HamburgerMeat (Allies) vs Clausewitzclausewitz (Axis) Educational AAR (1.06)

[HamburgerMeat]

While I try to think of ways to slow down Cpuncher's strategy, I am playing a more traditional game vs Clausewitz to try to give more basic pointers.

The turn is currently January 1940. Clausewitz took Poland in one turn, is steadily advancing in Southern China, and has shown that he is producing early artillery as the Germans. He is probably looking to punch through the Maginot:

[HamburgerMeat]

Looking at Axis and Japanese research, I notice that Clausewitz has devoted very little income to research (only 175 MPP each). Looking at Japanese unit spending, I also notice that he has likely purchased two bomber units based on his spending of ~330 MPP (with LRA and naval weps upgrades probably) and 300 MPP. Therefore, it would probably be a good idea to purchase antiair units soon.

As the Chinese, you should always refund advanced aircraft and invest in infantry weapons. After that, I also like to refund production tech and industrial tech and get infantry warfare. Then pick either (A) anti air or (B) artillery. Antiair is the safer option that will force the japanese to spend more MPP repairing their airforce. Artillery is more of a gamble as they are not very effective until you get artillery level 1 upgrades, but the earlier you buy artillery, the more experience they can get. An 11 strength level 1 heavy artillery can seriously hamper future Japanese advances.

Always rebuild discounted chinese armies, and don't ever go too crazy on research. Your frontline is always your first priority.

[HamburgerMeat]

The Italian Navy is usually holed up deep in port. I attack with carriers from the other side of Italy, which is usually a safer move than entering the Adriatic. I end up destroying one heavy and light cruiser, as well as damaging a battleship.

Using my French battleships, I attack the ports in North Africa to lower their supply to 4. I end the turn by placing two naval units adjacent to the port.

The Germans have taken the Netherlands and Belgium and are ready to pounce next turn.

In China, Changsha has fallen, but armies and artillery units are ready to hold the mountain passes leading up to Kweichow.

[HamburgerMeat]

It is June 1940. France will fall next turn, but the North Africa ports are well under control. I will spend this time to repair my carrier planes while the luftwaffe moves into Italy, as I want them well rested and prepared for the Mediterranean conflict (assuming Clausewitz intends to contest North Africa). Unfortunately one of my troop transports runs into a 5 strength Italian destroyer (I probably should have sent an escort). I keep an army in London and corps along the southern coast in case germany attempts Sealion, but I doubt it (shift-swap the garrison in London with the B.E.F. so that the B.E.F. gets the accumulated entrenchment)

[HamburgerMeat]

Meanwhile I have set up my line of defenses in China as shown below. Kweichow will be a tough nut to crack, but crack it will. I should probably get a few more armies to swap with the frontline, as simply reinforcing the frontline does not do enough to restore their morale. Note my use of mostly mountain hexes to defend

[HamburgerMeat]

Everything is set in place for a cutoff of all supply to Tobruk:

1. Strategic bombing of Tobruk + having two adjacent land units will prevent it from getting supplied by itself
2. Bombardment of the port + having two adjacent naval units will prevent it from getting supplied by port
3. Cutting off the road to Benghazi will prevent it from being in range of Benghazi's supplies

Once Tobruk (and anything else for that matter) is cut down to 0 supply, it is usually quite easy to finish off.

In addition, since the UK could afford the MPP, I decided to purchase tactical bombers the turn following the fall of France. This way, when the USA offers to send tactical bombers to the England, I can avoid the hard cap on tactical bombers and get an extra one.

[HamburgerMeat]

February 1941:

The battle in the Mediterranean is going well. There was a grand total of 2 Italian garrisons and 1 Italian army guarding Italian North Africa. UK forces are about to take Tripoli.

Meanwhile in China, Kweichow prepares for a massive battle

[HamburgerMeat]

In the USSR, I have decided to heavily fortify the south. Some unit positions might be changed when Zhukov's forces arrive, but the general plan is to use armies with fortifications in the north, corps along the Dneiper.

Remember that units receive a 35% readiness penalty for attack across a great river.

Here is my tech and unit build order:

Drop: Advanced aircraft, production tech

Infantry weapons > engineer > industrial tech (x2) > infantry warfare > armored warfare > anti aircraft research (x2) > command and control (x2).

If the axis have annexed Lithuania, you should be able to comfortably build two extra heavy tanks and an HQ before the axis invade. Buying both before Barbarossa will push you past the USSR heavy tank limit (due to the siberian heavy tank spawning only on invasion). If not, just make you have an extra HQ for Barbarossa.

The problem with anti-tank is that while they are great for what they do, they only attack once, and only are effective versus armored units. They're great for defense, but they simply can't counterpunch like tanks can.

[HamburgerMeat]

The North is much less fortified, but I am attempting to use the minimum amount of units to hold.

The reason I use two armies N and NW of Pskov instead of defending Pskov itself is because Pskov is much easier to attack from multiple sides. In addition, when the enemy takes Pskov, the armies will start sieging it down, reducing it's resource value and making it more difficult for an enemy to use it as a supply base to move to Leningrad.

If Clausewitz had not annexed Lithuania, I would have held the river from Riga to Daugavpils (armies in Riga and Daugavpils, corps in the forest). It is a great spot to defend as it has a river and hexes with great natural defense and entrenchment. If you do choose to defend this river line though, make sure to try to get your armies out before they are surrounded

[FOARP]

Great AARs! Thanks for posting them.

As a word of advice, if the on-screen action is limited to a portion of the map, it's better to crop the image using GIMP or a similar tool so as to focus only on that part of the map where action is taking place, rather than post the whole image but with the quality reduced to get under the 200kb limit.

I really hope Matrix rethink the 200kb limit for attachments to posts as it really makes it difficult to post screenshots in AARs.

[Cpuncher]

1. Are those French units in N Africa? I didn't know they would stay there after the fall of France.

2. Also I want to make sure I understand what "attack across" a river means. So rivers are inside a hex but on 1 or more particular sides of a hex. "Attack across" includes both "attack into" and "attack out of" a hex with a river through a side that the river is on. This is a bit confusing to me because apparently "move" is treated differently from "attack". When move across a major river, the movement penalty only applies when move "into" but not "out of" a hex with the major river. Also "move" doesn't consider "across" or "along". Move "along" a major river will have movement penalty (if no road) while Attack "along" a river will have none. Am I correct on this? If so, can the Devs change the "movement penalty" mechanism to the same as the "attack penalty" as it's very confusing right now when they are treated differently.

[HamburgerMeat]

@FOARP Yes, I will try doing that from now on

@Cpuncher I think that you're right. Something to note is if the river is in the middle of the hex rather than the outside (I think that indicates that it is part of the sea?) So looking at the hex NE of Odessa, if you attack a unit on that hex while your unit is standing on Odessa, you will take a 35% readiness penalty.

And french units that are inside UK borders at the time france surrenders have a chance at joining the UK. They revert back to french units once france is liberated

[Cpuncher]

ORIGINAL: HamburgerMeat

@Cpuncher I think that you're right. Something to note is if the river is in the middle of the hex rather than the outside (I think that indicates that it is part of the sea?) So looking at the hex NE of Odessa, if you attack a unit on that hex while your unit is standing on Odessa, you will take a 35% readiness penalty.

And french units that are inside UK borders at the time france surrenders have a chance at joining the UK. They revert back to french units once france is liberated

Thanks a lot! I wonder what that probability is for French units to join UK. If it's high enough I might want to ship a lot of French to UK while send all UK units to France. UK units can be rebuild anyway at 60%, and cheaper if bought with upgrades. Downside is of course the early invasion of USSR.

[HamburgerMeat]

Currently it is May 1940. Clausewitz will likely be invading the USSR next turn. However, having noticed a few turns ago that he did not invade Norway and that Norway was close to joining the Axis, I decided to invade it. I attack the port to prevent any troop transport from coming in, and use my level 2 naval weapon carriers to attack the town, thereby preventing any Norwegian units from operating to the capitol.

The Americans cut lend-lease to the UK, but I think it was well worth it. With control of both Italian North Africa and Norway, I am in range of attacking multiple axis minors.

The UK cannot go toe to toe with the axis until the USA joins. Therefore, the UK must reduce axis MPPs while avoiding a major confrontation.

I also invade and conquer Iraq. If the axis do not push up far enough, then the Iraq coup never happens. Again, the USA is not too happy, but I'm sure the yanks will get over it.

[HamburgerMeat]

ORIGINAL: Cpuncher

ORIGINAL: HamburgerMeat

@Cpuncher I think that you're right. Something to note is if the river is in the middle of the hex rather than the outside (I think that indicates that it is part of the sea?) So looking at the hex NE of Odessa, if you attack a unit on that hex while your unit is standing on Odessa, you will take a 35% readiness penalty.

And french units that are inside UK borders at the time france surrenders have a chance at joining the UK. They revert back to french units once france is liberated

Thanks a lot! I wonder what that probability is for French units to join UK. If it's high enough I might want to ship a lot of French to UK while send all UK units to France. UK units can be rebuild anyway at 60%, and cheaper if bought with upgrades. Downside is of course the early invasion of USSR.

I think that it is a 20-25% chance for French units to join the UK? I am not sure

[Tanaka]

ORIGINAL: HamburgerMeat

@FOARP Yes, I will try doing that from now on

@Cpuncher I think that you're right. Something to note is if the river is in the middle of the hex rather than the outside (I think that indicates that it is part of the sea?) So looking at the hex NE of Odessa, if you attack a unit on that hex while your unit is standing on Odessa, you will take a 35% readiness penalty.

And french units that are inside UK borders at the time france surrenders have a chance at joining the UK. They revert back to french units once france is liberated

Interesting did not know this about French units. Does this include the navy? Enjoying the AAR thanks!

[HamburgerMeat]

I dont believe so no. At least it has never happened for me

[HamburgerMeat]

With only Hungarian/Romanian troops compromising Army group north and few troops attacking Smolensk, the main thrust of the Axis attack is coming through the Urkraine. I immediately operate Zhukov over and assign him control over important armies/corp in the south. This will be a bloodbath. Engineers have finished most fortifications near Rostov are starting to build around Stalingrad. Ideally the USSR will hold them at Rostov until 1941, but that is unlikely given the size of army group south (spotted about 5 tank corp, artillery, and probably most of the luftwaffe)

[HamburgerMeat]

Axis forces take Krivoy Rog, but do not heavily engage Soviet forces. Next turn, I expect a bloodbath to occur. I swap the corp in Dnepropetrovsk with an experienced army: I want to bloody the Axis armored speartip. I place my armored forces closeby, so that, if a counterattack opportunity presents itself, I will be readily to clean up as many panzers as possible.

Interesting to note is that there are panzers in Finland of all places! I move an army back to Leningrad in the event of a breakthrough

The USSR declines to send aid to China, as the war will be won in the USSR, not China. The USSR needs every MPP it can get.

The Axis also declares war on Vichy, pissing off America enough to restart lend lease. Operators at US ports are confused at the mixed messages over the past several weeks.

[HamburgerMeat]

Meanwhile in China, Japan has invested in strategic bombers, and is annihilating supply in the North. With few supplies, I don't expect Chengchow to hold much longer than 2 turns. I rebuild armies and plan to hold Sian