First proper go - Introductory Scenario vs Axis AI

[Speedysteve]

Hi All,

I don't have masses of time for AAR's nowadays but as this is my early days of playing Witw I thought it pertinent to post my actions, settings and play so the Beta Testers can critic!

It's only against the Axis on Normal difficulty but I want to nail down my mechanics before moving on.

I set my own Air Directives and adjusted their settings. Here's the overview:

[Speedysteve]

AD's. Wow. Much heavier losses with Tac AF than I planned. Many A2A and due to AA

[Speedysteve]

Air Losses

[Speedysteve]

Start of Turn 2:

[Q-Ball]

Have fun Speedy! Compared to WITP-AE, flak is much, much deadlier. I like the ADs; WITP-AE has more micro-management, but when the Allies get to 15,000 on-map A/C, that's a little much to manage like WITP.

Play around with interdiction and ground attack, and various loadouts. For example, you will find that rocket-equipped Typhoon and Hurricanes are murder on tanks. That's one nice feature vs. WITP, you can specify your loadouts, and there are alot of choices beyond torpedo/no torpedo.

[Seminole]

Best advice I can give:

Click on an ocean hex so you don't have any units selected.
Press CTRL-7
This will highlight your on map artillery.
USE THEM.

[Speedysteve]

Hi Seminole,

You men my Ambhib TF's? I'm presently planning to leave them off the beaches to provide their level 2 port capability. Is that best?

[Seminole]

You men my Ambhib TF's? I'm presently planning to leave them off the beaches to provide their level 2 port capability. Is that best?

Those TF's have naval guns, and are your BEST weapon in the game because of the suppression/disruption those guns can cause along the coast.
DURING the turn you can park them adjacent to a battle and they'll lend their support. I've found it integral to quickly reducing Axis coastal forts.
At the END of your turn don't have them parked adjacent to an enemy port because they'll suffer fire from coastal guns (the higher the fort level in the port hex the more damage they can do). Keep this in mind when planning invasion sites as well. They will also fire at enemy units that are adjacent between turns, and a single TF can support multiple adjacent temporary ports, so you should have a few 'free' at the end of the turn to place as you desire.
At the END of your turn either have them supporting your temp ports, adjacent to a damaged lvl 1 or 2 port (they will fully repair it in a single turn - this frees up engineers for other tasks and can make temp ports less important more quickly), or in one of your ports with a unit prepping for the next invasion.

You can be prepping for invasion in Tunis, sally out to Messina to lend some 6" gunfire, then go back to port and continue building prep points.

In all the AARs I see WA forces struggling I don't see them making effective use of these units. People are taking months to clear areas that can be taken in weeks.
Time is not on the Allied players side. You have to learn how to use your Air Force and Navy to go toe to toe with the Germans on the ground.

[Speedysteve]

Interesting thanks. Could they also work if I moved them next to the Straits of Messina (2 of them) to block Axis ferrying to support Sicily during the Axis Turn?

[Speedysteve]

Air Losses after Axis turn and after Allied air turn 2. Sheesh..AA...All my raids are minimum 18K feet but still.....

[Speedysteve]

End of Allied Turn 2 movement. We advance inland across Sicily encountering no Axis units as they've pulled back to the west, north and east.

Naval TF's astride the Straits.

Just need to fly in a few Fighter units then it's over to the Axis.

[Seminole]

ORIGINAL: Speedy
Interesting thanks. Could they also work if I moved them next to the Straits of Messina (2 of them) to block Axis ferrying to support Sicily during the Axis Turn?

Yes.
You can read my discussion with Meklore the pros and cons of this in this thread.

If I remember correctly the Sicilian ports held by the Axis start at 100% damage. I think if they're below 95% they'll receive supply, so to cut off the island you'll need to take out those ports, or block them with naval patrol (B-24s and B-25s are great at this, but send escorts with them so they don't get chewed up) in addition to blocking supply over the ferry route.
In the full campaign you'll have access to more dedicated naval patrol assets (Catalinas, etc.).

edited to add: I prefer to focus on bisecting the island at Termini ASAP so that the western Sicilian ports are out of the equation for Messina. The Germans have no choice but to run or be captured if you do this.
Fancy Sicilian defenses will only work against newbs.

[Speedysteve]

Thanks.

Yeah I'm not focussing too much on the ground movement for this test scenario as I'm comfortable with all that from my Wite days. I'm primarily focussing on the air, naval and logistics side before I step up to either normally breakout or battleground Italy. After then I'll do GC's PBEM.

[Speedysteve]

Am up to Turn 6 now.

Reached Messina which is primarily held by the 29th PzG Div.

Launched the whole of Strategic Air Command against the enemy but they were lucky to get 50 casualties per raid frustratingly.

Tactical Air Command is ordered to Ground Support and my Naval TF's will attempt to help as well.

I've not been overly impressed with my performance in this first run. Still getting used to the new air interface (which I like), AA's been killing me and other changes. Time for a read through of the manual again after this I think.

Time to attack Messina now.....

[Speedysteve]

Just couldn't take Messina in the end. Assaulted 4 times over 2 weeks and despite 100's of bombers bombing the troops in ground attack and Ground Support and assisted by Naval TF's I didn't get anywhere closing to taking Messina. Still won the scenario on a minor victory but overall I'm not happy with my performance in my first outing

[LiquidSky]

Ahhh..taking Messina. It can be a rather hard nut to crack.

When I attack it I make sure that all 6 attacking divisions have 3 assault engineers each. I pile up 6 Brigades in the hexes behind (in reserve)... I use one task group for naval guns, usually with the Rangers and British commandos attached. Or you can use all the Task Forces for a lot of guns. Just remember not to leave them adjacent.

If the hex is defended by the Shmaltz (sp.) Brigade and a couple Italians, the hex falls on the first attack.

If it is something a bit meatier....then I will reduce the forts, and cause some decent casualties on the first assault. I don't attack it twice in the same week...I wait for my guys to recover some fatigue before I attack again the next turn.

NOTE: You can use airforce, but I try not to, as the port is heavily defended by FlaK. If you do, try to use older/crappier bombers like anything British. [:D] Well...Stirlings, that sort of thing [;)]

EDIT: Oh..make sure your two corps are chock full of artillery..ideally, around 12 batteries each. You want maximum support weapons commitment, which for a city can be huge.

[Nico165b165]

Yeah, from the look of your screenshot, you just attacked a level 3 fort + a city without combat engineers (and not enough artillery) for two weeks. I think it made the difference between a minor and a major victory.

[Nico165b165]

ORIGINAL: Seminole

You men my Ambhib TF's? I'm presently planning to leave them off the beaches to provide their level 2 port capability. Is that best?

Those TF's have naval guns, and are your BEST weapon in the game because of the suppression/disruption those guns can cause along the coast.
DURING the turn you can park them adjacent to a battle and they'll lend their support. I've found it integral to quickly reducing Axis coastal forts.
At the END of your turn don't have them parked adjacent to an enemy port because they'll suffer fire from coastal guns (the higher the fort level in the port hex the more damage they can do). Keep this in mind when planning invasion sites as well. They will also fire at enemy units that are adjacent between turns, and a single TF can support multiple adjacent temporary ports, so you should have a few 'free' at the end of the turn to place as you desire.
At the END of your turn either have them supporting your temp ports, adjacent to a damaged lvl 1 or 2 port (they will fully repair it in a single turn - this frees up engineers for other tasks and can make temp ports less important more quickly), or in one of your ports with a unit prepping for the next invasion.

You can be prepping for invasion in Tunis, sally out to Messina to lend some 6" gunfire, then go back to port and continue building prep points.

In all the AARs I see WA forces struggling I don't see them making effective use of these units. People are taking months to clear areas that can be taken in weeks.
Time is not on the Allied players side. You have to learn how to use your Air Force and Navy to go toe to toe with the Germans on the ground.

Very good advice, didn't think about that earlier.

A few test, Husky scenario vs challenging AI :





Against the hex just east of Etna. Level 2 fort, but enough engineers/arty to bring them down. Lot of disruption from naval guns. Easy victory, the enemy even gets more losses.





Same idea, one hex in the north east. Even a panzergrenadier regiment coming as reserve can't do anything about it.





Fall of Trapani. I only have two tired divisions to do the job. I wouldn't have dared to try it without naval guns, but with two naval TF's this time, no problem at all.

I think I have a new prefered method of attacking along the coast [:)]

[Speedysteve]

Thanks Guys for the advice. I'm unsure if I'll re-do this one or go straight to Battleground Italy. Think I may re-read the manual and go for Battleground Italy