Allies vrs Axis

[LiquidSky]

Having played the allies twice, and the Germans once to successful conclusion against human opponents I thought I might share some insights I have discovered.

First off the Germans. The Germans have a couple of advantages that need to be overcome for the allies to be successful. The biggest is the sheer combat potential of their mechanized forces.
For example, I had the 12th SS, 1st SS and 2nd SS with full flak support units stacked in a hex. 82 CV. They can attack a hex from 3 sides with around 200 CV. The allies have nothing that can really hold against it. No Beachhead bonus, even terrain is really going to help against that kind of raw firepower.

Secondly....those guys move 50 hexes. Which means they can park themselves from Brittany to Netherlands and react in force to an invasion anywhere along this coastline. Without railing.

That's 5 SS panzer divisions, Panzer Lehr and 5 other panzer divisions and 7 PG divisions for a total of 18 divisions. (Depending on when you land) You cannot stop them from reaching your invasion unless you invade some far out of the way place or plan your invasion carefully.

Interdiction will not stop them...at best if you can cover a wide swath of area with 6 or more interdiction points, you will halve their movement to 25 hexes. That's still over half the coastline.

I am not saying that interdiction is useless..but it is just one of the many tools you have available to a successful landing. Just don't think that your interdiction forms a 'wall' that keeps the enemy at bay. Instead, what it will do is weaken him so that he is too feeble to launch a successful attack upon arriving to your beach head.
But he doesn't have to attack your beachhead..just contain it. Holding you back will gain him time for those units to recover from the disruption of interdiction and he will have less distance to travel to attack you in future turns.


So as the allies, how can you land and hold...and breakout?

Location is everything. Those two little islands in the channel (Guernsey and Jersey) are very important. Taking them early will allow you to range farther with your paratroopers covering most of the Cotentin Peninsula. And a few hexes inland in Brittany. Split into regiments, you can spread out and block off a large amount of landing area. Same with the Pas D'Calais area. Remember, a paradrop can only occur next to an invasion, or within 8 hexes of an in supply hex (unit?).

Timing can help. If you invade in the early spring, after the thaw..when the ground is Heavy Mud, you will still get ashore...but those panzers wont be moving as quickly...and their counterattack potential will be halved. As well, their will be less of them because the historical release of reserves from the east won't occur since they are waiting for the historical invasion.

Preparation is important. If you paradrop a regiment on an airfield...the next paradrops adjacent will use half the transports. And are not subject to drift. They need to be protected by interdiction, so that when the panzers show up, they will be hurt by the airforce before they push your high morale paratroopers around on to each other.

I am not a big fan of 'suprise'. The Germans know you are going to invade. They will have a division in every port. Some ports even two divisions. I put two in Brest with the fortification unit. Same with Cherbourg. The mechanized forces will be spread out every few hexes behind the coast from Brittany to Netherlands...able to react. The only 'suprise' will be the wall of Germans holding your invasion to the coast.

Before you invade, you want to hit every airfield as far inland as you feel safe. At the very least you will get detection levels high so you can see if the Germans transfer air to counter your invasion....if your lucky, you will already catch them waiting. Don't bother too much with the rail net..unless you start a month or two early, and continually bomb. You wont really stop enough supply to matter, and you wont stop the reaction.
The turn before you invade, move your follow up forces out to sea....park them in the sea zone outside of where you are going to invade, but make sure they are not in hexes with German naval interdiction (this acts like recon in sea hexes). You don't want the Germans to see them. The turn of your invasion, you want to paradrop as many regiments as you can (if you can) all adjacent to one another to 'wall off' the invasion area from reacting panzers.
On the turn of the invasion, land those paratroopers. Hit the invasion buttons...Move the at sea follow up guys adjacent. Bring as many more as you have transport capability to sea as well.

Oh..make sure that the invasion guys are full up on assault engineers. Units that are adjacent to the enemy have reduced fortification ability..EXCEPT engineers...who keep their full ability. You will want your allies digging in as fast as possible all the time. HQ's should have a minimum of a dozen artillery. Army as well. And they should be landed with the follow up.

After the invasion..and German reaction..you will want to push inland as far as possible. You will need room for the follow up guys...the HQ's. Reform your paratroopers into divisions for space. Move all the guys with engineers adjacent to the Germans. Put the armour divisions from the follow up on reserve. Bomb the bejeezus out of any German armour you see. Don't worry about the v weapon sites, or industry....if the invasion doesn't stick and break out, the game will be over anyways. If you do break out in strength...he may even resign making vps' moot.

Its good to leave one Task Group as a mobile artillery support nuker. Fill it with all the commandos you can (Rangers, British, and the Can-US mtn commando). Also make sure your task groups match the units HQ they carry. You can use the attach units to nearest HQ button.

[Q-Ball]

Good advice there. Having played an invasion on both sides, I feel like invading France is very tough for the Allies. Doing it over again as Germans, I feel like I could be alot more dangerous, with the right strategy you can bottle the Allies up on the beachhead every time. Driving them off is tougher, but pinning them to the beach is pretty easy.

The German side has a advantage in this game vs. RL; not just in VP, but in action on the ground, IMO. Keeping a historical Allied advance vs. a good German opponent is very, very difficult.

I will post soon some status of my game vs. Meklore; it was my first WITW game, and I botched many things, and he is still just getting into Germany in Feb 1945. Germans have too many advantages.