Atheory AAR - GC 1936 - Nationalists Peluche

[atheory]

This is just a quick introductory post before bed to get things started. The real AAR begins tomorrow.

The plan is to launch a grand campaign game as the nationalists with an AAR goal encompassing both critiques and positive exploration of the game.
Comments and questions will be encouraged throughout this journey.


Expected early challenges:
Nothing is uniformed, units, command structure, frontlines, nothing. It will take time to get fully organized and these mobs turned into a real force.


Haha, I was alt-tabbed and attempted to switch back over to the game, it crashed on me. This will indeed be an interesting journey. So note to self, be careful with alt-tab in windowed mode, and do save often.
And yes, I will be posting bug reports in the tech support section as I progress.
Crash Update: Not being in windowed mode (unchecking box in preferences) has alleviated my crash issues. For someone who alt-tabs a lot this works for me.

First critique - this needs work. This is not ideal as the first thing a player sees launching a new game. It's ugly but nothing to dwell on. After all, I'm not here for the visuals.

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Stay tuned with the real journey beginning soon.

[RangerJoe]

Those pop-ups happen throughout the game, not every day however. They do give some historical context as well as letting people know about some of the things that are happening in the game itself.

[atheory]

Those pop-ups happen throughout the game, not every day however. They do give some historical context as well as letting people know about some of the things that are happening in the game itself.

I am definitely excited for the added historical context throughout the campaign. I just find the size and layout of this initial one to be an eyesore, and could be cleaned up a bit. First impressions and all.



For everyone else, just preparing my morning coffee and I'll get a first turn out.

[atheory]

Good morning all, despite matrix forums being a little sluggish for me at the moment, I endeavor to press forward.

Initial Overview

The grand campaign can seem a bit overwhelming, and one may be left with a feeling of what to do first. I find it is best to divide the map into mini-theaters. Let's start with the North and divide it into two sectors (basically east flank and west flank). Treat the northern front as a large pocket where the enemy forces are surrounded with the sea to their backs. Your job is to prevent a breakout, and or a break in by enemy forces from either madrid or zaragoza areas while slowly crushing the pocket with your own.

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Next up is the Sevilla Front (or Southwest sector) - the early goal here is to consolidate the area and gain control over the north-south rail line. This rail line will allow for strategic movement of units north or south as needed later in the campaign.

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Next up is the Cadiz Front (or North Africa Sector) - this is where the bulk of your early regular units will originate from. I tend to march units as they arrive in north africa to Ceuta and then funnel them via transports into Algeciras. These forces begin the eastward advance, particularly securing the coastline.

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The last mini-theater I consider is Zaragoza. I do a holding action in the south, and advance eastwards along the rail lines as the opporturnities allows for.

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[atheory]

Turn #1 (pt1)

Nationalists abandon Madrid (oh-my!)

That's right, we're pulling a McArthur and we shall be back.

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This is mostly driven by units in Madrid disbanding automatically over the next two weeks. While a design decision I understand the reasons for, is one I don't agree with. However, it is still one we must work with. So best to preserve the devices to be used elsewhere after the units are disbanded. Also of note, for these units it may be best to keep replacements turned off.

Note#1: replacements are turned off by default, though I tend to turn them back on via the LCU menu and turn it off just on select units. Same goes for unit upgrades.
Note#2: future reinforcement units will have these turned off by default (so remember, and eventually such quirks will become as familiar to you as the back of your hand.)

[atheory]

Turn #1 (pt2)

overall not much to do this turn, aside from familiarizing oneself with the map.

Naval side of things: put the CL Navarra and BB Espana in for repairs. Set APs to move to Ceuta.

No air assets yet, so easy peasy.

Set a few local attacks just to clear out those republicans from select hexes.

With daily turns, the build-up will seem rather slow initially, but activity will inevitably snowball.


As an aside: Why am I here?
Thanks in large to War in the Pacific(Witp) (I've played all iterations), I discovered I enjoy managing the more numbers side of a conflict war more than I do the flashiness of historical tactical battles. I'm still a big fan of john tiller style games don't get me wrong, but tactical battles are limited and relatively predetermined because they are (no shocker) "historical". I enjoy statistics, and economies, production and logistics comes with tons of numbers to play with. These numbers provide the framework for players to create their own versions of the battles we know today.

With this new engine, I am hopeful for more games that will allow me to explore this facet of warfare that I do enjoy the most. Thus, I am strong with my feedback and encourage all others to be so as well. The team needs constructive and positive feedback. I know WIS is a small team, and I look at it as more a passion project than a studio driven title. So my expectations are more easily tempered.


Update on Crashes -
I've had a better experience doing the first turn as I've experienced no crashes since playing with the settings. (trying not jinx it)
I've no idea if my good fortune will last, or why these this setting seems to work.

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And turn #1 comes to a close.

[atheory]

We kicked the Republicans out of Sevilla and captured the Republican 2nd Division Headquarters.

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As an aside, and this is just my feeling, but I feel the images could use a little more life to them. The game overall has a rather dull tone to it. Here is a quick rework using AI.

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[atheory]

Turn #2


German pilots begin to arrive, and if they are here in Spain then how will their planes arrive. Magic of course.

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Republican air forces are hunting my APs (sad panda)

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AP Ciudad de Alicante has some excellent gunners - shooting down 3 of 8 Vildebeests.

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AP Ciudad de Palma got the poor gunners

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[atheory]

Turn #3


Combat units continue to wake up as if they've been in stasis for this very moment. A trickle amount of movement orders are issued.



I think the Spaniards will have questions:

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Republican air forces target three cities held by nationalist forces, killing more civilians than soldiers. The propaganda teams are going to have a field day.

[atheory]

Turn #4 - 20 July 1936


The first aircraft for the nationalists arrive in North Africa

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Operations to secure the Sevilla area are underway

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A moment of silence please........

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Generals have a short life-span in this conflict (is geeneral a new rank? haha)

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[atheory]

Turn #5 - 21 July 1936


The first convoy carrying troops from North Africa bound for Spain takes shape. As the Republicans have naval and air superiority at this point in time, this is more akin to a smuggling action, or blockade running.

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I do have concerns with how quickly military units can embark and disembark from one port to another in one day, and still be 100% combat ready immediately following. While it easily plausible with small units, as one scales up the unit size it becomes less so, in my mind anyway. I need to explore, and learn more about naval transport logistics.


A critique I have is with regards to strategic (or rail) movement. With no capacity limitations one could pack up their entire force and transport it across the rails at will. One approach to this in the future that I would like to see (or some variation of) are having actual on map rail transport units with railroad car devices (to determine capacity). Thus these rail units can be either captured or destroyed over the course of the war, and movement limited to functioning rail lines. These rail units would function similarly to naval transport ships. The player would load LCUs (or aircraft) onto them and disembark them when reaching a destination.


A quick turn, very little action. Some small skirmishes but little to write home about really.

[atheory]

Turn #6 - 22 July 1936


I was wondering my attacks in the San Sebastian area were making little headway. Turns out there is a wall of level 5 forts. Gonna have to wait for more engis and arty. Repositioning units to flank around instead for now.

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Command and Control in this game is like playing with a puzzle where you only get the pieces you need over time. After this, playing any future game with Germany as the focal point will make it feel as if I'm playing in cheat mode.


A few more aircraft are now available to me. I can get a little air recon at least.


haha Grok won't even touch the image here

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[Dali101]

Basically, you got it right....

It is clear that you are well-versed in the basic phases of this war.

Personally, I have always focused on the liquidation of the north.
The central government in Madrid usually does nothing substantial for the north (as in reality).
After the destruction of the north, there is a great chance of finishing the war victoriously.
Although this will allow (in time) the central government to create a new republican army.

A few notes:
The Nationalist units in Madrid actually surrendered after a few days. So their disbandment (or partial escape from Madrid) is realistic.
The German pilots are a mistake and it must be eliminated.
The German aircraft, in the form of single-engine aircraft, arrived disassembled in Cadiz and were transported by rail to the airport from Seville. Only the three-engine types flew over from Germany directly.
Personally, I used the Tangier-Cadiz route for transportation (or up to Vigo, I wanted to strengthen the north). It is west of Gibraltar and is covered by coastal artillery. CD guns are quite harmless in the early weeks, but gradually the quality and quantity increase and in about 3 months it will be deadly for republican ships to pass through Gibraltar.

Don't forget to set up convoys to import supplies and fuel.
The only available refinery is in the Canary Islands and then from Germany or Italy.
In general, save on diesel and try to use coal-fired ships for normal commercial shipping.

[atheory]

A few notes:
The Nationalist units in Madrid actually surrendered after a few days. So their disbandment (or partial escape from Madrid) is realistic.
The German pilots are a mistake and it must be eliminated.
The German aircraft, in the form of single-engine aircraft, arrived disassembled in Cadiz and were transported by rail to the airport from Seville. Only the three-engine types flew over from Germany directly.
Personally, I used the Tangier-Cadiz route for transportation (or up to Vigo, I wanted to strengthen the north). It is west of Gibraltar and is covered by coastal artillery. CD guns are quite harmless in the early weeks, but gradually the quality and quantity increase and in about 3 months it will be deadly for republican ships to pass through Gibraltar.

Don't forget to set up convoys to import supplies and fuel.
The only available refinery is in the Canary Islands and then from Germany or Italy.
In general, save on diesel and try to use coal-fired ships for normal commercial shipping.

Good tip on the coal-fired ships. I tend to set up convoys after the initial republican flurry of naval activity, that and I can be rather lazy with them as I've never really experienced shortages enough to make it a priority. Maybe some dev tweaking in future updates could change that.

[Dali101]

What modifications do you mean?

Oil ships are green and coal ships are gray...

(and sailboats are also green)

[atheory]

What modifications do you mean?

Oil ships are green and coal ships are gray...

(and sailboats are also green)

What? I think you may have misunderstood what I was saying. I said nothing about modifications so I'm lost.

I was just saying that I've never really experienced supply shortages so creating convoys has never been seen as a priority for me.

[RangerJoe]

What modifications do you mean?

Oil ships are green and coal ships are gray...

(and sailboats are also green)

What? I think you may have misunderstood what I was saying. I said nothing about modifications so I'm lost.

I was just saying that I've never really experienced supply shortages so creating convoys has never been seen as a priority for me.

Fuel, you will need fuel.

Supplies, in order to build up your forces, you need the supplies. Shipments of supplies from Germany, Italy, and/or the USSR represent not just the supplies but the devices as well.

[jwilkerson]

Great AAR - thanks for posting !!!

[warspite1]

Hi Atheory - thanks for the AAR.

If you get a chance, can you explain what is happening on the naval side in some detail. For example, are the ships (and their sides) set at the outset or is there a random element that can see ships change side? How, if at all, are crew mutinies dealt with?

I look forward to reading more.

[RangerJoe]

Hi Atheory - thanks for the AAR.

If you get a chance, can you explain what is happening on the naval side in some detail. For example, are the ships (and their sides) set at the outset or is there a random element that can see ships change side? How, if at all, are crew mutinies dealt with?

I look forward to reading more.

Ships are set at the outset, there are no crew mutinies, however ships can be captured.