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North Africa

Having control of the Med allow the DAK to shift to west to face Allies invasion...Germany takes Saudi Arabia...all German supplies have been spent so all research and unit production must now be put on complete hold while I build supplies back up....many factories and resources are going unrepaired which could become a fatal error!

See all them damn explosions? That is Partisan activitiy in all the rear line areas that I have not defended properly...not all of them result in damage but there are enough successful attacks on rail, factories, and resources to cause me additional grief!!!!!!

Winter 42 At Start

In Fall 41, Russia counterattacked and retakes Kalinin, with eyes on Leningrad...WA launched air attacks on Med fleet and DAK....Japan has been relatively quiet and has performed a service by delaying their attack on the USA, still keeping them out of the war...

To be continued..................

What difficulty settings are you playing on? I know you said Challenging, but is that most difficult, easiest, etc...?

Sam

Challenging is mid level....it goes EASY-NORMAL-CHALLENGING-HARD-IMPOSSIBLE...there are also a number of tweaks you can do on the Game Options screen to customize your game....

Spring '42 At Start

In the Winter of 42, Japan finally attacked Hawaii, and so it begins...The Japanese AI does not automatically declare war in '41, as you can see, and upon reflection, I believe that I did not take enough advantage of the USA's delay into the war, as better players would have probably achieved more than I did, especially in Russia....

In the Winter of '42 Germany tried to relieve the threat to Leningrad by attacking Kalinin....despite the prediction that they should take the area, they did not, though the Russian force was depleted....Germany also occuppied Smolensk but the remainder of the turn was devoted to strat movement, as supplies were conserved so that the Leningrad and Kiev factories could be put on line....

Russia retook Smolensk and attacked Odessa, but the Germans held on...

With the USA now in the war, England was becoming a depot for a their armies....

One interesting early WA move is the occupation of the Azores to use as a supply depot, which triggers Portugal to become an Axis ally....this was rectified as the WA invaded Portugal.....

Spring '42 Force Pool

Some decisions need to be made when you start up a game, for example, how much time will you devote to the German Naval Campaign?.....Donitz would not be pleased, as I decided, for better or worse, to conduct a very limited U Boat campaign and not spend too many resources on the Navy.....this is what makes the game so enjoyable, because the next time, I might try building up a large U Boat fleet and try to disrupt the transportation line between the USA and UK...for now, I can only do limited attacks, and since I did not devote alot of research to my U Boats, they are basically antiquated by now....

Artillery needs to be produced in greater numbers now that the USA is in the war, because they serve as valuable coastal units...artillery can OP Fire on invading forces and create some havoc on WA D Day operations...

Germany Spring 42 Russian Offensive begins with the retaking of Kalinin....Note the tempting target of an undefended Kursk....unfortunately it is surrounded by Moscow, Rostov, Kharkov, and Smolensk, all of which have large armies at the ready....advancing the German army into the Kursk pocket would be suicide!

Spring '42 Russian Counter Offensive.....

Kalinin once again changes hands......

Spring '42 WA North African Offensive

WA invades Tunisia and attack the DAK from Morocco...DAK holds but suffers loses...

Italian Navy withstood multiple attacks in Central Med but is starting to be ground down...Italy now needs to be better defended as an invasion may come by the end of the year....

to be continued.........

Summer '42 at start map

The German Summer Offensive will attempt to retake Kalinin and advance towards Moscow....

Germany advantage in Armor research has allowed some of their smaller forces, such as in Odessa, to withstand numerous Russian assaults...

German Summer 42 Offensive was a partial success...Kalinin, Smolensk, and Kursk are taken but Kharkov holds.......

The Russian counterattack...The AI knows how to take advantage of the Armor 2 area movement as well....they attack the weak German Army in Volgda then exploit an armor unit into Leningrad....

Then end of Germany's short lived rule in North Africa...........

Spring 43

The Russian Front...Germany needs to fortify what they have gained as the WA is building up their forces in North Africa....As usual, Russia is a thorn in my side....there are other testers among us who do alot better than I did at this point, and I'm sure many of you who have yet to play this game, will so to.....[:D]

The little Army that could......a lone German infantry unit , defending Cairo, survives a WA Armor attack...

how would the soviet ai react if you don´t follow ww2 to the book? i.e. if you delay barbarossa and go for sealion? is there an hardcoded attack time for the sovs?

Russia is "politically frozen" until the Winter of '43, which means, though they can build units, research ect, they cannot attack Germany until then...this allows you, as Germany to practice any strategy you want, knowing that your eastern front is secure until the Winter of '43..... though you have to be careful as leaving the east too lightly defended or attacking Turkey, can trigger an early Russian release and waiting until '43 will mean you are facing a tougher opponent in Russia than in '41....bottom line, you can try any strategy you want, Sea Lion, the Spain-Gibralter Gambit, intense U Boat war, ect.....

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Russia is "politically frozen" until the Winter of '43, which means, though they can build units, research ect, they cannot attack Germany until then...this allows you, as Germany to practice any strategy you want, knowing that your eastern front is secure until the Winter of '43..... though you have to be careful as leaving the east too lightly defended or attacking Turkey, can trigger an early Russian release and waiting until '43 will mean you are facing a tougher opponent in Russia than in '41....bottom line, you can try any strategy you want, Sea Lion, the Spain-Gibralter Gambit, intense U Boat war, ect.....

thanks for answering.

there´s no limit on what germany does b4 43? not even a simple garrison requirement as in A3R? imo, some fear of the red hordes would improve the game and increase replayability...

are there any alternative strategies for the SOVs available?

edited for spelling-