Decisively Beating the AI

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: Seminole

Unfortunately when I opened up T5 I found out that one of my Heel invasions had also been repulsed.

I prefer to send 4 (or 5) TFs to make this move so I have a quick stockpile of supplies before pulling some TFs for the next hop.
I don't see an Axis unit on beach you were repulsed from. Did he retreat? Was it a German or Italian unit?

To send 4 or 5 TFs would, I assume, have meant using only 1 or 2 to invade Sicily, waiting longer to invade, or only using regiments/brigades. Any one of which may have been preferable to what I did. Which would you have done Seminole?

I'm not sure what was on the beach because I generally just "execute" my turn and then take a 10 minute break away from the computer while the AI does the German turn. So I didn't see what happened until I got back and saw my units still in the water. As you say, whatever it was took off afterwards.

[Harrybanana]

Now that I am actually getting close to engaging the German Army in meaningful battle I will give you my top tips for winning the ground war against the AI in WitW. Some of these I have already stated but they are worth repeating. So in no particular order:

1. Make sure your Tactical Airforces are assigned Ground Support Air Directives for the appropriate Ground HQs. Okay, perhaps this one is really more for me than you.

2. Keep your Tactical Air Groups (especially the short ranged ones) close to the Front. Keep in mind that it is the number of sorties that your airgroups (particularly FBs flying as bombers) fly that is the important factor. Having an air group just in range of a particular hex means it will only fly one sortie per day. But if it is close to the Front it may fly 2 (or perhaps more?) sorties per day. The only possible exception to this is if you are logistically having trouble getting supplies to your units at the Front. In this case you don't want your air groups competing with your land units for supplies. This will probably not be a problem in Italy, but may be a problem in France and Germany later in the war. Transferring air groups to airbases near the Front is easy. Making sure those bases have all the support, fuel, ammo and supplies they require is not. Seminole has made some posts in this Forum on this very topic which I strongly suggest you read. However, a full understanding of all these intricacies is not necessary to defeat the AI. I know this because I have defeated the AI and I still don't fully understand supply.

3. Primarily use your Tactical Air HQs (and the air groups assigned to them) to perform Interdiction and Railway Interdiction in the enemy hexes in and behind the German line where you are planning to make your attack. It is far better to concentrate on a smaller area (2 to 4 hex radius) than it is to spread your Interdiction all over the map. Having said this, from time to time you will want to use your rocket equipped air groups to "Unit" Ground Attack enemy armour units and your LBs to "Unit" Ground Attack non-armour enemy units. But in these cases you will probably only need a smaller force, while most of your tactical air groups are still interdicting. As it is also important to wreck the enemy Railyards and Ports, I generally assign these Air Directives to Strategic/15th AF in the South and Bomber Command and 8th AF in the North.

4. As mentioned earlier, make sure all your units have their full complement of support units and that your Corps and Army HQs have as much artillery as possible.

5. Also as mentined earlier, study the map carefully during your Air Phase to find the enemy weakness. The AI almost always has a weak spot, your job is to find it.

6. Concentrate your armour units in just a few Corp HQs and set those HQs supply priority to "4". In other words, create armoured corps. You only have so much supply so setting every HQ to 4 is a mistake. In my experience Infantry do not seem to require as much supply as armour. By setting the armour to receive priority supply you are guaranteeing that they will have the most MPs as possible each turn. Having gassed up armour units is probably the most important factor for success in this game.

7. Get rid of all the poor leaders of your active units (the ones actually in battle) and replace them with better ones. When doing so you generally want to assign the ones with the best "mech" ratings to your armour Corps. But be aware that it is a leaders admin rating that affects the number of MPs a unit will have. So for armour units a good admin rating is as important as a good mech rating.

8. Pay very close attention to command control. This means obeying the following rules:

a) Keep your Corps HQs within 5 hexes of all units under their command and the Army HQ within 15 hexes of all Corps HQ. Note that if you have to move a Corps HQ during your turn in order that it can support the attack of one of it's units, then there is a decreased chance that the HQ will supply the support. For this reason I suggest you end your turn with your Corp HQs as far forward as possible. This way if next turn your units have to advance to engage the enemy you may still be within the 5 hex range.

b) Do not exceed your command capacity for any HQ. Note that breaking a division into component regiments or brigades will increase the command points that they use up.

c) Do not attack with the units of more than one army unless absolutely necessary (and even then ask yourself how you screwed up so bad that it was absolutely necessary and don't do it again). For this reason it is important that you not mix your armies all up. If your lines look like a quilt with flashes of colour all over the place you have done something wrong.

d) If you find yourself in a situation where you are at risk of contravening one of the above rules then use your Admin points to reassign units to different HQs in order to straighten things out. Or alternatively, even assigning a Corps HQ to a different Army. In one of my games I recall that the New Zealand motorized division had 3 different HQs on 3 successive turns.

9. Generally speaking (there are always exceptions) do not use your armour units to attack the first or even the 2nd enemy lines. Yes I know the armour units generally have the highest CVs, but it is still not their job to break the enemy lines, that is the job of the infantry. The job of the armour is to exploit the breakthroughs made by your infantry. Ideally your infantry will create a large enough hole that your armour won't have to attack at all. If not than your armour should be limited to attacking weakened units (generally ones that have already been retreated once or twice already) that are necessary to create or expand the breakthrough. If the enemy is weak enough your armour should only be making hasty attacks. You want to preserve their MPs for movement.

10. Use the units with the least MPs upon reaching the Front to attack first. For example, if you decide you want 10 CVs of strength to attack a particular hex and you have 4 infantry units all with 5 CV in range then attack with the 2 units that will have the least MPs left when reaching the hex to be attacked. This way if the unit is retreated the other 2 infantry may still have enough MPs to move into the hex from which the enemy retreated and attack it again.

11. Know what odds you need to cause an enemy unit to retreat and then figure out the best way to get those odds. My experience is that initial odds of 1.3:1 are usually enough to cause a fortified unit to retreat. However, if it is a vital attack you will probably want odds of 1.5:1 or better. On the other hand, in a pinch even attacks at 1:1 seem to stand a pretty good chance of success.

12. Be agressive. Don't worry over much about the AI counterattacking you, in my experience it rarely does. So break units down into brigades/regiments to hold certain areas of the Front so you can concentrate your strength elsewhere.

13. Stretch the Front line as much as possible. The longer the line the more likely that there is a weakness in it somewhere.

14. Do not neglect logistics. Repair railroads and build depots near the Front. Reduce the priority of or even disband depots that are not vital.

[Harrybanana]

Turn 6

Below is the situation prior to any moves in the Heel. I am including this only to show you another use of TFs. You will note that the Italian units are out of supply. The reason for this is because of the TF circled in Purple. I could have achieved the same thing using a Naval Patrol Air Directive; but this would have required my Coastal air groups to fly a gauntlet of fighter interceptions.




EDIT: Actually now looking at it I think my TF should have been one hex further West to isolate Brindisi. Oh well, you get the idea.

[Harrybanana]

Below is the same area showing that I have transferred several air groups onto the airbases in this area. All the airbases are being expanded. More air groups will be transferred over as I capture more bases. FYI at this time I had about 1670 aircraft in Tactical AF (not all in the Heel of course) making it by far my largest Air HQ. Other than the Heel most of Tactical AF is now in Sicily.

[Harrybanana]

Below is another screenshot of the Heel after Recon and some movement. You will recall what I said earlier about the AI being an idiot; well here is the proof. Two relatively strong stacks, but Taranto is unoccupied and there is nothing stopping my armour from surrounding and isolating those 2 stacks. You will also recall I was going to show you some brilliance on my part, well here it is too. I did surround and isolate those 2 stacks. Absolutely brilliant, right? The only land battle I fought this turn was to take Brindisi; my adjacent TF would have the level 2 port repaired next turn.





You should also note that the TF I had isolating Brindisi is now adjacent to Brindisi. The reason I moved it adjacent to Brindisi is so that it would help support (along with the other TF) my attack on Brindisi.

[Harrybanana]

Finally here is the screenshot of Sicily.

[carlkay58]

Could you post the Taranto move and saves to the Tech side please. This is a great example of stupidity that if Gary has the saves he can tweak the AI and improve its ability.

[Seminole]

EDIT: Actually now looking at it I think my TF should have been one hex further West to isolate Brindisi. Oh well, you get the idea.

I presume you have a TF supporting the temp port next to Brindisi. I believe this is the unit that is actually isolating the port next door. If you didn't want to suffer damage from enemy port defenses you could create a screen farther back, and as you noted that TF would need to be one hex further West to help accomplish that.

To send 4 or 5 TFs would, I assume, have meant using only 1 or 2 to invade Sicily, waiting longer to invade, or only using regiments/brigades. Any one of which may have been preferable to what I did. Which would you have done Seminole?

I created my strategy from the Battleground Italy template, so the invasion of Sicily had already taken place, with all 6 TFs offshore of Sicily to start the game.
Here's the AAR

Relocate TF 545 (C) to temporary port on US beachhead to ensure adequate supply for Op. Husky.
Transfer Commando and Ranger SUs to TFs that will make the landings while they are en route to African ports.

4th Moroccan FF Mtn Div will lead the assault, broken into regiments with support from the 2nd Tabor Goums FF Mtn Rgt.
82nd Airborne Div and 509th Para Rgt will make jumps supporting the landing sites and linking beaches on both sides while securing the airbases.
TF 81 (3/4th Moroccan FF Mtn Div) relocates to Tunis (21 prep points per turn)
TF 85 (2nd Tabor Goums FF Mtn Rgt) relocates to Bizerte (21 prep points per turn)
TF 86 (1/4th Moroccan FF Mtn Div) relocates to Bone (21 prep points per turn)
TF 545 (A) (2/4th Moroccan FF Mtn Div) relocates to Sousse (19 prep points per turn)
TF 545 (B) (231st BR Inf Bde) relocates to Valleta (12 prep points per turn)

On the second week TF 545 (B) and TF 86 switch positions. This will allow TF 545 (B) the ability to gain 13 prep points per turn so that it can launch an invasion on turn 5 (12+13+13+13) whereas TF 86 will still be available on turn 4 (21+20+20).

I wait to launch the invasion until August so that I have one additional chance of compelling an Italian surrender at landing (instead of just the chance during the logistics phase once you're on the mainland). If you land before August you effectively throw away that chance.
I also prefer to bring more TFs because each landing provides you another automatic size 2 airbase. In my example above with Operation Jackpot I had 10 size 2 airbases east of Taranto. Once you get the Foggia air fields you can bring all your Strategic Airpower to The Heel and move the Tactical Air to the Foggia region.

[Harrybanana]

Turn 7

Italy surrendered this turn.

Below is the VPs at the beginning of T7. The negative points from u-boats has crept up to -2, so it is time for 8th AF to bomb the u-boat factories within an 8 hex radius of Hamburg again, just like on Turn 1. You will see I am also now scoring 11 VPs a turn from strategic bombing. Not as good as some, but not bad.

[Harrybanana]

Below is the screenshot of the Heel. Note that even though 2 of my armoured divisions used up quite a few MPs last turn my 3 armour divisions all have at least 42 MPs. I attribute this to the fact that their HQ (II CA Corps) has priority 4 supply. II CA Corps is commanded by Guy Simmonds who has only a 5 Mech rating and a 6 admin Rating. There are slightly better leaders I could have used, but did I mention I am Canadian. My moves last turn isolated 2 fallschimjaeger divisions and 2 panzer grenadier divisions. Recon would show that there was nothing preventing me from surrounding those 2 Armour regiments to the West, so I added them to the bag. I also destroyed the southerly isolated units and unsuccessfully attacked the Northern isolated units. Located where they were those units would prove to be a thorn in my side for the next several turns. One of the biggest differences between WitE and WitW is that isolated units (or at least high morale isolated units) seem to maintain there CVs a lot longer. All of my attacks were conducted by infantry divisions only (well the attack on the one stack was supported by TFs). So far I have not had to attack with my armour in the Heel at all.

[Harrybanana]

Below is the screenshot of Sicily. I was able to capture Messina this turn on my first attempt by using most of my TFs to provide support. As well I had been for a couple turns bombing both the port and railyard in Messina and ground attacking the 26th Panzer located there. Now that Sicily was captured my plan was to start prepping 7th Army for an invasion of the Italian Mainland North and West of Rome. You will notice that my paratroopers have finally reached the airbases around Catania where the transport air groups of XII Troop carrier are now based. I have broken them down into regiments/brigades and assigned them drop targets near my invasion hexes around Foggia. In my opinion paratroopers are more effective dropping as smaller units than they are as divisions. They will probably take more losses but they also cover more ground and create more interdiction.

[Harrybanana]

Below is the sceenshot of Sardinia. All my Italian units are isolated because the Germans have captured all the ports. This meant that if I wanted Sardinia I would have to invade it. But I didn't want it that bad. The German units on Sardinia could rot for all I cared.

[Harrybanana]

But Corsica (below) was a different story. Here the Germans had left one port unoccupied (Ajacia) and accordingly I transported two divisions to it. Unfortunately, when they arrived they found that the port had been damaged and they were too big to be unloaded. If there is a way to break a division down at sea I didn't discover it. So I had to transport a smaller units there as well. Of course, I also transported a Corp HQ. I was lucky because had the Germans occupied all the ports on Corsica I would have been forced to invade. The airbases and ports on Corsica were important to my future invasion of the Northern Italian coast and perhaps Southern France.

[Harrybanana]

Turn 8: August 21, 1943

When T8 began I, for the first time, found myself facing a solid line of German units in Italy as shown below. I intend now to show you step be step what I did to break this line. Since I did not take any screenshots at the time of what I did (I wasn't planning an AAR) I have recreated what I did. Nothing I did here was particularly difficult, in fact for experienced players it was a piece of cake. However, some Newbies might find it instructional.





The line looked formidable in places, with several units/stacks displaying a "X" defence CV (ie a CV of 100 or more). However, I knew that none of these displayed CVs was accurate. Firstly because no single unfortified unit in clear terrain (as most of these units were) is ever going to have a CV greater than 25, and even that is extraordinary. Secondly because the defence CV of an unfortified unit in clear terrain is always equal to it's attack CV and, as you can see here, many of these units/stacks were displaying defence CVs much greater than their attack CVs. When you are examining the map you should be looking for these hexes that are displaying defence CVs that are out of whack with their attack CVs. This is easy to do for unfortified units in clear terrain, but more difficult to spot when the units are fortifed and in non-clear terrain.

Having examined the map I determined that the first thing I needed to do was destroy the isolated units I have circled in blue. They were affecting my supply and ease of movement and had to go. I would like to have gotten rid of the stronger isolated stack as well, but it was still too strong. Attacking it would have required almost all my strength and I had another plan. This plan was to retreat the units circled in Green and then advance as shown in red to isolate another strong stack of enemy units.

[Harrybanana]

My biggest worry was that my attack on the 16th panzer division (the 14=X) would fail. So I decided to soften it up with my rocket carrying Hurricane IVs. The rest of Tactical would fly interdiction. Of course I also flew reconnaissance missions. I have recreated below the Air Directives that I flew in this area.

[Harrybanana]

Below are the results of my recreated Ground Attack on the 16th Panzer divison. As I recall my actual results were very similar. According to this I have destroyed approximately 100 AFVs. But I am not sure if these posted results are accurate or, like the strategic bombing results, are grossly inflated. Does anyone know? In any event note that my 44 Hurricanes (less losses) each flew 2 sorties per day. This is because they were close to the target and I had set my Air Directive for high intensity.

[Harrybanana]

Below are the results of my Reconnaissance. According to this recon there is no second line of German units and Bari is wide open. I wasn't sure as I trusted this Recon as units can often hide in towns and difficult terrain and not be seen by Recon. But if Bari was unoccupied I was determined to capture it. This involved a change in plan. I decided to forgo my attack on the 16th Panzer and instead only attack the weak unit circled in red and then use my armour to breakthrough to Bari and isolate some more units. In retrospect perhaps this should have been my plan from the beginning even without the recon.






Note as well that the displayed CV of the 16th Panzer division is much reduced after my Air strikes.

[Harrybanana]

Below is the same area of the map displaying my interdiction numbers. Not the best I have seen, but not bad considering it is still beyond the range of a good portion of Tactical AF.

[Harrybanana]

Now I was ready to make my Ground moves. The first task was to destroy those two isolated armour regiments. Displayed below is the result of that attack. Note that for this attack I moved units that were further away rather than some I had closer at hand. This saved those closer units for future attack/movement. I debated about whether or not to use the division (the 59 BR) that was already in the hex I was attacking from in the attack or not. In the end I decided I could not take the chance of losing the battle and used it. In retrospect it probably was not needed. Note that I moved 3 TFs off the coast to support this attack.

[Harrybanana]

The next step was to attack the weak Armour regiment. Luckily my 2 CA Inf had 15 MPs which was just enough to allow it to move adjacent to the target and Deliberate assault it. Had I used the 2 CA in my first attack than I would not have had any infantry divisions in range (unless I hadn't used 59 Br in the first attack). In a situation like this, if no infantry were in range, I would have used my armour to make this second attack; but using infantry is much better. Even though the initial odds were only 10 to 7 I was relatively confident of success. The result of this 2nd attack is below. The red line shows the movement path of 2 CA.




Edit: Oops the red line does not show the movement path of 2 CA, not unless they can walk on water. But you get the idea.