]

Jim

[Redmarkus5]

No, it's abandoned - there's another thread that says Gary has confirmed this as a bug that should be fixed in the patch. Once you get closer to Kiev, look out for a huge swarm of Red Army units running back down south to block you

[Jim D Burns]

Hmm, this is bad news indeed. I think I'll be closing this AAR and will start looking for a human opponent. Though I'd prefer I was more familiar with all the game’s workings before making that kind of a commitment to another player. Perhaps I'll run another Russia vs. the AI match first. I mean I should at least read the manual (hard copy still hasn’t arrived) before taking up someone else’s valuable time with my screw-up’s. [;)]

Jim

[Redmarkus5]

I'm running an Axis AI vs Russia right now, with the difficulty set to Impossible. On the first turn the Axis reach all of the places I got to on Turn 1 and also took Lvov. Quite impressive, actually, but it could be scripting rather than true AI stuff, I guess. Turn 2 is running now.

[Redmarkus5]

Starting a new AAR to show the results of the first 2-3 turns

[karonagames]

@Jim. I looked at 2 saves of players who had the SU Withdraw to and beyond Kiev, and on both occasions the AI recovered really well. At this point, logistics will be a brake on progress as much as the enemy will. If you look at Arstavidios' AAR, he got pretty historical results , indeed in the south he ended up behind the historical results by December. I personally think you will learn more if you carry on a bit longer, but it is obviously your call.

It looks like more people are looking for PBEM games.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 5

Thanks for giving me the resolve to do another turn, and what a difference a turn makes. There is now a large blob of Russian units in front of Kiev. I guess had I pressed harder over the last few turns with my Panzers, I may have been able to rush in and enter the city before the Russian defenders showed up. But that would have been bad play exposing the panzers like that and simply would have taken advantage of the AI, so I’m glad how things have turned out in front of Kiev.

Lack of entrenchments are going to hurt them however, as I easily pushed back the first couple rows of their units this turn with just my armor. Next turn will see the infantry arrive and I should be able to do a lot of damage.

North of the Pripet Marshes my infantry has arrived at the front, but they lacked enough movement to attack this turn. I tried a few attacks with my armor and was unable to get across the Major River. I don’t know if it’s because of the 150% entrench bonus I gave Russia, or just the normal effects of trying to cross a major river with armor, but one attack saw a Para brigade hold against three German divisions.

A bit further north 4th Panzer group did manage to get across the minor river and has pushed a few hexes east. But the Russians are strongly dug in here and I won’t be blasting a lot of units here the way I did at Kiev this turn. Hopefully the infantry will help things next turn and I can make better progress.

The entire Finnish front line army was active this turn, and most of the Russians had already left their starting positions. So the Fins easily blew away what remained and had a great start to their offensive.

With most areas of the front having their infantry arrive this turn, next turn should see a lot of carnage as the second large stage offensive for Germany gets underway along the entire front. We’ll see if the large bonuses I gave the Russians in my game settings will make it impossible for me to break through or not.

Sorry about how dark the screen shot is this turn. I had the air recon button depressed when I took the screens and didn’t notice till I had put the whole thing together.

Jim

[Redmarkus5]

Hi Jim. I installed Beta 101.4 (or whatever it's called) and the problem of the Soviet's running away in the south appears to be fixed. They now fall back to an interim line near Zhitomir. I am guessing that the Dnepr and Kiev represents their third line.

[Redmarkus5]

Also, my Soviets also ran away on the line with the Finns and went to defend Leningrad against the Germans. I assume we can ignore the Finns' no advance line if the Soviets don't defend it...

I see that Mogilev was surrendered to you - same experience here. A minor point perhaps, but it does suggest a flaw with the AI that needs attention longer term.