Burns vs. Flaviusx

[Jim D Burns]

I may need to eat my words. Some of my strength 5 inf armies that fought in the swamp area are now showing a strength of 8. I guess units do gain experience from combats, even really bad odds combats lol. Or perhaps its related to the experience rating for new builds somehow, maybe units exp goes up when that figure goes up?

Edit: Oh wait I bet they tech'ed up, I think the Soviets reached 42 inf tech. I'll check next turn.

Jim

[Flaviusx]

Of course units gain experience from combat, and they can go over the experience cap of new builds. There's two experience tracks going on here, an individual unit one, and a force base experience track.

For the Germans, the base is 70. And that is as good as it gets, unlike the Sovs. I have plenty of units above that due to combat.

One of my panzer corps is clocking in at 88 experience. That's my best unit.

[Flaviusx]

In your case, you may be getting a double whammy because for very low experience units, not only do they gain experience from combat as individual units, but the replacements coming in are probably higher than the unit itself was, at least until it hits 50.

[Jim D Burns]

13 March 1942

Soviet doctrines are revised and all mech and armor gain 7 action points. Soviet scientists have in fact researched 42 assault inf tech and the strength increases seen by me last turn are due to the upgrades.

I looked over a lot of my mech troops and many are well into the 40's in experience, so instead of disbanding or destroying them next winter, I think I'll focus on increasing their experience.

Rain all across Russia this turn. Decided to do an overview of the front prior to the start of the 42 offensive by Germany, so we can compare his progress by the end of the campaign season.

[Jim D Burns]

27 March 1942

Rain still blankets Russia, so nothing of note to report today.

I thought I'd mention the diplomacy battle in our game. Very early on I tried a few influence attepts at Turkey and noted Germany mirrored my actions in an attempt to stop me. I immediately surmised if he was to start to lose the battle for influence he would probably declare on Turkey before I could get it (which would allow me to move troops into blocking positions) and I wasn't in the mood to try and fight over Turkey at the time.

So instead I looked around and decided to go for Portugal. As a minor it has two things going for it. First it has a VP location. And second it can construct new units, so you can make use of its production and manpower pools.

So we've been trading influence points over Portugal now since almost the start of the game. I am slowly gaining ground since I have more countries than he to generate points, but it is still slow going.

Here's a shot of the diplomacy screen. I got close to 50% this turn but he will probably drive it back down to the 30's before I get more points to spend. And so it goes, it'll probably be 1944 before this ends.

One thing I will say about diplomacy is only one country per side should generate point. Britain and Germany, that's it, but then let them generate far more points and battles like these won't be so predictable.

[Flaviusx]

One of my favorite things to do in solo Allied play is to activate Portugal, pile it up to the gills with Allies, and march up through Spain. If you can do this quickly enough, beats Normandy. But it has to happen within the next year or so to make it worthwhile, because marching up Spain is pretty much an entire campaign season.

The great thing about Portugal from a logistical standpoint is Lisbon is a level 9 port. Whereas in France the only level 9 is Marseilles. So supply is never going to be a worry. (Just watch out for those Spanish partisans.)

You really need a big ass port to support an allied drive in the continent. So that means either something Iberia, Marseilles, or the low countries. The channel ports won't do it and you will run out of gas without one of the big ports.

I'm hoping to delay this long enough to remove this option, but I'm slowly losing this diplo battle.

[ncc1701e]

You guys are doing a great job. I am learning a lot!

[Jim D Burns]

10 April 1942

Clear in the north of Russia and Germany attacks a single hex forcing a retreat on the second attack.

In the south it looks like this will be Germany's main thrust this year. Next turn I start receiving one 49% experienced army build a turn from that turn forward, so I will continually grow stronger unless Germany can manage to destroy an army or more a turn.

Looking forward to the patch that is due to release today. Hope all is well with that.

[Jim D Burns]

24 April 1942

An early clear weather turn allows Germany to smash into the Soviets in the south. A paradrop behind Soviet lines threatens to cut off several mech infantry. But when I attempted what I thought was a reasonable 2-1 odds attack, I must have rolled the worst result possible and took very heavy losses. The only hope for those mech units now is rain.

Germany also made an attack in the center forcing one hex to retreat. In the north the entire German line is in garrison mode, so I think the main focus for this campaign will be the south with some sniping in the center.

A needles pain in the arse this turn was when I went in to build my obligatory army unit this turn, I guess my clicking on the army line didn't register and I bought an unneeded (I have two in strategic reserve now) HQ instead... Man I wish we could cancel and redo builds. I placed some troops in garrison up north to raise the funds to buy my army.

[Flaviusx]

I transferred Manstein south along with those paratroopers, so you are facing the A team down there. I suspect those poor rolls are his generalship.

Seriously considered making a push in the center. Moscow is the closest VP location. But you are placing lots of reserves there. So, the south it is. And I do need the riches of the Ukraine to fuel the war machine.

[Jim D Burns]

8 May 1942

The weather gods go against me and Germany gets another clear turn in Russia. As expected 2 mech units go down due to the paradrop blocking their retreat routes. I decide to pull back towards the Dnepr river to stretch the German lines a bit.

You can see one of my New army builds in Dnepropetrovsk. At 11 strength I think I was right that they'd have come in at 12 strength had I reached 50% build experience instead of 49%, still they are far better than what I have on map now. Another 20+ of these and my defense will be formidable.

Another hex is forced to retreat in the center. At this rate he will reach Smolensk no problem this year. I can't stop him and he's not over reaching so I can't hurt him even though all my armor is present with the right kind of promotions to assist on counter-attacks.

I dress my lines a bit by pulling out of the swamp to take up positions behind the river south of Smolensk. His relentless forward progress in the center was going to leave the units in the swamp exposed to encirclement should he try a sudden attack to the south.

[Flaviusx]

Makes up for 41. I had to wait until June before it cleared up. The weather gods are a fickle lot.

And in their fickle way, you got mud in the south so I wasn't able to get 3 clear turns in a row down there, but those are the fortunes of war.

I got some lucky tech rolls over the mud season, btw. 43 interceptors and 43 breakthrough. This is really making a difference where it counts. Your air force is taking a beating and so is your armor.

[Jim D Burns]

22 May 1942

Rain in the south gives a bit of a reprieve, Germany appears to be setting up for a push to the northeast towards Kharkov and Kursk. In the center the weather is clear and the relentless eastward tide retreats another hex. Today's screenshot shows the center, I've got a strong double line, but unless he wears down his units more, I simply haven't got the strength to counter attack him.

In Africa the Canadians are on the move. They advance towards the Germans and will be adjacent next turn.

I think lend lease is bugged. No sub attacks for turns yet the 100+ lend lease I've been sending does not appear to be reaching Soviet stockpiles. As a test I have 210 in my stockpile at turn end. Next turn I'll compare income plus lend lease plus my 210 stockpiled minus upkeep and see if the numbers jive, I suspect I'll be short the exact amount of my lend lease.

If it turns out to be bugged as I suspect, I've wasted thousands on lend lease. Wish there was a tally sheet you could open that displayed all income, where it was sourced and all expenditures.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
btw. 43 interceptors and 43 breakthrough. This is really making a difference where it counts. Your air force is taking a beating and so is your armor.

Yeah I've been debating simply sending my airforce into strategic reserve far to the east. In 41 it made a real difference in some fights, but lately its been total crap.

Jim

[Flaviusx]

In solo play I've found lend lease works fine, I hope this isn't bugged.

[Jim D Burns]

5 June 1942

In what feels a little like deja vu, my opponent attacks north across the Dnepr in the south and drives 3 hexes deep. He managed to outright destroy a mech unit in battle (the first such destruction in game), and surrounded another.

I again brought in units from all around and after bombing a panzer unit with everything in range, the Soviets commenced attacks. By the time we had caused the unit a full 15 casualties, it broke and retreated and we were able to reconnect with the isolated Soviet mech unit.

I have brought in a lot of strong units in preparation for what will be a lot of fighting in the coming turns. Given Germany's tenuous one hex wide penetration, I can't imagine his units will be well supplied. Will we see a repeat of last years catastrophe?

Granted his units are tougher this year, but biting off such a deep penetration leaves him exposed to the weaker Soviets. He does have a lot of armor in the area, so perhaps he can do better wearing himself down in low supply level hexes widening his breach, we shall see.

In Africa I occupied the hexes near the port of Bone, Germany and Italy have pulled back into Tunisia. I shall probably halt my advance here for now, until US troops can be brought in to help deal with the widening front lines.

I think my production checks out. I was off by about 40 or so, but Germany did attack some convoys and I forgot to check losses in those, so perhaps that explains the shortfall.

[Flaviusx]

This time I think it will work.

[Flaviusx]

In other news, the Italian military is now 30 away from its logistic cap. It's all built out now.

[Jim D Burns]

19 June 1942

With at least 8 panzers or mech infantry in the south along with lots of infantry corps, Germany has no trouble widening his breach. 1 mech and 1 army are lost on the Soviet side. Feeling more like Barbarossa than 1942, I start realigning my front line and begin to trade space for time.

I abandon the extreme south of the Dnepr river to avoid those units getting cutoff and most of those forces head northeast towards Stalino. In the far north I take most troops out of garrison to give them the freedom to redeploy rapidly if needed.

In the center Germany makes several attacks and starts the turn with relatively low strength on his mobile troops, so I try some attacks on the lead mech. Though its strength is reduced to 4, it holds its ground.

Today's screenshot is of the situation in north Africa. Italy has completely abandoned Tobruk and appears to be in the process of leaving the Bengazi area as well. It looks like a large force is building up in Tunisia for a big fight there.

[Jim D Burns]

3 July 1942

My entire winter offensive to drive up Soviet experience has been rendered mute with experience now down to 39%. Playing vs. the AI only before this, I had always crushed the Germans in 41 and the AI never really seemed powerful after that.

A human is far more powerful in 1942 than I expected and this revises my entire outlook on the winter fighting. Forget driving up experience or trying to hurt the Germans, just build as much trash infantry as you can because 1942 will be worse than 1941, far worse. And hanging on to that hard earned experience will be impossible.

In the center Zitebsk falls and the relentless push east continues. All future reinforcements will now go to the center as the rest of Russia slowly falls back.

In the south Dnepropetrovsk is surrounded by 3 panzers and a mech on 4 sides of the city. Looks like a big fight for that city will occur next turn.

In Africa British troops head through Tobruk towards Bengazi which is now totally abandoned. I completely forgot about Crete and lost a British corp trying to unload it at Tobruk. Just lazy play by me and forgetfulness. Had I taken a moment to look over the Mediterranean area before doing my move down there, I'd have seen the airbase icon and not made the bonehead mistake.

In north Africa German and Italian troops advance up to the Canadian line but do not attack.

Germany leaves a part of his nation uncovered and I hit a synth oil plant with the British strategic bomber for 3 points. With the US in the war and Germany doing so well, it's time to take the gloves off and work on his industries whenever possible.