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So after a few small scenario runs, 4-5 repeats of the German opening attacks I've finally concluded my first campaign game as the axis on easy difficulty. I won a decisive victory in July of 1943. I initially thought the Soviets would fold after Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad were taken, but to my dismay they didn't. Then I thought well just go take the oil fields... all of them, and I did that and still no surrender. It wasn't until I took Gorky, Kuibyshev and Kazan that I finally hit required VP's to win a decisive.

As I played after the first 5-6 turns my attention to detail diminished a bit and I wasn't paying tons of attention to some of the things I was doing on the opening moves. I never did much with the Luftwaffe after the opening bombings on the Soviet air force and just let the AI handle it. There were some times that I dropped supplies but generally the AI managed all of it. By games end the Soviet air force as at least 2-3 times the size of mine. In manpower they were sitting somewhere around 2.7 - 2.9 million to my German manpower that was somewhere around 4 million.

It seemed so easy to make huge encirclement's where 20-30 inf/cav divisions/corps would be wrapped and destroyed turn after turn. Not sure this really was feasible in reality. Whenever I put max infantry or armor stacks together rarely would the Russian's not route. It seemed on easy the game was literally too easy. Does difficulty change how the AI responds to things?

Lastly as much fun as I had, after about 100 turns I'm not sure there is as much replay ability with WiTE. Maybe I just need a break as I'm burned out just trying to churn through turns. I am not sure I ever want to play the Soviets it seems so much more involved and way more challenging trying to bleed the axis enough to start punching back. Trying to remember all the rule nuances is also problematic and dealing with unit creation on the Soviet side also seems to add yet another layer of detail.

Anyone have similar thoughts or experiences? Are the Axis just easier to play and win with?

It sounds to me like you need to play another human. Then you will find infinite new varieties of game play and situations.

Does difficulty change how the AI responds to things?

The game will get more challenging as you increase the difficulty level, even though the AI doesn't get more intelligent. So IMO there are more worthwhile games vs AI, but play the attacking side.
Human opponent is the way to go for the most stimulating game.

I've looked over some of the games in human vs human and it mostly looks the same, the Germans do this miracle level double envelopment in the south: Lvov to Romanian border and the second outer ring around Rovno, which would have been impossible to do in reality. Seems pretty textbook of a move now that it's 'known'. Then I see further on the Russians are way behind the historical curve as the turns go...

Do you all find that to be generally the case, that the Russians get mauled? Are there any games by equally good players that the Germans don't get beyond historical in 41?

The short answer is, yes you can get past 41 without being completely mauled

Lower level games tend to have the Soviets coming out stronger than other skill levels, they tend to have more slugging and grinding offensives, compared to grand maneuvers
Mid level games, it is more dependant on the strengths and weaknesses of each player and their matching playstyles, to gauge how a match would go
Higher level games, one big mistake and you're done

Axis is much easier to master and play well, compared to the Soviets

ORIGINAL: tyronec

Does difficulty change how the AI responds to things?

The game will get more challenging as you increase the difficulty level, even though the AI doesn't get more intelligent. So IMO there are more worthwhile games vs AI, but play the attacking side.
Human opponent is the way to go for the most stimulating game.

The problem with increasing the difficulty levels is it just becomes a grinding war against the AI. You could try increasing the admin level for your AI opponent rather than just an accross the board increase like Challenging.

ORIGINAL: Revennant
I am not sure I ever want to play the Soviets it seems so much more involved and way more challenging trying to bleed the axis enough to start punching back.

Also the German AI is just much worse than the Soviet AI. Apart from a scripted turn 1 it will never play as the Germans did. The motorised forces will just be used as slog infantry. If you want to play a game that at least resembles the sort of things that happened in world war two on the Soviet side, you do need to play another person.

You can always play in one of the team games which makes it less of a one man slog and has other benefits too?

I'd second Tele's proposition, when I first properly started playing against other humans, it was in team games
I learnt an incredible amount from tutelage, cross examination and a smaller/shared base of responsbility relieved a lot of the pressure of getting over the first few hurdles

It was a real shame when they were being spoiled because someone did not want others to play their own team games. Matrix ended up having to give bans to stop it. I hope that is not returning.

ORIGINAL: Telemecus


You can always play in one of the team games which makes it less of a one man slog and has other benefits too?

As a new player, absolutely the best thing I've done to help me learn the game.

+1

ORIGINAL: Beria
It was a real shame when they were being spoiled because someone did not want others to play their own team games. Matrix ended up having to give bans to stop it. I hope that is not returning.

I'm not quite sure I understand your meaning?