Battle for France 1940

[gwgardner]

Caveat, I'm playing beginner level, so don't know what the differences would be at other levels.

1) The initial breakthrough in the Ardennes was accomplished easily enough, Sedan taken; Netherlands and Belgium taken by turn 3 of the campaign; The BEF had moved into Belgium, never fired a shot, and headed straight for the ports to flee back to the UK.

2) This is where things started to get tough. The French army held Lille. I never took it up to the end of the campaign; The French set up a two-deep defensive line along the Marne(?) which was tough to crack. I could not concentrate my air attacks at any particular point because the Allied air forces were hammering me, and it was two months before I had air dominance and full strength air units again.

3) After obtaining air dominance in late August, I was able to hammer the French line north of and in Paris. Finally took Paris on Sept 6 and established Vichy.

This was my second time attempting the French campaign. The first time I did not use my air units well, and also failed to concentrate my armor, and allowed the French to entrench.

Balance? Seemed right to me, once I had figured out that knocking down and/or preventing enemy entrenchment was key to breaking that French line north of Paris.
However, the Allied land forces never attacked. So if the AI is tweaked to get the AI to go on the offensive where possible, that will certainly change things.

My only criticism still remains the two-week summer turns. Just too ahistorical, and does not allow for realistic campaign buildup to Barbarossa, not to mention Yugoslavia and Greece. The idea of SeaLion is ludicrous also, when the battle for France goes all the way to September. (I guess SeaLion would be out of the question in this game system anyway.)

On to the winter 1940 and to see what can occur in '41. I'll go ahead and do Barbarossa in June 41, but I doubt I can really be ready by then (as far as having a somewhat historical OOB).

[Ostwindflak]

I didn't kick Barbarossa off until July '41 in my game. It took a few turns just to get units from France to the Russian border. The 1088 MPPs I plundered from the fall of France were all spent on operating units to the Eastern front for a timely invasion.

[gwgardner]

Oh man, that's going to hurt if I have to spend my plunder on strategic movement! I still need Panzers! Right now I cannot approach a historical OOB for Barbarossa.

[zakblood]

ah good to see i'm not the only one behind the times and jump off date then, kept thinking it was my slow speed approach, but if you 2 also haven't managed it, makes me feel better now, i haven't as yet spent anything on SM, only buying and research, so are rather slow at moving to the front unless it's bought there or near it etc, i'm quite a few turns behind but also think i'll be nowhere near ready for history atm

[Ostwindflak]

Yeah it was a bit of a kick below the belt to spend that much to get units to the East. All I can say is the two industrial production technologies are your friend. Research the crap out of them. That is how I have managed to keep panzer groups, medium panzers, and mechanized infantry rolling off the assembly line.

[zakblood]

oh bum, not done that [:(]

i went for better tanks, better weapons, spies and some other tech, lol i'll be going backwards then it seems later on, see no idea as normal i have[8|]

shinny is nice but forgot something has to build them[:D]

[crispy131313]

I'm still only playing my first game as Axis but France for me fell in Early August 1940 (note I DOW the low countries March 1940) and I was able to launch Barbarossa in May 1941 without any problem. I only had to SM HQ's to keep the timeline, all other units marched. It's still 1941 and I've reached Leningrad and Smolensk (should fall this turn) as well as captured Kharkov, Kursk, Dnepropetrovsk and should be able to just barely reach Rostov before the year rolls over.

[Ostwindflak]

Whilst moving units to the East I had to divert 1 German HQ, 3 German, Corps, 1 German Army, and 1 Stukageschwader to Yugoslavia as they joined the allies and well, Germany's allies couldn't handle that on their own. That contributed to pushing my Barbarossa back by 1 month too.

[Ostwindflak]

Crispy, I am in to 1942 and nowhere near Moscow. I am getting kind of close to Leningrad. The Russians still hold Kiev, Smolensk, Rostov, Kharkov, etc. My units weren't moving at a slow pace. After the initial surprise turn, the Russians dug in and are being stubborn to dislodge everywhere.

I am so far behind historical schedule that it is embarrassing.

[gwgardner]

Those of you who have launched your Barbarossa, can you give us an idea of what your OOB was like? How many Panzer armies? (four historically)

[zakblood]

I am so far behind historical schedule that it is embarrassing

your not alone, out it down to new system and not lack of skill, i'm putting mine down to i'm all over the place and most of the time have no idea what i should be doing on a given date, which makes me think of an idea?

what about a timeline progress button, once pressed it says what you should be doing or what happened on a given date so you can compare?

good idea or just another one of my silly moments?

[8|][;)]

[zakblood]

ORIGINAL: gwgardner

Those of you who have launched your Barbarossa, can you give us an idea of what your OOB was like? How many Panzer armies? (four historically)

2 for me as i'm waiting for better stuff to arrive so don't wish to build early only to have to pay twice to upgrade to better stuff, so went mostly pure infantry but did research a lot more than most maybe, so have better than normal ones so not really suffered in real terms, just rather slow or slower than normally i'd maybe hope would be at a given time[;)]

[Ason]

Soviet union declared war on me in august 1941, at that time I had already started building up the eastern front but I still had some units left in greece and yugoslavia. I can't remember exactly but I had something like 10 corps and 3-4 armies on the entire front.
Then I had 1 tank group and 1 mechanized group in army group south that arrived about a month after the start.
I sent 1 tank group to africa before I knew I was going to get the DAK decision event, so I just had 1 tank group at the start of barbarossa.

[Ostwindflak]

I am at work and not near my computer, but if I remember right, at the start of Barbarossa I had 4 panzer groups, 1 of the medium tank units, and 1 mechanized infantry. Since then I have added another mech. inf., 2 more medium tanks, and 1 more panzer group. All of my corps and armies were upgraded to motorized at the start too (I couldn't tell you how many I had off the top of my head). Also had 3 German HQs, 1 Italian HQ, and 1 Romanian HQ along with a few of their corps/army units.

Then all the starting aircraft formations. I didn't add any to my build queue until after the start.

[crispy131313]

It is December 19, 1941 and Winter has set in USSR already this turn so my advanced is slowed now for the winter. Overall the push into USSR has been a success. Though I am not playing at full difficulty (Intermediate + 0.5 AI Exp Bonus).

Army Group North has reached Leningrad, with Heavy Artillery and The Heavy Rail Gun Gustav in production to be deployed later this month to destroy the city.

Manstein who leads Army Group Center sits in Smolensk preparing to lead a 3 Thronged Attack on Moscow come the Spring thaw. Bock (from Velikiye Luki) and Kuchler (from Bryansk) are both positioned and in supply to flank Manstein's main attack force.

Army Group South has reached Voronezh and Kantemiovka along Don Major River to meet stiff resistance all along the river line. Kesselring prepares his battle plans from the town of Stalino to march on Rostov as soon as weather permits.

Depending on how USSR can reinforce it's front lines over the winter, the German army should reach both Moscow and Stalingrad by mid 1942.

[BillRunacre]

I have always found that getting the right balance between buying new units and researching/upgrading is difficult.

Too much of the latter, coupled with diversions to other theaters can lead to a slow Barbarossa, which unfortunately means that the whole of the way to Moscow will be significantly tougher.

In the long run it will be useful to collect thoughts on Axis strategy so that we can give new players the best start.

Not necessarily to overwhelm them with advice, and players do need to be free to make their own way and make mistakes.

But if we can minimize those that will cause frustration then it will make for a better gaming experience all round.

The 1939 Strategy Guide does contain some advice, so if you have any suggestions on what to add/edit/remove from that then please let me know. [:)]

[Ason]

Crispy any chance you can show us a pic of the frontline (max zoomed out)? Would be interesting to see the difference in beginner and intermediate frontlines.

[crispy131313]

Here is a pic: I went back to July 1942 in my save files and took off Fog of War (Don't want to spoil anything for myself in the current turns)

[Ason]

Wow there is actually a line, that's cool.
Thanks for the pic! I meant one from only german view but this was even better[:)]