Axis Research Levels for Barbarossa

[marquac]

So at best I am an average player or a little below average. My first play through with the Axis ground to a halt when I think I spent too much on research and didn't buy enough units to round out my army to be able to defeat the USSR. I always make sure to upgrade to Infantry weapons 2 and tanks 2.

Should I be concentrating heavily on unit purchasing and once I start getting more MPP's with captured USSR territory I can start upgrading my economy, ships and planes? Or should I be trying to get as far ahead in tech as possible and just try and use my available units better on the battlefield?

[BillRunacre]

I think generally going for lots of units first, including lots of HQs, not fully neglecting research but not going overboard on it either will be best.

[FF_1079]

You might want to watch Paradogs youtube video series marquac, he played through the 1939 Campaign over 25 videos. As I recall, he was consistently buying German infantry corps to enable him to have sufficient units for Barbarossa. While I had sufficient units in my campaign win, I wish I had bought more HQ's as well - they are critical for moving quickly through enemy territory while waiting for recently captured cities to get up to supply level 5.

[ILCK]

For me, I buy nothing but Armor, Mech and Tactical Bombers for the Germans from the start of the war prior to invading Russia.

Infantry units only serve to detrench units, the above units are the killers. When I do turn to infantry it is buying garrisons to stop partisans and armies. I rarely buy corps until 1943.

[vonik]

ORIGINAL: marquac

Should I be concentrating heavily on unit purchasing and once I start getting more MPP's with captured USSR territory I can start upgrading my economy, ships and planes? Or should I be trying to get as far ahead in tech as possible and just try and use my available units better on the battlefield?

You don't need any additionnal infantry if you don't do Sealion .
However what you do need is , in that order :
- Panzers
- Mechanized Infantry
- Bombers
- Submarines
- Special units

So if you play with the hard cap on the number of units, make sure that you got all of the above that you can get asap .
I have always easily beaten URSS (in the Barbarossa without Sealion variant) without buying a single infantry unit .
The only thing you need is a few garrisons when you are deep enough in USSR so that the partisans become a problem.

For the research there is no absolute rule (especially if you go Sealion it's quite different from what you need when yo go Barbarossa first) .
But what you need in Russia is Inf 2 and upgrade everything (especially the minors) to 2 .
Tanks 2 is sufficient in 41 and fighters 2 too .

To make a long story short, just buy all Panzers and Mech inf you can and start to play with research and other units only when it's done .
And you definitely don't need more german inf than what you got - just bring to Russia all italians you can .

[Fintilgin]

Which does make me think that we need some oil rules so that the Axis can't do nothing but buy tanks, mech, and planes for multiple years in a row. [X(]

[marquac]

Thanks for the answers everyone. It's greatly appreciated.

[vonik]

ORIGINAL: Fintilgin

Which does make me think that we need some oil rules so that the Axis can't do nothing but buy tanks, mech, and planes for multiple years in a row. [X(]

Concerning that, I already mentionned the most important thing . ALWAYS play with hard caps on the number of units ON .
Without that playing Germany is a walk in the park and the Allies have no chance to last beyond 1942 .

Btw oil is not really a problem once you take Egypt and Irak . Besides who needs oil when you can make fuel out of coal (what the German did historically because they invented the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis) ?
The irrealistic part (when the hard cap is off) is that the industry wouldn't simply be able to produce only Panzers and bombers in vast quantities .
At least not in the first years of the war .