"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."
Bertrand Russell
I just finished up a 44-45 games as Germans vs AI on normal, playing under 1.05.37. It was lots of fun - more fun than I had expected since I usually play the 41 GC and chose to play the 44 game on a curious whim. I ended up with a major victory but still found it challenging. When I play it again tho, I'll increase the difficulty level.
My goals (and results) for the Wehrmacht, in a rough order of importance, were:
1) Hold Berlin (succeed)
2) Keep the Russians out of Germany/Poland (succeed - but very close - see Operation Hildegard below)
3) Keep the Romanians in the war as Axis/prevent surrender (fail)
4) Keep the Hungarians in the war/prevent surrender (succeed)
5) Keep Finland in the war/prevent surrender (fail)
6) Keep Minsk (succeed)
7) Keep Riga (succeed - but very close)
8) Keep Brest-Litovsk (succeed)
9) Hold Mogilev river line & Smolensk/Vitebsk land bridge line (fail)
10) Keep Tallinn (fail)
Losing Romania was quite interesting (a first for me), it lead to the loss of more than a few German divisions and of course posed a fun challenge in dealing with substantial Russian forces on the southern Hungarian border. My play style, especially when playing the AI and goofing around, is to use a forward defense that is admittedly brittle. I also role play a bit and don't make adjustments based on predetermined game conditions (e.g., in this case, the Romanian surrender criteria and consequences) so when the surrender and side switch occurred, I had many good divisions, including panzers, along the Dnestr which I had fun trying to extract. Gaining Romania did perhaps present a challenge for the Russians as they seemed to dilute forces along other areas of the front to invade Hungary, etc. This allowed me to launch my only major counter offensive of the game, Operation Hildegard, which resulted in the encirclement & destruction of a substantial number of Russian units closest to the German/Polish border.
Overall, the AI seemed to do a decent job of trying to shift its forces around to get the most combat power facing my weakest sectors. Still, it could have been a bit more aggressive. For example, I was surprised the AI didn't press the issue in the swamps southeast of Brest Litvosk. If it had, I would have been in some trouble. I do have a pet peeve about playing until October 1945: the fact that the Germans stop creating new divisions/brigades after April. While I understand the German unit creation is historically based, there should be some reasonable assumptions that could be made to allow hypothetical units to be created based on how much industry, resources & manpower the Germans retain going forward past April 1945 (would the editor allow this?).
