Fascist Front - another desperate attempt on a random map AAR

[Westheim]

You know the deal, mostly land, live as played, huge, and so on. The exact settings are 80x80, 9 AI+, 90 VP locations, many rivers, woods, mountains, no roads, city level 1, research modificator around 200%.

This time I selected my regime from the map to avoid a deadlocked start like last time, and the time before, and the time before that ... (sigh)

Round 7; I'm just about to spread at the moment. Mirkaleen is the capitol, I took a town already, and will auto expand into another town and a village next round. I researched Machinegun I and SMG I.

[Westheim]

Round 9; no events so far. Researched Armoured Car and Light Tank I, but I won't deploy any until winter comes at round 11.

The south with two VP to get next round by.

[Westheim]

Round 11; I made a mistake by failing to produce enough trucks which now slows down the build up time for my I Corps in the southeast. They will be facing the First Core. I see border of two more AIs in the northeast and northwest. The latter won't be a threat to me for some rounds, since I don't have any settlements in that area, and the terrain is heavily wooded. I will build a road through to the border now, but there's no need to hurry here. The northeastern enemy will have to be dealt with. Terrain is a mountain ridge between our realms now, with open plains on my side. Have to hold the range then, right? Production of more trucks ordered. [8|]

[seille]

You should not think about how to defend against the AI and if they can take your cities.
Think about how to attack the AI as fast as possible and take AI cities yourself !
If you play too defensive again you´ll lose (again).
So explore with smaller forces and start to fight the known enemies in case you can take cities
as a result.

[Westheim]

Round 13; I keep discovering new VP locations. There's a whole cluster of them in the southwest, where I mightily struggle to lay a road into the city west of the mountains ...

The I Corps started to push the First Core unit it spotted. It rolled. I established the II Corps in the northeast to defend the mountains, if possible. I'm still short on trucks...

[Jeffrey H.]

Consider horses.

[seille]

To save some production capacity horses are indeed a good option.

[Joshuatree]

ORIGINAL: seille

You should not think about how to defend against the AI and if they can take your cities.
Think about how to attack the AI as fast as possible and take AI cities yourself !
If you play too defensive again you´ll lose (again).
So explore with smaller forces and start to fight the known enemies in case you can take cities
as a result.

Absolutely. Go for it like von Mannstein said, "Nicht kleckern, sondern klotzen" As fast as possible.
And it suprises me too that you already lay the emphasize on trucks.... I consider that a luxury, only to be produced when you have the time to do so, go for horses, cheap and use less supply, and they go anywhere even in the snow and swamps.
And if your soldiers are hungry they can eat them.... now that's an idea to implement in AT2 [;)]

[Westheim]

I tend to use trucks most of the time, and at the beginning, since they move about twice as fast as horses, I think. I have some horses ordered for the II Corps since that seems to fight in the mountains soon.

Round 14; I won a little room at the I Corps, but my other fronts are very thinly populated. Pictured is the II Corps. I established the III Corps in the southwest, since the border of an AI popped up down there. I may not be able to hold on to a city which is now in my border hex, since I don't have neither a unit down there nor PPs. [8|]

[Westheim]

Round 15; the I Corps advanced a little again, but the spring mud is slowing the troops down a lot. All other fronts have yet to see any enemy units, although I'm already bordering 5 AIs. I own 13 VP locations at the moment, although some of them are so remote and far away from roads that I have no chance to even get the production out of them. Same for the city of Stonekeencross in the picture. I built the IV Corps in there since it is a city and 5000 production points are 5000 production points after all, while the other remote VPs are only villages and a town, where I can't afford the 5 PP at the moment for an HQ.

[Westheim]

Round 16; the offensive of the I Corps (pictured) meets little resistance except for the mud's. Elsewhere I'm struggling to get up to numbers. Forgot to produce supply for the IV Corps in Stonekeencross (Stupid fool!!). The northwest is undeveloped (still), and I auto expanded into a new town (Far Mansion) in the far north. No chance to produce there. My engineers have to scratch the mud off their shoes first.

[Westheim]

Round 17; summer, excellent playground for the load of motorized divisions the I Corps has. And the corps achieved a breakthrough right out of the gate! After pushing the First Core divisions around for most of the winter and spring, the 8th Armoured and 22nd Tank Division broke threw the lines and advance on the village of Central, which seems to be a major crossroad for the First Core.

No enemy units spotted elsewhere, still, although I lost a couple of wood and plains hexes in the north and east, respectively, to enemy movements.

I should start to build PPs now for technological advance before I suddenly have to drop dead again at the mere sight of Medium Tanks III, since I only have Light Tanks I, like in my Golden Congress game ...

[Westheim]

Round 18; unfortunately, Central is defended better than I thought. Luckily again, I had a few spare mortars with the I Corps. They will be ready to attack next turn.

The II Corps in the north encountered units of the Scientific State and some of my engineers in the west found the first Muslim State division. So far nothing to worry. Nothing I can't cope with. I would be more worried if they appeared at some other spots like the far southwest or on the left flank of my I Corps.

[Westheim]

Round 19; attack on the flanks of my armoured spearheads prohibited me from assaulting Central this turn. Well, part of me shying back was the Medium Tank II that materialized in the village. Instead, my 8th Armoured Division flanked Central to the left and pierced through into the town of Twinning, which was defended my a lone SMG infantrist, who was properly taken care of. (points at headless body on the floor) What I don't like are the wide open flanks of the I Corps. I already have trouble on it's right flank, where I just can't push the First Core away.

The II Corps is shifting north to "meet" with the Scientific State. All quiet elsewhere.

[Westheim]

Round 20; still didn't manage to attack Central. At least Twinning was not cut off on the interturn. The right wing of the I Corps was split off into the V Corps.

In the north I almost lost Far Mansion. I barely got a half division in there for defense. I can't see the Scientific State units approaching there, but there should be some of them. Far Mansion never delivered any production since I got it, and has stored 60 riflemen already. Would be a shame to lose them.

[Westheim]

Round 21; those First Core guys fight like beasts. Twinning was cut off on the interturn. I restored order now and pocketed the defenders of Central in exchange. No progress with the V Corps. The thorn in my side down there remains.

The II Corps held it's positions and advanced a little at Tarcross in the north. I'm about to push the Scientific State units into less favorable terrain for defending, but it takes time since I don't have any heavy weaponry with the II Corps.

[Joshuatree]

If you can't get production out of a town, sometimes it is possible to create a HQ in that town and set the town to produce units for that newly created HQ. Engineers at first ofcourse to make that much needed road... or more roads if possible to lessen the danger of being cut off.
Medium tanks II can be very hard to kill if you don't have the armour yourself, or lack the PP's for developing it. You could produce AT's then, especially in wooded terrain the AI shy's away from them. Then you could encircle him, with AT's again... and hope no bigger "relieve force" is on it's way to hammer you.

[Westheim]

I did that extra HQ thingie in round 15 in that city which's name I long forgot ... but the settlement needs the production power to self supply and build those needed engineers, and villages and towns, sadly, don't, and it would be a waste of 5 PP in my eyes.

Oh, and I think I forgot to mention that a III Corps infantry division took an undefended town in the southwest from one of the Muslim regimes. (Can't remember which one, there are two of them on this map, both bordering me, one in the west, one southwest.)

[Westheim]

Round 22; Central finally fell to the I Corps after another round of devastating and costly fights. Now I can regroup and support the V Corps further west. The II Corps could also use some more power. And I already plan to install two more corps, one in the west, to the north of the lake there, and one in the southwest, albeit only small corps in case the Muslims come over me. Main attack will aim at the First Core. I think I wounded them.

[Westheim]

Round 23; I carefully extended the front of the I Corps around Central and Twinning. The First Core looks like beaten to me, especially since I met borders of the Animistic Barony a bit to the east. This means that the First Core's realm is now split. The AB also has a border with me near Stonekeencross north of the lake.

The III and V Corps still battle with the bulge a bit to the west. The First Core has some Medium Tanks II there that just won't go down ...

The northern front sees increasing activity on the side of the Scientific State, which tries to flank the II Corps. I created the VI Corps in the far northwest since the Muslim State took a few wood hexes away from me this turn. There's a village up there that I feel like they're going for.

I also made a research (woo-hoo!): Rifle/SMG II (35PP). I want to improve some other units (light tanks, mortar, artillery, machine guns) to level 2 as well, before researching my first airplanes in the spring. Fall will come in round 25, so it's senseless to do so now, as airforce is disabled by muddy conditions.