Matrix Games Forums

Allied Turn: August 12, 1941

More retreats in the USSR
The Soviet sub takes a pot shot at a German Cruiser for a bit of damage.

The UK engage 4 German subs this turn.

The crippled out of supply one manages to dive away from 2 destroyers before finally a depth charge goes off directly
underneath her snapping the sub clean in two like a twig. "Say hello to the Royal Engineers," the destroyer crews grumble in disgust.
The other sub on the Iraqi convoy line managed to find the 1 hex path out of the trap laid for them. A heavy cruiser stumbles on the sub
and takes a heavy blow (5 dmg, nothing good for me... too many misses and then I get creamed. sheesh). That sub is reengaged multiple times
but takes only 1 hit.

The two subs East (are they bait?) are attacked by 2 light cruisers, 2 destroyers, 1 Heavy bomber (twice), 3 TAC
and 2 Carriers (twice each). There is a ton of escape diving, but enough hits to bring the subs to STR: 5 (supply 4) & STR: 7 (supply 5)

The convoy lines are again clean this turn, however the Egyptian one is no more and the one from the US is lighter than it should be ($#%&* diplo hit
last turn)

Naval Yards at Norfolk start working on new ships

--------
His subs are at level 1, so 30% chance of diving he must've been closer to 40-50% through the whole turn.

1941/8/19 Axis

Minsk falls. USSR abandons ostrov line with germany in hot pursuit. Stragglers are overrun. A major breakthrough is achieved in Kiev, the Eastern Ukraine seems to lie wide open.

Palestine and Transjordan are conquered. UK seize Iran oil field in a prelude to future military operation.

Allied Turn: August 26, 1941

Doom and gloom and dark despair.
Soviets dying everywhere.

Persia is divided between the UK and the USSR.
It will only somewhat slow down Rommel as he'll need to take every damn city and oil field individually.

The UK put another sub in jeopardy off the French coast, it is diving frequently and dishing out retaliation hits as well.


-----
It feels like I'm getting punished for every decision I've made.
I've got nothing that will stand up to lvl 3 Tanks. Hell one Tank 2-shot a full lvl 1 Soviet Army in a city (after the
entrenchment had been removed by a bomber and spoiling Corp attacks and didn't even scratch the paint on the tank.
I've got 1 Fighter to stand up to his air force. When the fighter goes against the escorts it gets knocked down to 5 STR.
At this point I think even if I didn't overspend on Soviet research, the extra 4, 5 units wouldn't have made a
difference anyway.

Sept 2, 1941

Germany conquers Syria, upsetting the US. Oops. (USA might be a Pearl Harbour away from joining the fray.)

=========

I'm curious how I would withstand the German 1941 attack myself, it seems a thankless and depressing task. If you want to do a mirror match as the Axis, I'm up for it. :0)

Situation in the South:

It looks like your Red Army is too far forward you need to defend deeper and just try to slow the Axis down a bit wait for winter and your Siberian reserves get them up too 11 STR and hope the Germans push too far and suffer supply issues

It appears the Red Army defensive plan was put inf in as many city as possible and let the entrenchment do the delaying. In all honestly, this is probably what I would have done too. However, as I'm finding now, at max entrenchment unsupported infantry is easy to isolate and eliminate. Technically I could try and go directly through them to gain more grounds but, by letting the foot off the pedal and waiting an extra turn here and there, it allows me to eliminate more units in low supplies. USSR infantry is already half-price, killing a corp in good supply makes it spawn again practically for free.

You get what you pay for, though.

I wonder if it is worth trying to save the initial set up air units by saturating/protecting the spawn area with GAR.
Or just bite the bullet and buy a fighter, and do minimal pre-war Tech (INF Weapons, Armor Warfare, INF Warfare)? Even then Fighter gets only 1 intercept unless you also get Air Warfare, which isn't worth it
until you have lvl 2 Fighters because the German ones will do so much damage after just one use.

Is the best plan to really not put anything in front of the Germans and sit all the way back as possible? How does that even work, eventually they'll make it to wherever you place them and then they still
can't stand in front of lvl 3 tanks and air force.

----
I'm willing to switch sides, but am not sure if I want to wait this one through first (at least through next summer it will be clear if there is any hope for any level of comeback/draw by then).
Additionally isn't there going to be a new patch out soon? We might want to wait for that.
Lastly there is no guarantee that I'll play any better as the axis than I do as allies.

----
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I hope you enjoy carving your Turkey as much as KorutZelva is enjoying carving up the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic.

I wouldn't wait for the patch as Hubert and Bill like to let them simmer a couple of months before going live.

The Mirror game doesn't have to be an AAR if you don't want to burden yourself with that. Although if it is, I might try riskier strategies for the entertainment of the public.

I find the best way to play the Soviets in 1941 is the bump and run. Have entrenched corps or garrisons in cities and forests along the advance. Let the Axis bump into you and then run. Don't stand and fight. Supply will slowly become an issue for the Axis. Weather will eventually turn. Siberians will eventually show up. Reinforcements will slowly build up.

The Germans are faster than the Soviets, many of the German Infantry have mobility and there are a lot of panzer, mech and cav units.
Oh, and they are often either killing the units on the turn they encounter them, or they are surrounding them.

Allied Turn: September 9, 1941

Soviet reinforcements show up around Dnepropetrovsk. In an attempt to form some level of cognizant defense.
*probably a mistake and I should've fled to Stalingrad & Rostov.

Soviet light tanks cut off, at least temporarily, a German cavalry in a town but fail to do any damage.
*Yeah, I think I'm done spending MPP on light tanks. They're like overpriced cav.

The Commonwealth manage to sink another crippled sub off the north western coast of France.

The Commonwealth still has a decent army, though all in the UK. They're barely making enough to repair and occasionally refit, but
not enough to start new research projects or build needed HQs or air force.

Shipyards in Norfolk are active, to deal with the expected combined German and Italian fleets.

PBEM server prob fixed.

Quiet turn for me. Tried to cut supplies to Dnepropetrovsk and Talinn, the prior by tank rail cutting and the latter by strategic bombardment of city and port. Getting dangerously close to Smolensk. Trying to get the most of it before it turns to mud then to snow.

Allied Turn: September 23, 1941

2 fresh subs are found along the Iraq convoy line and a short skirmish with 2 destroyers ensues (2 dmg to 1 sub 1 dmg to 1 DD)

Unfortunately, subs and/or raiders interfere with the convoy line to the USSR stopping 72% of the goods.
UK ships had gone off for repair, resupply and refit leaving most of the line open. That and bad weather prevents
CV operations. [Is it just me (has someone run an analysis?) but it feels like CVs can't operate in the Atlantic over 50% of the time.]

Rain from Leningrad to Kursk.
Mud and Frozen North of Leningrad.
Mud south of Kursk.

2 Soviet armies muster on the outskirts of Kharkov threatening to pinch off the 11th Panzer (lvl 3, Str 8, 1xp) which in turn
is currently cutting the rail line to Dnepropetrovsk. The Panzers appear to be ranging forward somewhat unsupported.
Though at lvl 3, there's not much I can do to touch them directly.

There is a bit of off screen good news that may help keep this a game instead of becoming a ROFL Stomp... Or not.

Soviets prepare their secret weapon. Said weapon is expected to cause more damage to the Germans than they have
taken in all of their Barbarossa operations. German spies uncover the code name of the weapon (Winter Warlock) and are
able to sneak a picture.

October 4, 1941

Tallin falls.
Uboats tag team a destroyer in the atlantic
AK entering Iraq
Mech Inf overuns figthers airfields east of Belogorod.
Kharkov and Kursk under threat
Churning security forces to watch my supply lines
Tension with USA increases, MI6 retrieves the following newsreel broadcasted in german cinemas and shares it with USA intel:Watch

USSR Situation below:

Allied Turn: October 13, 1941

A Soviet fighter squadron was overrun on the last German turn too. Figured it was safely out of range in the rain, but no (it was out of visibility, I'm not that stupid).

More Soviet reinforcements for the meat grinder. Not much else on that front.

On my previous turn 2 (lvl 0 ASW) DD attacked a sub (lvl 1) and did 2 dmg (taking 1 back). On his turn 2 subs (at the same scene)
killed a full strength DD and took 6 (maybe 7) dmg back split between the 2 subs.

I read comments about how in (pre beta patch) ASW research isn't worth it. Clearly False.
I wasn't expecting such a dramatic swing in favor of the subs at only 1 lvl better.

---
I still haven't stopped the snowball effect.
The Wallies aren't making enough due to losses (and more coming with Iraq soon to be taken away). They need to
rebuild anti-sub capability (and be ready for the Italian Fleet), so can't afford research or threaten air power
to redirect German Fighters to help the Soviets at the very minimum. Reduced MPP also means fewer being shipped to the USSR. The damage to the USSR
is very likely to mean no Winter counter attack.

Big strategic mistakes:
1. Too passive with the UK.
a) Should've moved farther forward before DAK showed up, Italy triggering the Iraq coup early was horrific.
b) Overbuilt land defenses to prevent Sea-Lion. If that was Korut's original intention I did deflect it.
However, research was stymied, nor were additional air or anti-sub units built; and the Engineers should've been in Egypt instead of building forts around London and Manchester.
c) Kept way too much of the fleet in the North Sea. Didn't even use it to try and build a gauntlet for subs to run to get into the Atlantic. Most of the
CVs should probably been out sub hunting or gone after the Italian fleet.

2. Too aggressive with Soviet defenses. Even though Soviet entry level was relatively high (and presumably that increases pre-war MPP)
Nothing stands in front of Barbarossa, not even 'Hero cities'. This actually worked for me very well in a vs. AI game (the AI Germans went for unit
high unit density, but had only lvl 1 & 2 tanks (not all upgraded) and not all the INF was upgraded to lvl 2 either. Additionally, AI Germany doesn't
kill or trap all the freebie expensive (air & mech) set up units. If I had played the UK better, there would be more MPP to send the Soviets
way which would've allowed for some lines to form. Fighters or something to slow down the German air needs to be built or they just blast the entrenchment
and then kill the units. Spoiling Corps attacks also do this and there is nothing to stop it. Particularly when the Corps are rarely and barely taking
damage (lvl 2 GE Corps vs. lvl 1 Soviet Corps/Armies) when they do so.

October 26, 1941

Heavy snowfall in the north stall the Smolensk offensive.
Kharkov Falls.
Cruiser caught in port in Sevastopol.
USA destroyer stray too far from home water, upseting the public not ready for war. Henri Ford and other personalities use the opportunity to voice their isolationist agenda. (USA Diplo hit 11%)


«Say Hello to my little friend!»

This is sad. You have nothing better to spend your money on?

The thinking was stalling USA involvement unless you match my investment. If the USSR maxes out diplo to the states, that's 10 corps I don't have to worry about. And with the UK being cash poor, I'm pushing D-day even further.

Gibraltar isn't a pressing objective since Egypt is already in the bag, so I won't piss off the State by making a move towards it. It would have been even better if I didn't attack syria, but I didn't know they would take offense of it. That's just me displaying newbism.

For the Elite troops, this baby could probably two shot a Russian tanks taking 1-2 damage in the process. This is also a bit of preempting the soviet winter. It will safeguard its experience.

Allied Turn: November 6, 1941

The Axis had a clear weather turn in the Ukraine in late October. Like they need that help [8|]

Nothing to report on my turn. Didn't find any subs, not surprising as my remaining Destroyers needed to repair.

The USA is sitting at 67%, so without the 2 diplo hits they would be at 92% (or around 80% if no Syria attack).

Oddly, I didn't see an economic/MPP report at the end of my turn. Maybe I accidently clicked through it too fast.

----
Comments:
1) I wonder just how much the Axis have spent on USA chits to get 2 hits. At 150 each, that's probably some nice
research or nice units or savings for a bad turn. *Korut, you don't have to answer until later of course.

2) Tech breakthroughs can make or break your game. I'm presuming Germany got at least 1 in Tanks to have lvl 3 in May '41.
Conversely if the Soviets get one in INF weapons early (I did get a breakthrough 3 or 4 turns ago otherwise I might still be at lvl 1 and in
even worse shape in Russia) they could be on to lvl 3 and at near parity with German troops by mid '42.
I wonder if breakthroughs should be weakened. Perhaps instead of 'You get this Tech immediately', it should be a +10% - +20% bonus.

3) Why on earth can Canada build full strength ships, but cannot fully repair them? That just seems stupidly wrong.
They should have at least 1 port where they can do so.

4) While presumably small, I find the US mobilization hit for the DD 'going too far' a bit obnoxious. It's like 'Here's a piece of cake, just
don't eat it.'

5) I wish it was clear what the exact effects are of various events. I presume some (most?) are just color, but those that
aren't it would be nice to see what exactly was the game play effect. Similarly what are the game play effects of
the raids the UK can 'buy' from a DE? Is it a morale hit on the Germans? A moral bonus to the UK? Minor damage to
ports?

1941/11/17 Axis

Smolensk falls
Von Leeb Army Group approaching Rostov but coming snow falls are likely to stop us short of taking it.
Siege of Sevastopol begins

You can know my diplo spending by looking at the Research/Diplo graph. But the short version of it is that I'm sitting at 40% diplo hit chance with the USA. [:D]