44 Long Axis Campaign

[Soldmaxim]

Haven't found any after-action/tips for 44 long. Some observations by turn 200 - end of August '44.

It seems that the only win strategy should be aimed at July '44 before the Normandy breakout. I think I was 1 point away from victory in both/20 turns in July with -4 Industry, 3 a/c and 14 terror Allied points.
Now when the industry lost all France + Balkans I will only count turns towards the inevitable end... or else - what the game engine creates in 45. Will try to obtain Ta-183 and Go fighters..
Having all fighter fleet consisting of 152 H+C combination + around 150 262A (8-10 produced each turn). When I reach 500 pool of 152 (now it is 200) I will start converting single producing EFAC to more JumoJets (now making 33 each turn) and HeS.
NightFigters will await 262B then.

The non-historical events flow will hopefully leave all Poland in the Reich as by August'44 Minsk is still occupied and Comrade Stalin seems to be less "productive" than in our real history.
Also discovered that airplanes left/missed on conquered airfields could still be saved the after-action of the turn at which end the airfield changed side. Those units were still in the types list while being vanished from the map.

[cohimbra]

ORIGINAL: Soldmaxim

Also discovered that airplanes left/missed on conquered airfields could still be saved the after-action of the turn at which end the airfield changed side. Those units were still in the types list while being vanished from the map.

Meybe they come back into action with some delay?

[wernerpruckner]

Those units were still in the types list while being vanished from the map.

they will come back after 30 or 60 days (not sure which)

[TaggedYa]

ORIGINAL: swift

Those units were still in the types list while being vanished from the map.

they will come back after 30 or 60 days (not sure which)

It's 30

[Soldmaxim]

My point was that this method (finding units in the Luftflotte roster and transferring them to a well-positioned airfield) allows to avoid waiting 30 days before the unit reappear.

[Soldmaxim]

Has anyone actually won (or lost) the 44 campaign playing the German side? Could not find any reporting in the forum...

My latest status: it is the end of September 44 and my Axis sorties are always higher than Allied. Once I shot over 500 allied planes in a day. Allied air superiority subsequently twice had fallen to "1". In a massive night raid on Berlin I repelled on September 24th I shot over 100 Lancasters and Halifaxes.
Operating Ta152 H+C and over 300 Me-262 with many hundreds of each in the pool. More than 80 Jumo Jets produced daily. Will focus at researching of Me-262B, Ju-388, Go229 and Ta183...
Land defence line is still in Belgium with units encircled around Havre successfully delaying the offensive - the only save/load cheating I use at this point...

[Soldmaxim]

It is 20th February 45 one week after the "Eastern Front collapsed". As much as we know the BTR treats historical line of events - here the Red Army advances from Krakov to Vienna in just 4 days. All Wien/Silesia/Moravia/Breslau/Koeningsberg industrial areas are gone in less than a week of February...

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: Soldmaxim

Has anyone actually won (or lost) the 44 campaign playing the German side? Could not find any reporting in the forum...

My latest status: it is the end of September 44 and my Axis sorties are always higher than Allied. Once I shot over 500 allied planes in a day. Allied air superiority subsequently twice had fallen to "1". In a massive night raid on Berlin I repelled on September 24th I shot over 100 Lancasters and Halifaxes.
Operating Ta152 H+C and over 300 Me-262 with many hundreds of each in the pool. More than 80 Jumo Jets produced daily. Will focus at researching of Me-262B, Ju-388, Go229 and Ta183...
Land defence line is still in Belgium with units encircled around Havre successfully delaying the offensive - the only save/load cheating I use at this point...

You are playing with a wet dream Luftwaffe and still use a cheat??

Like most GG games, one side gets to play God and the other gets lumped with "Historical"

Could be another reason the game died!

[Mehring]

Never played a campaign to the end but I don't think there is an automatic win score for Axis, you have to play to the end. In my Axis 1943 campaign, There is only a "to win" score of 85 which is clearly an Allied target, not mine.

IMO best to concentrate on either Ta183 or Go229. If you research both you'll end up with neither until the last weeks of the campaign and you might lose your stockpile of Ta152s meanwhile. Ta183 has great stats except endurance, which is little better than the Me262. I reckon Go229 is the best bet.

Not sure yet but it doesn't look to me like intervening in the tactical air war has any effect on the breakthrough or invasion dates.

In passing, I just realised the repair rate for ports is much slower than the "1" quoted in the manual. Been watching them for months as all other damaged industry turns orange then yellow. Ports are doing well if they drop 2 damage levels a week.

Edit: Surprise, surprise! Just got a victory, on June 23rd 1944 and the chance to examine the allied AI. Bit disappointed though as never got to see second generation jets ir even Me262B

[Soldmaxim]

You are playing with a wet dream Luftwaffe and still use a cheat??

Like most GG games, one side gets to play God and the other gets lumped with "Historical"

We call it balancing not cheat. What kind of dream is the P-80 flying escort missions from Sardinia to Venice in February 45?

[Soldmaxim]

Just finished the big day battle of 20 Feb 45... Axis Sorties - 2426, Allied - 1397. Half of Allied planes were downed - 661 losses and only 23 (twenty three) Axis. 413 B-17 downed in 1 day!!!
R4M is a killer - some salvos of x12 equipped Ta-152C & Me-262 groups bring like 5 destroyed + 12 damaged or 7 destroyed + 8 damaged and so on.
The whole 500 B-17 raid on Leipzig was either forced to turn back or exterminated - only single bombers (about 10 altogether) could reach the target area and later almost all downed on the way back.
The shrinking EastFront is what worries - transferring all planes from Yugoslav airfields (where territory loss continues) to Northern Italy. The Northern part seem to resettle East of Stettin-Goerlitz-Prag-Wiener Neustadt.
When you loose area - by then gone Industry adds to industry damage Allied points - now 21...
All production was switched to Go-229 (121 Jumo Jets) and Ta-183 (24 Hes011) research and 11 BMW 801D2 produced in Berlin bring me 5-6 Ju-388 NJ every turn. I stopped producing Me262A 25 turns ago, but they still take all JumoJets... with over 30 produced every turn. With 1575 Me 262 in pool started equipping some Ta-152 groups and also assigned 262 against fighters - with some success there

[warshipbuilder]

If you research both you'll end up with neither until the last weeks of the campaign and you might lose your stockpile of Ta152s meanwhile. Ta183 has great stats except endurance, which is little better than the Me262. I reckon Go229 is the best bet.

Having not completed a full Allied campaign, out of curiosity, what does the AI research for the LW in that scenario?

[Mehring]

ORIGINAL: warshipbuilder

If you research both you'll end up with neither until the last weeks of the campaign and you might lose your stockpile of Ta152s meanwhile. Ta183 has great stats except endurance, which is little better than the Me262. I reckon Go229 is the best bet.

Having not completed a full Allied campaign, out of curiosity, what does the AI research for the LW in that scenario?

Dunno, only ever played out an Axis campaign. I gave up on an Allied campaign early on when I found you can't review more than a certain number of missions per turn, there are apparently only so many slots.

[Soldmaxim]

Gothic Line got broken on 15h of March 45... Collapsed with all front line units and all neighbouring railyards in grey. Modena and Bologna captured in 2 days. I moved all falling airfields' and shall continue with all South of Venice airfields to the North of Italy-Austria. But will the Front settle there? West wall unchanged since December. What will happen next?

[Soldmaxim]

West wall also collapsed spontaneously - message on 18th March 1945. But in the first 2 days the front only moved in Holland few miles.

[Soldmaxim]

20th of March '45 there is only one LF Reich. While I had some Western Front units moved deeper in Germany and those hadn't obtained 100% strength the Allied BC launched the largest attack targeting at least 8 locations from Adriatics and Milano to Ruhr and Leipzig
But I "out flied" them with 3909 sorties vs. 2354. My losses were high at 70 - at least one third of those due to "friendly" flak fire. I had 19 KIA pilots, 4 MIA and 36 WIA.
I scored a record - 1046 allied airplanes were downed: 462 liberators and 339 B-17. 2 P-47Ms among many other fighters - 40 P-51D, 54 P-47D25 and many many others. Allied pilots losses were like over 10 days of their replacements: 488 KIA and 393 MIA...

[Soldmaxim]

First Go-229 received on 1st of May '45. Industry damage at 70 - all lost territories. May 5th... 1945. Forget the history - Germany is pierced from the West and almost all Berlin under allied control. Bremen and Hamburg remain German and are being attacked from allied airfields operating North of Berlin!
In Itlay-Austria Turin and Milan are still under axis, but only Bolzano airfield left for them to North-East.
When 36 Go-229 shoot R4Ms - they get up to 14 damaged + 8 destroyed allied bombers!