Strategy Notes

[solops]

There are a lot of options for the different countries that folks may have gamed out by now. Difficulty and supply settings may be found to have profound effects, so note them in your replies.

For instance, as Germany I am trying a Spain/Sweden/Yugoslavia strategy with USSR in 1942. Would Spain/Yugoslavia/Sweden strategy have been better? Is there a way to pull that off and still attack USSR in 1941?

A USSR attack in 1940 suggestion was made. What repercussions does that have and what difficulty/supply setting was it on?

Owning Gibralter should make the Med an Axis lake, but the Allies seem to waltz by it in the face of artillery and air. Ideas on that? And how best to work Africa with Gibralter in hand?

How many resources can Germany afford to put into new factories in 1940? Any? When should they do so? Ever?

Any ideas on managing anti-partisan efforts? i.e. number and mix of occupation forces...

The list of options and questions for other nations, especially Japan is even longer. What have you folks come up with? I have just about decided that hitting the USSR in 1942 is a mistake if it is done as I have implemented it. Too many resources were expended repairing units and building occupation forces instead of building new ones and supplies.

[Anofalye]

Well, USSR and USA should be delayed as long as possible.

By the time you attack USSR, you will have so many troops and so many supplies pile that you should take EVERY sector which is within Panzer reach, which remove a LOT of militia to the Russian, I usually leave 1 panzer waiting in Iraq and the Russian almost always attack Persia to my delight as I send more Panzers that way ASAP to abuse this new can opening and my railroad is not able to deliver on the other fronts.

Japan can use the time to build up a strong army to invade Siberia as well, having 1-3 tanks are helpfull for them to take the northen region(1 is awesome, the other 2 are luxury).

With Japan I never bother to fight much on the sea, focus on the land. With the initial fleet you have it will take so many ressources to the WA that forget it, they wont be killing your massive fleet anytime in the game, every square they need to get closer to you is depleting their ressources awfully.

German submarines are wonderfull, but I dont recommend to developp any tech in them. Build a few and make rampage in the WA transports. The WA WILL always developp tech to fight those submarines, which is a wonderfull victory in itself since all those ressources are wasted on top of the transport you sink and all the supplies they need to spent to catch your submarines(sending 2 light fleets 3 squares away and bringing them back is more expensive then the transport you damage or sunk). Especially after you take egypt, a submarine or 2 can make the circle of africa for great fun and great reward.

While you ''wait'' to amass troops for the Russian slaughter, if you can bring the WA to drop troops in Africa, all the better, it should be a joke to kick them out of Africa every time they come, and it deplete their supplies awfully.

Placing your 3 heavy range planes in Western France is usually quite rewarding in transports wreckage, dont forget to shield them with a few fighters and batteries. Finally, ALL the remaining Luftwafe should be used to shield your Italian fleet in Patrol mode, you dont need them on the Russian frontier anyway since tech in Panzers is doing wonders! I prefer Western Med to the generally accepted Central Med I read here, althought the ally save supplies for 1 square, you hold 1 ressource more and most importantly, you use others raildroads then those you would use in Central Med, wich mean a lot of free extra mobility. I assume Gibraltar and Spain would work well, but I was holding to this option as a last resort in case I am beaten in western Med, which dont seem to happen at all(well, without giving them combat edges), the Luftwafe does make a huge difference(and kicking any landing party as well, since you often destroy planes that are unable to retreat).

There is no way USSR can face such odds, and if Japan dont bother to move the expensive fleet, it is not like they got that many options on land!

Ano

PS: Althought you dont want to leave a Panzer unit alone on purpose, never be afraid to do so, I often see a single Panzer not even taking damage from 5 attacking troops(of course he retreat, after he usually damage or destroy 1 of the attackers).

PPS: If you feel conservative, focus your main forces on Leningrad mostly, and if you feel daredevil focus the main force on the south, yet, beside taking all withing 2 area at start, north approach is a LOT easier. I usually cant take Moskva before it is 1 of the last 2 zones lefts to the Russians, who seem extremely conservative about their capital, so if you play with FoW on, dont be afraid, USSR never riposte frontal from Moskva when you surround them and they dont see what is in the zones 1 square away.

[Dalwin]

A few comments.

First, I consider it a bad idea to ever build a factory is Germany. Beyond the early turns it is resources and not factories that limit your production. The only advantage to the extra factory would be in victory calculation at the end.

I disagree about uboats, I think they are a very bad investment. I do much better with planes based in France and fleets based in Norway or Cairo.

[Grotius]

U-boats are a bad investment unless the Western Allied player doesn't invest in ASW, as I failed to in my current game. I am powerless to stop those subs! I have another couple turns to wait til I get ASW, and by then Germany may have higher tech still. In the meantime, I'm having all sorts of trouble maintaining transport networks, and I'm losing lots of transports.

[Troutworld]

Nobody mentions my favorite post-Gibraltar capture strategy. I like to place the Italian Navy (sans u-boats, which I send around Africa to clean up the British Transports) in Gibraltar. Then, whenever the WA bring their transports to the coast I jump out, kill them, and jump back in port. They can not respond. It's supply intensive, but you make a real profit over what the WA has to spend to keep replacing them.

[Dalwin]

ORIGINAL: Troutworld

Nobody mentions my favorite post-Gibraltar capture strategy. I like to place the Italian Navy (sans u-boats, which I send around Africa to clean up the British Transports) in Gibraltar. Then, whenever the WA bring their transports to the coast I jump out, kill them, and jump back in port. They can not respond. It's supply intensive, but you make a real profit over what the WA has to spend to keep replacing them.

I do the same thing with Italian ships based in Cairo or German ships based in Western France or Norway. It is the most expensive anti-transport weapon from a supply standpoint but is very effective at killing them. In Gibralter, I would prefer to put a few air units with extended range. An air unit will almost always kill a transport and only uses 1 supply point to do it. A heavy bomber for which you have researched range 4 will reach out for two of the zones with double lines for borders.

[VonTed]

ORIGINAL: solops


Any ideas on managing anti-partisan efforts? i.e. number and mix of occupation forces...

The last two games I've played I have almost entirely given up on partisan control. At the most I manage to have most territories with "yellow" partisan activity and not "red".

What this means is that every turn I have several structures take damage, but by this time as Germany I have more production than population so my extra capacity goes in to supplies to repair the damage done by partisans. Also by not having a full garrison in each (or many) territories I free up A LOT of troops for the front line.

I have not really tested it well, but I do manage to keep France under my thumb mostly because I want to make sure I have thier production and the ability the strategic redeploy to Spain if need be. Not sure if it is really needed though......

[artgrtr8u]

If I'm reading the manual right you need to have at least one supply point left at the end of movement for every territory that has partisans or the garrison can't do anything about them (that's using the simple supply rules). I think I keep ending up with too much partisan activity because I don't leave enough supplies, since my garrisons all appear large enough. Am I assessing that correctly?

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: artgrtr8u

If I'm reading the manual right you need to have at least one supply point left at the end of movement for every territory that has partisans or the garrison can't do anything about them (that's using the simple supply rules). I think I keep ending up with too much partisan activity because I don't leave enough supplies, since my garrisons all appear large enough. Am I assessing that correctly?

That's correct, you need to have one supply in the region for your garrison to have any effect. Once the partisans start to build up, if you want to wipe them out again, you need to station more troops there. Usually 1 more unit above the current partisan level will reduce it pretty quick.