Axis AI 1.06.03 vs CheerfullyInsane

[CheerfullyInsane]

Absolutely nothing. Not a single attack from the AI, nor that much movement.

Full front pre-russian move:



I sent an additional army to the far north to see if I can't annoy the Finns a little.
Probably won't get very far, but you never know.....Besides, I have troops to spare. [:D]

Looks like the AI has decided these are the winter-lines, and have started to dig in.
There'll be very little happening around Leningrad, too well dug in.....Well, except Novgorod.
That will definitely become Russian again. If I can trap some armor up there as well, so much the better.
But from previous experience, the AI is pretty good at giving up ground to avoid getting pocketed.

Otherwise, I intend to attack along the entire line. Just squeeze everywhere until something pops.
And of course, any part of the front manned by Romanians/Hungarians will become an instant munitions-magnet.
In the south I have some 13 Cavalry Corps ready to be formed in December, each going to receive 2 Tank Battalions and a MC Regiment for use as an exploitation force if given the chance.
Not to mention there's now 8 armies in reserve ready for deployment.

Now, Blizzard please......This ought to be fun. [8D]

[CheerfullyInsane]

As previously stated, pressure is applied all over the front.
Some 90+ attacks are launched with 23 Held.
In the far north, the Finns have returned in strength, so I plan to build 3 FZs in the recently vacated hexes, and hold a line just in front until they've built up.

I don't expect huge progress in the Leningrad area. Still going to try for Novgorod, but with all the motorized/armor units up there I doubt it'll happen. Ah well, I'll be pushing on either side of Ilmen to see if I can't stretch the line a bit.

Nor do I expect miracles against AGC. I'll push forward, and with a little luck manage to pocket a few divisions, but it'll be attrition more than anything else.

In the south it's a completely different story. The line is manned by Italians, Romanians and Hungarians and these should be chewed up pretty soon. 9 newly formed Cavalry Corps have taken up positions to exploit the gaps that are bound to open down here.
Even with German units in Reserve, there's no way this line will hold.
Main objective here is to kill off some of these Axis Minor units since they don't respawn.
Killing counters means the AI will have to use precious German infantry divisions to hold the line come spring.

EDIT: Renamed post to proper Turn number

[RangerX3X]

My God this game is intimidating.

[vicberg]

Ya, but the real question is how you got the entire friken map displayed? That's an accomplishment on par with your broad offensive.

[CheerfullyInsane]

ORIGINAL: vicberg

Ya, but the real question is how you got the entire friken map displayed? That's an accomplishment on par with your broad offensive.

Fairly easy to do.
Take successive screen-shots, and splice them together with GIMP.
( http://www.gimp.org )

[CheerfullyInsane]

Pic after Russian moves:



Things are going as planned......
Well, mostly. AI is using armor in Reserve to blunt some of my attacks, and it's starting to annoy me. [:D]
Nevertheless, this also means that the panzers will be anaemic come spring, so it's a trade-off I suppose.

All in all, some 73 attacks are launched with 13 Held and a couple of outright Routs.
And once again, the poor Romanians are getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop.
Not to mention that all along the front the first divisions are starting to get pocketed.

[CheerfullyInsane]

Oooops.......

Erm....The southern front collapsed, and I got so excited I forgot to take a screenie. [8|]

So, instead something I don't normally do, OOB, losses and pools at the start of Turn 27:



Apologies for the somewhat haphazard presentation. Haven't really figured out how to do the layout yet.

[randallw]

The more Romanian divisions you kill, the less will be able to join you once they surrender....not that it will be soon.

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

I have seen plenty of AI games (in hundreds - most of those AI vs. AI in various settings) but I have never seen AI doing so strange at 110% vs. 100% Human...

Can you please post some savegames?


Leo "Apollo11"

[CheerfullyInsane]

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Can you please post some savegames?


Leo "Apollo11"

Can do.
I went on the assumption that you want the Axis Auto-saves as previously.
Same deal as before, Turns 17-30 RAR'ed and uploaded to Mediafire
http://www.mediafire.com/?g80x3z33et0i761

Anything else you need, let me know.

[CheerfullyInsane]

ORIGINAL: randallw

The more Romanian divisions you kill, the less will be able to join you once they surrender....not that it will be soon.

There's that, I suppose. But it is perhaps a little too early to plan for that eventuality. [:D]
Right now I'd rather deplete them and force the AI to find other units to man the front.
Besides, 7+ Million men, with another 300K in the pool......It's not as if I'm short on manpower these days.
Armaments yes, but not manpower.

[CheerfullyInsane]

Frontline after Russian moves.
(Insert: Destroyed units)



Still some intensely busy turns.
70+ attacks, with 14 Held, 4 Surrendered, 50 Retreats and 9 Routed

Up north there's still progress, but a combination of armor-reserves, marshes and entrenchments means I can clear 1-2 hexes each turn, taking serious losses in the process.
I'll grab Novgorod during February, and after that I'll dig in, and withdraw the surplus forces up there.

Once we get south of Smolensk, it's a different picture altogether.
Between Smolensk and Kiev there's a controlled retreat, with armor-reserves making life difficult for the Heroes of the Soviet Union. We do advance, and the occasional division gets pocketed, but for real progress we need to look south of Kiev.

The southern front collapsed completely last turn, and the Cavalry Corps have started earning their pay.
I've lost some army-cohesion as the units are simply pushing as hard as they can, sneaking through every hole they can find. There's a handful of divisions trapped against the Black Sea, as cavalry swung around to cut the link to Odessa. Odessa itself will fall next turn, but the problem is the trapped divisions.
There's a bloody port in the area. [:@]
So the trick becomes to apply just enough pressure to retreat them out of the hex, without letting them rout out of the pocket in the process.......

However, I can't complain......Really. [:D]
Biggest problem I have in the south is the forced pace of combat and advance. My boys are starting to drag their feet as the fatigue is slowly climbing into the 70's...
If I can keep the front fluid I'll see if I can't nip behind some of these panzers with the cavalry.
Otherwise, as the First Winter effect starts to fizzle out, it'll be time to reorganize the line, and get the Volkhov Front into order as well.

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: CheerfullyInsane

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Can you please post some savegames?

Can do.
I went on the assumption that you want the Axis Auto-saves as previously.
Same deal as before, Turns 17-30 RAR'ed and uploaded to Mediafire
http://www.mediafire.com/?g80x3z33et0i761

Anything else you need, let me know.

Thanks!


Leo "Apollo11"

[CheerfullyInsane]

Front after Russian moves:



I decided not to post anything from the north. There's sod-all happening up there anyway. [:)]
Novgorod fell, and from now on I'll simply dig in, and withdraw the reserve armies for other uses.
Unless of course the AI decides to strip the area of mobile forces to help in the south......
Hey, I can dream, can't I? [:D]

As usual the German situation is deteriorating as we progress south.
All along the line I keep in contact with as many mobile forces as I can, preferably ZOC-locking them forcing the AI to withdraw. In the center I don't really have the strength for a full-scale push, but I can keep the line scrambled enough to advance without too much fighting.

Deep south is a bleeding ulcer for the Axis. The poor Romanians have by now lost 200k men (or roughly 33% of their total strength) in just 5 weeks of fighting. And their troubles are far from over.
Odessa falls, and the last port is removed from the pocket. A Romanian brigade managed to rout out though. [:@]
But the line (if you can call it that) is by now so full of holes that there's a concerted effort by 3 cavalry corps to advance behind the panzer-groups that have been annoying me so much.
Probably won't make it, but this is too big an opportunity not to attempt it.
But man, the poor foot-sloggers are TIRED!

EDIT: Corrected post-title *again*......C'mon Lars, FIRST think THEN post! [8|]

[CheerfullyInsane]

Front after Russian moves:



Action (and hence the screenie) moves further south. Up north digging has started.
Around Vyazma there's 2-3 Inf divisions pocketed, but after they surrender the line will stay where it is.
Enemy strength is increasing, and further advances simply isn't worth the price.

In the south further pockets are created as the front continues to crumble.
There's a delicious one containing both Pz and Mot divisions, but I'll go out on a limb here and say the AI will do something about relieving them. [:D]

The cavalry failed to catch the panzers as I had assumed. Horses are nice, but horse-power is still better, snow or not. OTOH it means further retreats, further disruption due to the blizzard, and while I can't attack the panzer-groups directly, they have no chance of flank-support with Romanians and Italians around them.
So once more the cavalry will hitch up their boots (and horse-shoes) and we'll try to reach further yet.
Not sure how far it'll go though......The lads are bone-tired, and the RR heads are getting distant.

[CheerfullyInsane]

So I haven't been posting in a while.
Mostly because other stuff have taken my gaming time, be it H2H games or the new stuff I bought for my flight-sim.

The game has been progressing though, and briefly described the AI never managed to stabilize the southern front, despite pulling every mobile unit available into the area. It became a beast that couldn't be fed, since every time the AI managed to open a pocket, it left further units vulnerable for subsequent pocketing.
This in turn drew further units in to relieve those, and so on and so forth.

So at the start of Turn 33, I had this pocket established:


This pocket contains the following:
2 SS Mot Brigade
16th Mot Division
1st Rum Armored Division
4th Rum. Mountain Brigade
10th Mot Division
3rd Panzer
10th Panzer
20th Panzer
6th Panzer
8th Panzer
17th Panzer
97th Jager Division
294th Inf Division
62nd Inf Division
14th Italian Inf Division

And though they resisted bravely, and despite inflicting heavy losses on my fatigued units, in the end they succumbed.

So now the final tally of destroyed units during the blizzard looks like this:



10 Panzer, 4 Motorized and 22 Infantry divisions obliterated, and this is NOT counting the Axis Minors.

So while my position is kinda precarious with armies intermingled and very few fortifications, my eastern-most units are now 80 miles from the Romanian border, and I see absolutely no way the AI will be able to launch anything even remotely resembling a summer offensive.
So I can pull 8-10 armies back behind the lines, let them train and convert to Corps during the summer, and be in Berlin by Early '43......But honestly I can't be bothered. [:D]
Had this been a H2H game, I'm pretty sure my opponent would have asked for a restart.

As for whether the AI is a decent opponent I'll still say it is.
110%-100% is too low for my level, which is why this game resulted in a blow-out, but I still couldn't just go through the motions. So if nothing else, it's a good training device.
It is however still an AI, meaning it lacks long-term planning skills, and the ability for multi-thread analysis.
And as most other AIs it is better at attritional warfare than deep penetrations, so even if it has been massively improved in 1.06, the '41 Axis is still the weakest of the bunch.
It tries, but as this AAR showed (at least occasionally) it knows how to make the holes, but is less adept at exploiting them, preferring to use attacks instead of maneuver.

Apollo, if you want the final 3 saves, send me a PM.

[janh]

Nice game, thanks for doing the AAR. Seems that against AI, and using tactics harming its already lesser ability to plan and commit encirclements, the Soviet units in 41 can actually hold up quite a bit. It may give a more interesting game, though, if you don't setup up depth with your defensive lines in 41 and/or 42 to help AI a bit with encircling?

Seems like even a human Soviet player can't truly push back AI until blizzard, but at least can stall it somewhat. Just last night I reached the July 41 chapter in the official records of the OKW, the "Tagebuch der Wehrmacht". There is permanent mention of Russian counterattacks, sometimes support by tanks, at other by artillery concentrations, against the forward German formations, like PzGrp 3 and 4 while holding the outer Bialystok and Minsk pockets, later against their bridgeheads over Dnepr and Dvina (Mogilew, Vitebesk, Orscha, Rogateschev etc.) on their strike against Smolensk (for which, interestingly, they had been put under command of AOK 4, and 4. Army detached its infantry corps to AOK 9.). Similary all of June and early July AGS and Pzgr 1 faced heavy counterattacks and delaying attacks, to a degree that OKW ordered 1 Pz, 1 Mot and 8 InfD from reserves as well as more than 10 heavy artillery detachments from AGC to be deployed to AGS AO. Also PzGr 4 and AGN reported heavy, organized resistance and counterattacks, again particularly against bridgeheads, which the Russians attempted to crush by pure numbers.

This kind of aspect still feels missing in the 1941 part. Neither the crucial aspect of bridgeheads, river-crossing which could be too cheap in terms of MP, allowing to advance further too easily, nor the aspect of strong Soviet counterattacks. Seems even for a human player, the latter is more futile than it perhaps ought to be?

Also, seeing how you handled the Germans in blizzard, it would seem to me that the blizzard penalties are too severe, at the very least the December 41 parameters. Seems like the restrictions on supply movement and the attrition in the open already do a lot to harm AI fighting power, so perhaps lesser reducing multipliers would be better? I think that at least against German AI, the letter should not be punished that badly in 1st blizzard...