Matrix Games Forums

Well monday will be 6 months since my son was born and i'm finally starting to get some personal time to game with again. What better to do then pick up the new 1.5 beta and give it a whirl with my buddy abulbulian.

Glad to see you back in the saddle again bwheatley. Very much looking forward to what should be a great match-up and AAR. IMO< you and abulbulian are something of legends to a lot of the Matrix games and this community. Congratulations on being a pappa! I still consider myself a young buck, but maybe someday life will change. Looking for that woman which can play, at a minimum, Axis and Allies with me (board game reference).

I intend to learn a lot from you two.

haha Legend i wouldn't go that far but glad someone cares.

You guys get started yet? I'm thinking about starting a PBEM as Soviets and wanted to see how you handled the Soviets on T1.

[:(]

I'm uploading some start pics right now. Abulbulian didn't get me a turn until this morning.

So to start the game here is what we have in terms of the status screens.

Ground Losses


Air Losses


Losses


OOB

Ara trapped a ton of northern and southern guys

Decent opening.
Can you break into the southern pocket? Seems like your opponent split up many Panzer/Mot units to hold the line. Maybe they're weak enough to bust through? Some people think breaking down mobile units as the Axis player is a bad idea. I guess it depends on the reason.

Should be interesting AAR to follow. [&o]

You still playing WitP?

Yea i'll probably be able to rescue the southern guys. He always splits things up and i just have to poke 1 hole to get my supply back. That's typically what i've done to help delay him until winter comes.

Yes i still play WITP:AE. I was actually starting a new solitaire ironman game in the free time i'm getting more of lately. Never did play it against a human. I did WarPlan orange against a few folks. My favorite game was probably against john of WITP fame.

To free up manpower i went ahead and disbanded all the corp hq's i could

My first turn was a mess. I was not even able to break the group out in the south. And we're playing with Movement FOW so it really slowed my turn down a bit. I will put together some more screens later but it wasn't pretty.&nbsp;

For some reason as Ara's panzers storm over my positions i think of the panzers like that.

He had a good opening, not much you could have done.

What is movement FoW and why does it slow down the turn?

For those who are wondering: abulbulian captured Minsk in the only way where the attack into Minsk has a decent chance of success: through one of the defending divisions being pulled into another battle and getting beaten into a pulp, leaving only one combat ready division (or what passes for a Soviet combat ready division on turn 1) in Minsk, which can be forced to retreat (like the Rifle division in Riga).

Yea he got riga and minsk t1. I was not even able to break his iron grip in the south. So here is hoping that T2 i'll have enough airlift to get the major pockets 5% supplies and help slow him own. With the new hiwi's he's told me he's going to push as fast as possible without being irresponsible so he can get the extra manpower. Hopefully this time i'll be ready for his tactic of the right hook around the lake south of leningrad. Although last game i thought i was ready for that right hook and the armament bug just doomed me to failure via direct assault early on.

Sorry to hear about the failure to open any pockets. He certainly was aggressive in the south. I usually play it a bit more conservative, but always try and link up with the Rom on T1. Seems fairly standard to do that. Think if you don't do this and fail to get a decent pocket of Soviets on T1 in the south, you'll be screwed as axis. It can be a 'moving' pocket, but just need to eventually remove a lot of Soviets from the OOB. From the other AARs in which the axis players didn't do much in south, they always had issues pushing the large depth of fort'd Soviet units that start to accumulate around the Dnep. I like your idea of disbanding HQs to get early manpower so they get in units and start training up. Are you building any su yet?

Looking forward to t2. [X(] How often are you guys doing turns?

We're going to try to do turns more often but with being a new dad i get a couple nights a week to play. But that said i'm waiting on the turn from ara he's been busy with work.

The idea to disband HQ's is not mine I took it from I think Flav. The logic of it really makes sense to me you get a really nice manpower boost to try to fill out the shell units you get from T2 onward. I haven't bought any su yet since i spent most of my AP disbanding HQ's. Any suggestions?

RR construction brigades are you best friend.

Yea it's been awhile don't the RR construction brigades help you build forts faster?

They do, but with the new fort rules, there's less need to build them compared to earlier versions, as the benefits are much more limited. Your units can generally build a level 2 fort by themselves fairly easily, you mostly needed the brigades for either instant-forts in the next enemy logistics phase (when your forts are build) or higher level forts.