This thread was and still is a great source and inspiration to improve my gameplay.
Below, I put forward some thoughts on optimizing HQ for attack and maximization its experience. Fittingly to the previous post, it requires quite some detaching/attaching which becomes less with experience. The other points have been discussed here before, but nonetheless I added them for context and for rounding out the post to a more general strategy.
hannaj
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HOW TO WIN SC WW1
Always keep in mind: you win or lose through National Morale (NM) dropping to zero or below a threshold*. Hence, conquering NM centers and other NM events are key. A secondary contribution is sinking ships, killing units with support <5, NM gain per turn from occupied cities; tertiary are losses and kills in general.
*The alternative, conquering all (alternate) capitals, is viable but in practice only for minors.
That means your attacks should focus on these NM triggers, nicely summarized in
https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopi ... 8#p4853138 . Note some of them can be reconquered, reverting the NM loss/gain for ever.
To win the NM race, you need (i) superior troops and tech, (ii) a higher quantity of forces, or (iii) surprise. The latter two are very much situation dependent, triggering others to join
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... 50&mpage=1 helps with (ii). Let us focus on (i) and first have a look at
ATTACK ON A TACTICAL LEVEL
There is a formula for the attack vs. defense losses, see
https://community.battlefront.com/topic ... bat-system. Fortunately, the game calculates the expected attack and defense loss for you. There is a bit of randomness added: a chance of 1/3 for +1 and -1 extra damage; exceptions hold if the expectation is actually to lose the unit.
Important to know is that this expectation depends on:
Unit attack/defense value vs soft/hard target (incl. infantry weapon tech bonus)
Current Unit strength, experience, readiness . The latter depends on morale (which depends on supply) and
Headquarter (HQ) strength, experience and (not displayed) readiness
For attack: preparedness (if you do not move first), river crossing
For defense: terrain bonus and entrenchment
Weather
OPTIMIZING HQ FOR ATTACK
For any attack on your current turn you can only choose which unit to attack and which HQ to attach.
Obviously, if you are in for that NM center or maybe some other hex that brings you closer to it, this might be your first choice. In general, go through all of your and the enemy units and compare the kill ratio. Attach your best HQ when comparing (requiring de-/attaching). Maybe there is an enemy unit attached to a weaker/no HQ, one that has less entrenchment, or has a lower strength or morale. Attacks are of course better with 3 of your units next to the opponent before moving than 2.
You want to have a positive defense-attack loss expectation or at least 2 even ones. This expectation is usually not enough to make a kill, which is always preferable. Thus you need the option to bring more units to reduce the strength of the enemy unit to zero. If your goal is to move forward into the hex, you further need a unit that can do that and possibly entrench. Check whether all of this is given.
Next, still before the actual attack, you can detach your strongest/attach your weaker HQs, to see whether it still has the same defense-attack expectation. Now start attacking with your most favorable expectation difference. If two of your units have the same expectation, pick the weaker unit or the one that faces the entrenchment/river (the stronger attack more easily gains a higher expectation difference once the defender is weakened).
HQ EXPERIENCE MAXING
As you have seen, the HQ experience and strength (and supply) is pretty important and one can use it to optimize your attack. Every time
attacker loss < defender loss: attacking HQ +0.1, defending HQ -0.05
attacker loss > defender loss: attacking HQ -0.05, defending HQ +0.05
Hence if you do more damage than you take, it not only pays off economically and NM-wise, but also levels up your HQ experience(!). Typically, you want to concentrate your experience gain on your best HQ so that next time it inflicts even more damage or allows kills in suboptimal circumstances (say light entrenchment). This then leads to a self-reenforcing upward spiral. Or a downward one if you are on the receiving end.
HQ upgrading via sacking/replacing your weakest HQ is the second option. In Call to Arms, I typically replace 1 German, 1-2 Austrian or 1 Russian, 0-1 British, 0-1 French in the first few turns.
KEEPING UNITS STRONG AND MORALE HIGH
One of the most urgent tasks-if not the most urgent-after your attacks is to reinforce all units (that are not merely on guard) to maximum. Elite reinforcements are good, too, but difficult to keep elite as you are fighting most of the time.
Morale is affected by supply, hence always check that you do not venture in some low supply region, especially with supply < 5. Moving the HQ closer to the front is helpful, and for very low supply regions, having a second HQ that supports the HQs supply. Moving it too close to the front, is however a double-edged sword: if the enemy is damaging the HQ, some hard earned experience is lost.
WINNING THE TECH RACE
Trench warfare is the single most important tech since from lvl 1-2 on, it prevents the enemy from any meaningful attacks. The front gets static, World War 1-like.
To overcome this you need Artillery Weapons and secondarily Shell Production.
Infantry Weapons helps you getting a better kill ratio, too, see above, but takes long to research with a single chit.
Industrial Technology enhances your industrial modifier by 15%. This makes a particular large difference for countries that start with a small modifier (move your curser over the flags in the upper right corner to see). E.g. for Russia which starts with just 20%, level 1 in Industrial Technology increases the MPP gained per turn by a factor of (20%+15%)/20%=175%. Worthwhile investing even before artillery techs.
Advanced Sub and Antisubmarine Warfare are good for Germany and GB, respectively. All other techs are of secondary importance (look into them in the 2nd year in Call To Arms).
BUYING MORE UNITS
To make the artillery do their work, you need artillery pieces (!) and depending on your losses also to rebuy killed units. Best time to buy are the long winter turns, January-March, see
https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopi ... 4#p4858724 as you then get the units in fewer in-game turns. If you need to buy a lot, start in Oct/Nov.
PS: For winning the game also consider to use the following two openings:
Schlieffen plan
https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopi ... 9a0fae6d42
Serbian Blitz
https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopi ... 9a0fae6d42
