My first game as Germany (or the AI isn't so tough)

[Dalwin]

After a few hours reading these forums, I downloaded the game and jumped right in without playing the tutorials or even reading the manual (though I did look up a few things part way through).

I played Germany on normal with advanced supply and fog of war.

As good as the AI is at many facets of the game, it has one big weakness. It doesn't properly appreciate delaying actions either as the attacker or defender.

The AI likes to make killer forces that push relentlessly towards its objectives or to make strong defensive positions in key areas. If you go toe to toe with its strong forces, the Allied production advantage will doom you in the long run.

The campaign in the West started pretty normally, taking Netherlands, France, Denmark and Yugoslavia on the first turn. I then spent the next four turns consolidating those gains and building up to face the Russians. My only additional conquest during these 4 turns was Norway.

I used my fleet and aircraft to keep up a steady attrition against WA transports. I sent a few troops to North Africa, mainly to delay.

I researched an improvement to evasion for my tanks and air combat for my fighters. I also improved my subs somewhat but through bad play on my part the subs were not a big factor.

In attacking Russia, I did not worry overly much about taking Moscow since they are quite capable of defending it. The big thrust at moscow is a gamble. If it fails, your army is broken.

Instead, I attacked always where the Russians were thinnest and just went for gaining territory and threatening to encircle pockets of their troops. This got me into Lenigrad uncontested in the second year of fighting them since they would have been trapped inside if they had stood their ground. I also briefly took Stalingrad though not in such a way that I could hope to hold it.

I used my bombers primarily against their infrastructure to slow their huge economy somewhat.

When the tide turned on all fronts and it seemd that I was losing, I carefully picked my counterattacks. I also never failed to go for some spot that was weakly held just so I could use that province to stall them.

At the end of '46, I still held all of Poland as well as Chzech and Hungary. In the West I lost France but not until '46. I retook Italy after the Allies passed through into southern France.

I did not crush them. If the war had been 1 year longer, I would have lost, but as it is I got a marginal victory first time out.

[Dalwin]

Having played again knowing the rules, it seems to me that it is very easy to win as Germany. As long as you don't give up when your empire begins to collapse, you can hold out until the bitter end and win.

You need to keep a strong garrison in western France and northern Italy. You need to stall as long as possible in north Africa and Russia, but these things are all easily done.

Perhaps against a human opponent this would be diffcult. Against the AI, it is simple. The big trick is to not lose a huge army in a risky assault on Moscow.

It is not even that hard to push through Egypt into the Caucuses. Losing those 6 resources even for just a turn or two will slow the Russians considerably.

[CommC]

Did you control Japan, too, or did you let the AI do that? I think if you ontrol and coordinate with Japan, you have an even better shot at winning against the Allies AI.

[Dalwin]

ORIGINAL: CommC

Did you control Japan, too, or did you let the AI do that? I think if you ontrol and coordinate with Japan, you have an even better shot at winning against the Allies AI.

No, I did not control Japan. I think the two player squeeze on Russia looks like an almost automatic victory for the Axis. That sounded much too easy to be much fun.

The Japanese AI player in my games does not seem to do well in China but holds out well enough that they are not even close to total surrender by the end of '46. I think this is due in large part to the emphasis I place as the Germans upon destroying WA transports whenever my air units or surface fleets can reach them. I think subs are a bad investment for Germany in this game.

[Willy Liao]

I used subs moderately in a game I won as Germany on Normal. I researched their torpedo up to 4 and evasion to 3. If you damage 2 transports you've broken even on production/population expense vs the enemy (he gets one pop point back per damaged unit); if you do better (like destroy one of those 2) you're ahead. Not bad, but I also noticed subs cost no supplies to move, only to rearm torpedoes, whereas even a light fleet burns at least 3 supplies to sneak out & come back into port without fighting. Light fleets do have better endurance of course when fighting large packs of transports.