Rolling Encirclements - Putting the skeer on them (AI)

[PeeDeeAitch]

I have noticed, admittedly in only 2 GC so far, that when I can't fully complete an encirclement (say near Gomel), but can mostly and leave a ZOC that can be reopened by the AI, that such a "nearly there" encirclement causes the AI to pull back, leaving the next turn, if I have panzers ready, ripe for encirclement fully.

Even if I can't pocket all of them, I can "put the skeer in them" and disrupt a portion of the line. I like this, as a fluid line in 1941 means an axis advance. I am not sure (as I have just played the AI so far) how a human would react differently, but such "feels" right to me in one way.

My point is that when playing the AI as the Axis, a two-turn plan for an encirclement can pay huge dividends in terms of both pocketed troops and territory gained - both vital for that first winter.

[gradenko2k]

My point is that when playing the AI as the Axis, a two-turn plan for an encirclement can pay huge dividends in terms of both pocketed troops and territory gained - both vital for that first winter.

I think that's pretty much the basic encirclement tactic the way the game is currently laid out: A unit isn't isolated until the turn AFTER you encircle it. You actually have to refrain from attacking units inside a pocket that you're planning to form or else they might rout outside the pocket.

[PeeDeeAitch]

Oh, I guess I was unclear. In the days after breaching the Dnieper, for instance, I have had some of those "near encirclements" where the AI can reopen such with a slight hole. However, due to the fact that supply was lost for a turn, the units inside can only pull back a bit it seems (possibly also due to my ZOCs), and while the following turn I cannot bag the pocket, I can reincircle a pocket that has: 1) units that have lost entrenchments due to pulling back, and 2) quite possibly more units as the rescue units can be entrapped.

Turn 3 of the pocket is the mop up. The "rolling" was meant to show the process - A. nearly perfect, B. perfect and bigger with fewer entrenchments, C. Mop up.