Random take 2

[Josh]

Well the only thing you can do against an AI with countless planes is making several small stacks of AA. The AI tends to stay away from those.

[Ande]

I noticed that AA IV has a range of 3. It is not like they are something thats easy to get to but they basicaly lock down area from enemy airoperations as good as fighters does and isn't running the risk of being shot down. Oh, one can dream...

[henri51]

ORIGINAL: Ande

I noticed that AA IV has a range of 3. It is not like they are something thats easy to get to but they basicaly lock down area from enemy airoperations as good as fighters does and isn't running the risk of being shot down. Oh, one can dream...

AAAK!...I don't even have AA level 2![:(]

[henri51]

Breakthrough!

At last, the British position seems to be collapsing . My right wing has broken through, I ha cptured a city, my units are nearing the next British city, and I have captured two of their resource hexes. I am having a problem with supplies, since a critical river crossing has had its bridge destroyed. I have transferred an engineering unit there to fix the bridge next move.

My engineering units had all been sent East and South to build fortesses. I have now successfully build fortesses at the three points I wanted to, but it remains to be seen whether or not these fortresses can stop a determined attack by the Russians.Not I have to get my engineers out of there before they are trapped. I will need them to build a road to the British area.

The French are beginning to appear along the Japanese units on the southern front. I have not launched any attacks there despite every Japanese unit being out of supplies, but I suppose and hope that the Japanese are keeping the French busyk in other areas to the Soputh and éwest, which seems probably from the casualty figures on the strategy page.The French now have a number of victory points equal to mine, but the British and Russians are giving a good acount of themselves with a much smaller number, thanks to AI cheats.

There is a double whammy favoring the AI in these games: the AI gets a lot of free supplies, free factories, free resources, free upgrades and other advantages, that allows them to stand up to a human player with 5 times as many cities and resources. The human player only gets a few PPs for each enemy city captured, which is not worth very much considering the effort required to win them.

Henri

[blastpop]

Henri-

I am enjoying your AAR thoroughly- Still deciding whether to purchase this game- tho you are certainly making it hard not to... [:)]

If you can get the Brits under control- you can then transfer extra troops to fight the Russians- Reminds me of a WWI or WWII situation transferring troops around.

Keep the AAR going, mate!

[Jeffrey H.]

ORIGINAL: Josh

Well the only thing you can do against an AI with countless planes is making several small stacks of AA. The AI tends to stay away from those.

I'm finding that AAA is very effective in ATG. And much more cost effective than Fighters. The AI has a tendency to use them sprinkled into units and as stand alone units.

Also, ATGs in ATG, (Ha ! pun not intended) are effective against AFV's, much more so it seems than in AT WWII.

[henri51]

Here is the situation in the Far East. Thanks to my "speed bumps", three fortresses have been built at 3 choke points, but unfortunately it was too late to build one at the fourth. It now remains to bwe seen how tough such fortresses are.

The Russians are sieging my city in the SE, and the unit there cannot be supplied, so its survival does not look good. At the present time the Russians do not have any ports, and capturing this one might give them ideas about an amphibious invasion to circumvent my fortresses. My ships are shuttling backand forth bringin new units to the SE, and bringing back the engineers to the main area where there is a severe lack of airbases.

Anyway nothing can last forever, and the idea is to delay the Russians enough so that I can finish off the British, which is coming along well but will still take some time.

On the British front, which I will show next time, I seem to have broken through in the center because the British to my surprise seem to be concentrating their forces in the forest to the South. In the meantime I have captured a city and a tank factory. The problem in this area is that there are no railroads connected to the British area, our areas are separated by heavy forest, I have no airbases that can reach the British rear, and I am having trouble keeping my units in supply due to the distance and terrain. Two engineering units have been brought back to build roads, fix broken track, and one of them is within one hex of joining the railroad leading to the British area.I don't even have an airbase close enough to drop where it will hurt the British.

To reduce the supply problems before they get critical, I have created a new HQ (1st Army) under Supreme HQ regrouping the 3 army groups on the British front. Some of the cities and all factories will now be sending their production to this HQ.

The bad news is on the Southern front, where there are nopw almost as many French units facing my meager force there as there are Japanese. The French have now surpassed me in victory points and are dominating in every field. In any case so far I have all the raw and oil I want, and my air and armor are not depleting my resources too much. But I must keep an eye on these resources.

Henri

[henri51]

Things are heating up on the Japanese Front; there are now as many French units on the front as there are Japanese, and the latter are all out of supplies. The French are now the most powerful nation and taking land away from the Japanese at a frightening rate. And the French units who are threatening me between the Japanese units are equipped with tanks, artillery and air.

Just when I am breaking through the British lines, I must now divert some of my production to the Japanese front, where my paltry defence force there is no match for the French armor.I must also reinforce the Far East, where I am fighting essentially a delaying action, but the tank units that have just arrived there can hopefully keep the Russians busy for a while. The Russians have shown what they can do by annihilating my defence of the Russian city in only two moves with artillery, air power and armor. Their next target will probably be Odessa, which would give them two ports and two production cities in that area. The last time I tried to cut off their supply lines by landing a unit on the narrow neck of land met with disaster when my unit was annihilated in one move.Stacks of 45 aircraft frighten me, and I don't know how many flak units I would need to neutralize that, but it is probably more than I can afford.

The good news is that my engineers have now connected the rail line on the British front to the British rail line, and built two airbases so I could move my aircraft nearer to the front. On the next move I may be able to drop some paratroopers behind the British lines, which until now I could not reach.

Were it not for the frustrating thing that after every attack the retreating British always have a single remaining element blocking my advance, my tanks could have advanced right into the center of the British homeland. As it is, it is a one-hex advance every move. If this continues, it would take me over 10 moves to conquer the British, which could be more than I can afford.

Henri

[sIg3b]

ORIGINAL: henri51

Were it not for the frustrating thing that after every attack the retreating British always have a single remaining element blocking my advance, my tanks could have advanced right into the center of the British homeland. As it is, it is a one-hex advance every move. If this continues, it would take me over 10 moves to conquer the British, which could be more than I can afford.

Henri

Is this the same for the AI? so you can also reduce them to 1 hex advances where you are defending?

[henri51]

ORIGINAL: Tesuji

ORIGINAL: henri51

Were it not for the frustrating thing that after every attack the retreating British always have a single remaining element blocking my advance, my tanks could have advanced right into the center of the British homeland. As it is, it is a one-hex advance every move. If this continues, it would take me over 10 moves to conquer the British, which could be more than I can afford.

Henri

Is this the same for the AI? so you can also reduce them to 1 hex advances where you are defending?

I think so, but I did not pay attention. Given the AI's tendancy to attck without significant forces, they usually take more casualties than they give. In the other extreme case (like on the Eastern Front), the AI attacks with so much air power that it is impossible to tell, because I cannot see the AI moves but only the results. (This is because I always use the History button to watch ONLY gthe battles, so I might ba able to tell by watching all the moves that I am allowed to.

But definitely you can usually delay the AI by putting weaker units in the way, This is what I did with my "speed bump" strategy described earlier in this AAR.

Henri

[henri51]

DISASTER!!

The French have broken through my right flank on the Japanese front with powerful armored units consisting of light and medium tanks, tank destroyers, assault guns, and armored cars.

My light forces are no match for this kind of opposition, I have no anti-armor and no air power in the area at all, and they are going through my forces like crap through a goose.

I am backing up my line as fast as I can, leaving a few units long the river where they will have a better defense, I am transferring units down from the British front, and I am manufacturing AT guns at the AGS HQ where they had just arrived, but it will take a few moves before they are ready to fight.I have moved two air forces down from the British front, including my more powerful air unit consisting of 8 level bombers, 4 divebombers and 4 fighters. On the next move these units along with my artillery should be able to do inflict some serious pain on the advancing French.

I should have seen this coming when I saw some powerful French armore gathering on my right flank, but I never imagined that the French would launch a major attack intomy territory while they were still mixing it ip with the French. At least this prodded me into building some AT guns, which have arrived hopefully in the nick of time. I had built no bazookas since I was not meeting any significant armor, and now it will take a few move before I can equip my infantry with bazookas.

Henri

[henri51]

Finally! I breakout of the forested area into clear terrain on the road to the British homeland. My forces below the road alsopush the British back to the edge of the forest. I have dorpped a patrooper that is in dire straits, surrounded by the enemy but only one hex away from friendly forces - can he survive? If he does not he wil get a citation for distracting the enemy while I was ramming my way through.

In the forest to the South, 20 battered British units are within a hex of being surrounded; I dropped a paratrooper to reduce the escape corridor to one hex. Will the British concentrate on getting out, or on trying to stop my forces to the North?

I have moved most of my production to Army Group South to deal with the French incursion, and also moved more than half of my air forces there.A devastating air attack on his armored spearhead crumpled his armor significantly, and my new anti-tank units are training up for the fight. I have stiffened up some of the infantry with bazookas in case he attempts a thrust up through the center of my line.

Further East, the Russians are ganging up on the fortress which they can only attack from one hex.This is convenient for my air force there which can bomb all of his units at one go. Will the fortress hold?

Still further to the East, I noticed with horror that on the critical northern neck of land giving access to my cities, I had built not a fortress but a fortification![X(]I quickly brought back a ship full of engineers headed to the mainline to build a fortress before the Russians get there. Now that they have taken the Southern city, they seem to be coming up in force towards Odessa. I don't expect Odessa to hold for very long once it is surrounded, but the more time I can save here the larger my chance of survival.

If I can now eliminate the British, I can move one of my Army Groups South to deal with the French and Japanese; the latter seem to be on the road to perdition, which means that the French, who are already stronger than I am, will be a very tough foe to deal with. After I finish with the British I will work out a strategy to attack them from all sides.In a toe-to-toe brawl, it is unsure that I can come out on top, especially if I have to divide my forces between the French and the Russians[X(].

Henri

[henri51]

The British are now in full retreat; I have cleaned out the pocket in the forest, and my spearhead has reached the ocean, cutting the British force in half and isolating the southern half of their forces from their two remaining cities. Both those cities are on the shore and Nashville in particular could be tough to take, since it is adjacent to only two land hexes.

I have captured a number of British factories, but turned most of them off, because new mechanized units are eating my supplies so fast that I have had to convert most of my cities to making supplies for a move or two.

If all goes well, the British should be out of the game in a few moves, but don't forget that two of their cities are occupied by the french on an island to the Southeast of this map. That island cold be a high priority for an amphibious invasion, but on the other hand, it can produce only PPs for the French, and my priority should be the original French cities. I have started to move KG Blue to the South to join the fray against the French, since AG West and KG Rose should be able to handle the remaining British.

Speaking of the devil, The French are walking all over the Japanese which at least in the area I can see have become a negligible quantity - all of the forces on the Southern front that are a threat to me are now French, and only a few out-of-supplies Japanese units remain there. The Japanese have lost most of their cities to the French, who are a very tough opponent because contrary to my other opponents, they use afully mechanized army supported by air and artillery power. I will show this front next time.

On the Russian front, so far they have not made a serious effort to break through the bottleneck leading to my left flank. To the East I have gathered a varied force that is fighting to hold them off from my fortresses and from Odessa. I am hoping that they and the French will be spending their main energy fighting over the Japanese spoils to the South.

Henri

[henri51]

The end of the British. The picture shows the British occupying their last city after their adjacent capital fell on the last move. The Japanese are also down to one city, and the French are expected to put an end to them very soon.

In the meantime, I am advancing against the French on the former Japanese front, but I expect resistance to stiffen now that Japanese resistance has become negligible.

I am going away for a week, and will carry on after I return.

Henri

[mgaffn1]

Interesting "speed bump" tactic - will have to try that one myself.

[henri51]

Here is the situation on the Japanese Front. Note that all the Japanese units in the area are out of supplies, and the city just below belongs to the French. However the French are in danger of encirclement if they cannot counter my threat of breaking around behind them, capturing the city there and blocking the supply line.In additio, if I can block the neck of land at the top left, they will be isolated and risk annihilation.

Further to the NW there is a sizable force of Japanese with their backs against the sea. The French have conquered most of the Japanese cities to the south, but they are fighting a five-front war: in addition to this front and the Japanese to the NW, the French are fighting on two fronts against me in the East, and are probably fighting another two-front war against the Japanese and the Russians to the South.So although the French are now the most powerful and control the most cities, their forces are somewhat dispersed.

It was a strategical mistake for them to hit the Japanese in the back on this front and to engage me, because the Japanese were holding me back in this area and were thus acting as "allies" of the Front. Instead they should have left the Japanese with enough forces to hold me back and send some forces against the Russians in the SE.

Now that the British are almost eliminated, I already have significant forces coming down the road to this front, with more to follow as soon as I wipe out the last British city. My plan for the follow-up there is not yet formed: I could send some on an amphibious attack on the two French cities on the former British island in the NW, an amphibious attack on the left flank of the French, or bring them all down here for a major offensive.

I HAVE had to reduce my armored attacks, because despite having an income of 22,000 oil each turn, I run out of oil on each move. So I have shut down most of my factories and I am concentrating on horse-drawn units to reduce oil consumption. It is important to keep my artillery and air forces operational, and armored attacks must take second place. I have noted that an artillery attack followed by an air attack can so weaken almost any enemy stack that it is almost annihilated by a following significant ground attack.

Henri

[Tac2i]

I finally finished my game against 3 AI. It lasted nearly 5 years in game time. The game started May 1938 and ended with victory in February 1943. Longest AT/ATG game I've played.

[henri51]

I haven't checked how many years it makes, but my game has been going on for over 90 moves, and it is far from over.I have reached the point where almost all my cities are producing supplies, and I have had to shut down all factories to save oil. Maybe what I need is a war of attrition...[:'(]

Henri

[Josh]

You don't need to shut down your factories, all you need to do is *not* move your gasguzzling units. So put those armoured units in a defensive position and forget about them, and only move the armoured units you need for the offense. Also moving ships and attacking with lots of planes does cost you a lot of oil. Burning 22.000 oil per turn... blimey [X(]

[Tac2i]

Fuel isn't the only issue. Late in a game with lots of units constructed, adequate supply can become a problem. The more stuff you have the more supply that is required. If you don't cut back production of units at some point in your game, more and more of you cities production will have to be devoted to supply. You can mitigate the issue to a degree by setting some units to 50% supply. I've reached a point in some of my games where I only built only enough to replace losses.

ORIGINAL: Josh

You don't need to shut down your factories, all you need to do is *not* move your gasguzzling units. So put those armoured units in a defensive position and forget about them, and only move the armoured units you need for the offense. Also moving ships and attacking with lots of planes does cost you a lot of oil. Burning 22.000 oil per turn... blimey [X(]