Matrix Games Forums

Hi, I'm trying a GC with the Axis but I have no idea what to do during the first 10+ turns.
I did setup some air missions trying to achieve some air superiority and interdiction levels in both mediterranean and north sea theaters but they seem quite ineffective. Regarding ground operations, after Sicily has been nearly fully captured (just the Messsina region is still resisting) I'm watching the Allies invading Sardinia and Corsica but I don't see any way to resist. I'm trying to move some IT+GER units in central Italy to build a defensive line along the mountains but I don't have many available units to start to organise a strong defense. And anyway, I don't know where the Allies will be landing in the boot so where exactly should I place my defensive lines ?

Hence my questions:

What should I do as Axis in the first 10 turns of the GC ? Would appreciate a few guidelines ... I guess the game is becoming more interesting for the Germans later on ? Or should I play a DDay start campaign instead ?

take this with a pinch of salt as I've only played the axis HtH not vs AI but think the basics hold.

a) XIV Pzr Corps is a problem. Its wonderfully powerful, probably the best Corps on the map, the lure to attack with it is high, every HtH axis player makes this mistake once. It is there is to counter-attack and back up the defensive line.

b) Italy is going to surrender as soon as the allies hit the mainland. Sardinia is a trap and indefensible, Corsica is defensible, the allies will be at the limit of their air range, you can garrison the ports, they'll take it but you can make them wait

c) that matters as the Corsican air bases are key to landings at/near Rome

d) which gets ahead of ourselves

e) when Italy opts out, make sure that Taranto is garrisoned - a FZ unit is all you need, if you Italian partisans will wreck all your train net work south of Naples

f) The Bufano line is a natural defensive perimeter so get set up on that. In HtH most allied players now priorities the Adriatic route northwards (oddly its harder to defend against), not sure what the AI will do.

g) then think of your equivalent to the line north of Naples

h) once the Allies are ashore in force at Rome, you need to pull back to the Arno and Appenines.

So T1-10, its all about delays and force preservation. Your FJ and PzrGr divisions can be scarily awesome as stand behind city defenders, its worth doing this for Reggio Calabria and Naples, but set yourself a budget. Don't fritter the LW away in small operations, wait for a landing and go in mob-handed to contest the sea zones, every time you isolate the beaches (for their half turn) is another delay. In the end the allies will win, but the goal is a nice VP gain from Allied losses.

Against an allied player who doesn't understand the need to keep up the pressure, the axis can bring Italy to a standstill - see Xheol's AAR for this. Maybe feasible vs AI, more likely is something akin to the dynamics in my 2 aars vs GloriousRuse which shows different appreciations of the concept of pressure but also the damage a well timed counter-attack can do.

Brilliant ! Thanks. Very helpful. This definitely opens new perspectives !

What about air ops ? In both North and Mediterranean theaters ... Can Axis do anything really helpful or should they just try to counter/limit Allies actions ? For example, is it possible to achieve some sort of air superiority or real interdiction in the mediterranean ? Can bombing of British cities/industry be efficient/helpful ?

You can get superiority but not sustain it, in the end losses/low morale etc will mean you need to rest more than the allies but you can have fun as they struggle to regain control.

In Italy, its a matter of patience, you have good fighters, the best ground attack planes in the game at that stage (the Fw190 FBs) and enough level of bombers that well chosen they can have an effect. A lot of Italy (again I'm really talking about HtH) is the 2 sides looking for how far they can push it. There are rewards for an over-aggressive allied player (really the 1943 GC VP scoring system makes taking Rome in 1943 very attractive) so you are trying to raise the price of them going too far. If you can (really by threat alone) make them cautious, thats a good outcome.

But always look for something else. So yes, committing to naval interdiction where they don't expect it (say off N Africa) or hitting railyards (the Allies are short of actual trains till they have Rome and Naples) can all pay off - and again might encourage the Allied player to leave some fighters back just in case (I personally often just use the P39s in this sort of insurance role).

There is nothing in the UK worth going for. The resource problem for the allies is no longer production, its delivery to where the fighting is taking place. Its always fun to run the night intruder mission over the UK but that rarely pays off (just its usually low risk). You can get creative in your naval interdiction before D-Day, in my last game as the Axis I effectively closed off the Bristol Channel making it hard to bring the follow on forces from Bristol and Cardiff.

Now all this is from HtH, so I think it applies doubly to vs AI. That is going to be more linear, more predictable in its allocation of air assets, so if you pick your time/spot then you should get dominance for a critical period.

Thank you loki100 ! Very helpful. Greatly appreciated.