UK Playthrough - Guidance

[jarcher1701]

Can anyone help explain what went wrong with my approach as the UK, defending North Africa/Egypt.

I enjoyed building up my forces in the early war years and the naval war went well. In the West of Egypt, I had 2 armies and 1 corp holding the line - supported by artillery immediately behind, two tank units on the southern flank, and 3 tactical bombers escorted by 2 fighters and 1 interceptor within range.

When Rommel attacked, their anti-tank somehow took out most of my Corp holding the center of a vertical front line (my artillery had little effect with their counter battery). Their recon armoured car then finished the corp off, and pushed through the lines causing havoc followed by their Panzer unit.

Firstly, how the hell does an anti-tank and armoured car (a recon unit) cause that much damage on one turn. Secondly, why - on the following turn - do my units have zero effect against their recon unit. Strikes by my bombers, tank units and armies had very little effect. I managed to damage the anti-tank a bit but it escaped.

If anyone can explain what I did wrong here, I'd appreciate it. I had two HQ units as well, and supply seemed fine.

[Taxman66]

Supply, supply, supply.
It looks like your units were in poor supply.
Were the HQs at full strength? The one in El Alamein should be pushing 8 and the other should be close enough to get 3 from the 1st so it can also push 8. You want to keep units in hexes where they are getting at least 5 if you're defending.
Which units were linked to the HQs and what level of C&C did you have?
How good (i.e. their command rating) were the HQs? There's a huge difference between Gort & Monty.

Other items of a bit lower importance:
I'd have the planes in the rear huddled around the back HQ.

Don't need to defend so far south.
Best to keep tanks in high supply and linked to HQs and not on the front line, so as to counter attack.

[The Land]

ORIGINAL: Taxman66

Supply, supply, supply.
It looks like your units were in poor supply.
Were the HQs at full strength? The one in El Alamein should be pushing 8 and the other should be close enough to get 3 from the 1st so it can also push 8. You want to keep units in hexes where they are getting at least 5 if you're defending.
Which units were linked to the HQs and what level of C&C did you have?
How good (i.e. their command rating) were the HQs? There's a huge difference between Gort & Monty.

Pretty much exactly this - you should aim to keep your whole force above 5 as far as possible, and the most important units (e.g. tanks and air) higher most of the time.

In poor supply your units' readiness will suck, their Morale will fall, and their combat effectiveness will become close to 0.

Better to keep your forces closer to the coast, with the air in the rear not on the flank. air in particular needs to be attached to an HQ to get supply benefits (which it really needs).

[jarcher1701]

Thank you both for providing some guidance. I had no idea how vital high supply was. I did check supply, and saw 3s and 4s for most of my units - so I assumed this would be adequate. Clearly not. I'll revert to an earlier save and move my forces north, into high supply hexes, and see what happens.

Thanks again!

[Markiss]

Supply or not, it is still unusual for an anti-tank and a recon unit to kill a corps in 2 hits. Especially if it was entrenched. I wonder if there were some additional air attacks as well, maybe that you didn't see. I have been having trouble with the replay recently, sometimes it hiccups and skips some enemy attacks or movements(especially air attacks for some reason). It is possible that the unit was bombed and damaged before the ground attacks, rendering it even weaker than the poor supply would dictate.

You may also want to set your HQ's to "auto-assist", and make sure that units in the front line are always attached to an HQ directly, as they are the most likely to be attacked. The AI doesn't always make the greatest choices assigning units to your HQ's, make sure you are doing it yourself. This will help raise your readiness as well.

[Taxman66]

Since this is against the AI, the difficulty level could be contributing as well. The bonus experience the AI gets at the higher levels makes their units stronger.

[Taxman66]

I'd also try changing up your tactics maybe.

Against the AI/Italians, you can push into Libya bypassing Tobruk and screening it with a couple of land units 1 of which should be next to the port to cut that off as well.
You can grab the towns behind Tobruk and that force Rommel to show up at Tripoli.
In the meantime Tobruk's supply will dwindle and when it hits 0 you should be able to take it.

When Rommel's tanks show up as he advances, take note of the unit's supply/morale/readiness. Oftentimes the AI advances a bit too aggressively and you kill the tanks in a turn or 2. The AI doesn't send extra help to Africa like a live player will, so once the panzers die it becomes a whole lot easier.

[Elessar2]

ORIGINAL: Markiss

You may also want to set your HQ's to "auto-assist", and make sure that units in the front line are always attached to an HQ directly, as they are the most likely to be attacked. The AI doesn't always make the greatest choices assigning units to your HQ's, make sure you are doing it yourself. This will help raise your readiness as well.

The auto attachment routine in fact does an abysmal job. It SHOULD prioritize armor, then planes (esp. since planes will NOT get much supply without a direct attachment), then infantry armies & mech units.

It instead LOVES to do things such as attach to a garrison 5 hexes behind the front while a plane right next to the HQ is starved for supplies.

I'll just add that the SW HQ is far from the coastal road, which helps to "grease" the supply chain a bit. 3 is the magic number for HQ distances-you do have them 3 apart, but that hill there I believe makes the effective distance 4, porking the SW HQ's distribution supply level.

[jarcher1701]

ORIGINAL: Elessar2

ORIGINAL: Markiss

You may also want to set your HQ's to "auto-assist", and make sure that units in the front line are always attached to an HQ directly, as they are the most likely to be attacked. The AI doesn't always make the greatest choices assigning units to your HQ's, make sure you are doing it yourself. This will help raise your readiness as well.

The auto attachment routine in fact does an abysmal job. It SHOULD prioritize armor, then planes (esp. since planes will NOT get much supply without a direct attachment), then infantry armies & mech units.

It instead LOVES to do things such as attach to a garrison 5 hexes behind the front while a plane right next to the HQ is starved for supplies.

I'll just add that the SW HQ is far from the coastal road, which helps to "grease" the supply chain a bit. 3 is the magic number for HQ distances-you do have them 3 apart, but that hill there I believe makes the effective distance 4, porking the SW HQ's distribution supply level.

Thanks all for your further suggestions and guidance. I'm fairly new to the game, and I'm unsure of how to attach units to a HQ. Do you mean to just place them in a hex next to the HQ, or is there a function I'm missing?

[jarcher1701]

ORIGINAL: Markiss

Supply or not, it is still unusual for an anti-tank and a recon unit to kill a corps in 2 hits. Especially if it was entrenched. I wonder if there were some additional air attacks as well, maybe that you didn't see. I have been having trouble with the replay recently, sometimes it hiccups and skips some enemy attacks or movements(especially air attacks for some reason). It is possible that the unit was bombed and damaged before the ground attacks, rendering it even weaker than the poor supply would dictate.

You may also want to set your HQ's to "auto-assist", and make sure that units in the front line are always attached to an HQ directly, as they are the most likely to be attacked. The AI doesn't always make the greatest choices assigning units to your HQ's, make sure you are doing it yourself. This will help raise your readiness as well.

Thanks Markiss. I thought it was unusual too, which prompted me to post on the forum. I'll keep an eye on the replay, but I didn't notice any Axis bombers at all. They only had a fighter. The things is, I had 3 tac bombers and escorts/interceptors, so I honestly didn't think their air force would pose a problem.

My units were also entrenched. I tried to get the engineers to build some fortifications, but it seemed more trouble than it's worth.

[Shellshock]

ORIGINAL: jarcher1701


Thanks all for your further suggestions and guidance. I'm fairly new to the game, and I'm unsure of how to attach units to a HQ. Do you mean to just place them in a hex next to the HQ, or is there a function I'm missing?

It's all there on Page 73 of your manual.

[Tanaka]

ORIGINAL: Elessar2

ORIGINAL: Markiss

You may also want to set your HQ's to "auto-assist", and make sure that units in the front line are always attached to an HQ directly, as they are the most likely to be attacked. The AI doesn't always make the greatest choices assigning units to your HQ's, make sure you are doing it yourself. This will help raise your readiness as well.

The auto attachment routine in fact does an abysmal job. It SHOULD prioritize armor, then planes (esp. since planes will NOT get much supply without a direct attachment), then infantry armies & mech units.

It instead LOVES to do things such as attach to a garrison 5 hexes behind the front while a plane right next to the HQ is starved for supplies.

I'll just add that the SW HQ is far from the coastal road, which helps to "grease" the supply chain a bit. 3 is the magic number for HQ distances-you do have them 3 apart, but that hill there I believe makes the effective distance 4, porking the SW HQ's distribution supply level.

This should have been improved in one of the last patches with a priority system.

[jarcher1701]

Cheers guys. I did use Auto-Assist, and it definitely made a difference. The Axis did take out one of my units, but they mostly held and I was able to reinforce whilst taking out their Panzer unit and Rommel himself! Screenshot attached.

I keep checking the supply numbers using the button, but I've noticed that it shows one set of numbers on the first click and then another set of numbers on a second click.

I think I'm going to have a deeper read of the excellent manual.

[Will952]

The first click is your current supply, the second click is your estimated supply next turn.

As a general rule aim to keep your HQs on towns with a minimum of 5 supply, as this will mean they distribute 8 supply. If you can put them on a city or town distributing more than 5 supply, they will distribute 10 supply. Often situations will arise where a HQ slightly further back, but distributing 10 supply, is more effective than a further forward HQ distributing 8 or less.