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Hi,

I haven't played the game since near launch but a buddy wants to have a game. I'll be Axis.

Can I ask: using current patch 1.10, what are "valid" axis strategies to follow?

Overall is it worth it to try to take Egypt? To take Malta? (and if so how is it done - in particular Malta) To take Greece? Should Yugo be attacked before the "coup" in March 41? If the coup happens do they actually join allies or just "tilt" allied?

What is a safe basic strategy to follow for Italian research and production?

What is a safe basic strategy to follow for German research and production?

Should the KM be used up as raiders or saved for something else? Should subs be built?

Does Denmark have to be attacked or does it fall automatically to Germany by some event? Same for Norway?

I seem to remember that when I originally played I felt that the "anti-tank" inf and the "heavy armor" tanks "escort" fighters were better technologies to research and use. Is it still slanted this way?

I also seem to recall that Russia should build lots of cav and never upgrade its' initial weak armies since those were never very good and just a waste of manpower and production and they should be simply disbanded as the struggle with Germany progressed. Is this still the case?

Any other advice for Axis welcome - ty!

Does Denmark have to be attacked or does it fall automatically to Germany by some event? Same for Norway?

Both have to be taken if you want them.

Denmark is usually easy to take but there is a gotcha. You need to take Copenhagen but German infantry doesn't have enough movement to do that in one turn. They can kill the unit there but don't have any movement points to occupy the hex. The Allied player can exploit this to drop troops into Denmark through the ports before the country surrenders. Also, since the mines aren't blocking the passages into the Baltic, some Allied players have used this to throw off Axis plans.

I usually pull one Panzer in Poland back to a railroad after it expends about half it's point helping the attack in Poland. It can then be moved by rail to the border and used in the last turn of September to take Copenhagen (and Denmark) in one turn. But this may cause you to take three turns to conquer Poland.

Others have used one of their Landing Ships to put a division into Copenhagen after the Infantry kills the defender. But that uses up on of your Landing Craft.

Norway has been made a little more difficult over the last few updates. I am not sure it is worth taking so haven't developed any plans for doing it.

Lets see if I can answer some of these...

Egypt...if you can take it great...chances slim. If you are playing an average player it is highly unlikely you will take Egypt. Basically the UK has to completely mess up for you to take it or you need a ton of luck. Supply is just to hard to get. IF you can take a port there..ANY port then due to the way port supply works you can take Egypt but it will require a very large German assist...which may or may not effect your invasion of the USSR.

German research for me is Assault, Both Armor, Inteceptor, Attack Sub and left overs go to Close support...once it gets later in the game, USSR focus on heavy armor...as they defense is nicer.

For the Italians...well Heavy Armor, Anti Tank, Assault then its your pick. I go Naval air sometimes...sometimes inteceptor...ships are to expensive too upgrade...sub research a waste...their air is not great so...your pick there.

Save the KM for a bit...you need winter to get them out.
BUILD SUBS...they can do a LOT of damage to the UK. If you don't they will just build a massive army. Most games now I have 9 subs...and release the KM at some point to cripple their oil and economy.

Denmark must fall...you can do it with a single large corps if you know how...basically it moves you split it...you bomb the Capital with your two stukas and you attack and move in the split infantry division...play around with it. I use the corp sitting in Berlin.

Norway is a debate. I don't take it. 50 MS means 10 more turns to hurt the UK economy. Same with the Netherlands and Greece.
I will take the Netherlands, in 41 normally before the Allies invade but and may take Norway at some point but a free 500 points of MS is a huge issue.
Greece just gives you Bulgaria...and that unit is what you need to garrison Greece. If you know how to take it in a turn then it is worth it if not...it is more cost than worth it to me.
Yugo you should take. It has a lot of PP in it and is not that expensive to take or garrison. Hungry has a use.

Heavy Tank Yes.
Escort Fighter vs Intceptor...Debatable. Range vs damage. Once the heavy bombers arrive your fighters just get shot down anyways...
Anti-tank vs Assault? I go Assault...but that is me. If I plan to lose then Anti-tank...but who plans that?

I would not build Cav...just infantry. I would not disband much if anything...
The repaired units are actually better than the full strength ones because when you repair them they get better experience. But there is a cost to that.
Repair mech and armor. I don't repair the damaged infantry but may start...cavalry...well they are up in the air. They are the only units that can move more than 5 in the USSR arsenal until 1943 now so maybe they are worth a little more...but anti-tank infantry will win since they can now be automatically converted to half armies and merged in the future...though not many will be alive to see that time.


For the Axis...WATCH YOUR OIL...try to get it near 100% every spring because by winter it will be WAY down...especially since you have to give it to everyone so they can fight.
Always leave a retreat hex for your armor/mech...shatter sucks. But that is being addressed in the next patch.
The KM can be a BOA game changer...IF you get them out to sea build supply oilers and they can travel the seas forever.
It costs you oil but they can sink a LOT of MS. BUT wait for the UK navy to be busy with their carriers somewhere because they will find them sooner or later. The KM is good for sinking the Russian navy that will go after your MS.
I love to Strat bomb the French. I normally pull all my planes back from Poland turn one...NO air battles above Poland. Then I hit the French. IF they leave their fighters on full support odds are you will decimate them, same with the UK. BUT this can be costly. Sometimes you win...sometimes you lose. If you win you can cripple the French. I was able once to knock 30 points out of the production every turn by bombing Lille into the stoneage. Lots of free experience for your planes...IF YOU WIN the air war. But watch the French...they can be sneaky with their AA and fighters out of range of your escorts.

Just a few points

UK doesn't start with any LCs now so they can't be annoying as long as you follow the usual method of taking Denmark: as described by stjeand

Another big change you might not notice is with trucks. You could keep the pzs going by giving them a 6% readiness boost with 2 trucks costing 9PP. Now you have to use 6 trucks costing 18PP just to get a 4% increase.

At the beginning you can research both heavy and breakthrough for armour. As breakthru' has a higher starting tech, it's good to buy some more before taking out Belgium + France. You probably need to switch research away from breakthru' after getting to '41. You can now change specialities for 1 pt per unit strength so you can switch them to heavy when that's on a higher tech level. You also have to pay for the upgrade if you switch to that higher tech level. Alvaro doesn't dole out free lunches............

Thanks for the answers!

ORIGINAL: stjeand
Lets see if I can answer some of these...
Egypt...if you can take it great...chances slim. If you are playing an average player it is highly unlikely you will take Egypt. Basically the UK has to completely mess up for you to take it or you need a ton of luck. Supply is just to hard to get. IF you can take a port there..ANY port then due to the way port supply works you can take Egypt but it will require a very large German assist...which may or may not effect your invasion of the USSR.

Can you explain briefly why any port will work? Do you just mean that the port will be fewer hexes away from your troops if you take a port there and don't have to trace from Tobruk?

For the Italians...well Heavy Armor, Anti Tank, Assault then its your pick. I go Naval air sometimes...sometimes inteceptor...ships are to expensive too upgrade...sub research a waste...their air is not great so...your pick there.

Do you turn italian navy units upgrade "off" so they don't waste production? If you go naval air do you disband the italian starting interceptor? And do you "convert" one of your italian bombers to naval air in that case?

Denmark must fall...you can do it with a single large corps if you know how...basically it moves you split it...you bomb the Capital with your two stukas and you attack and move in the split infantry division...play around with it. I use the corp sitting in Berlin.

So is the idea to occupy copenhagen so that UK can't just sail a unit into port during their following turn without using any LC? Or is it something different? And the port in north Denmark you don't have to worry about because if UK lands there you can just drive them off the beaches? Part of my question is I guess I don't know when the hexes in a conquered country convert to control of the conqueror - I mean if you take Copenhagen does that "convert" the rest of the country before the UK gets their turn?

Escort Fighter vs Intceptor...Debatable. Range vs damage. Once the heavy bombers arrive your fighters just get shot down anyways...

Can you explain this more? Why would heavy bombers shoot down interceptors? You mean U.S. heavy bombers shoot down the Luftwaffe interceptors? Or something else? Are you saying at some point you should just disband the German interceptors or not put any on west front? If you do that then are you building lots of flak points? Or something else?

I would not build Cav...just infantry. I would not disband much if anything...
The repaired units are actually better than the full strength ones because when you repair them they get better experience. But there is a cost to that.
Repair mech and armor. I don't repair the damaged infantry but may start...cavalry...well they are up in the air. They are the only units that can move more than 5 in the USSR arsenal until 1943 now so maybe they are worth a little more...but anti-tank infantry will win since they can now be automatically converted to half armies and merged in the future...though not many will be alive to see that time.

The starting mech and armor for USSR seems to have low experience, is it worth keeping them or better to disband and build them with higher experience later? iirc the base USSR experience goes up at some point but I don't recall when (for newly built units). Are you saying you fight 1941 with the starting corp strength units? Then somehow you upgrade those to armies? Is there a button to do this once the war starts?

Always leave a retreat hex for your armor/mech...shatter sucks. But that is being addressed in the next patch.

Oh, there is a patch coming? Do we know when? Seems like addressing shatter of armor/mech would be a big deal for Germans in Russia.

I love to Strat bomb the French. I normally pull all my planes back from Poland turn one...NO air battles above Poland. Then I hit the French. IF they leave their fighters on full support odds are you will decimate them, same with the UK. BUT this can be costly. Sometimes you win...sometimes you lose. If you win you can cripple the French. I was able once to knock 30 points out of the production every turn by bombing Lille into the stoneage. Lots of free experience for your planes...IF YOU WIN the air war. But watch the French...they can be sneaky with their AA and fighters out of range of your escorts.

This sounds interesting. To get your planes to bomb the city you just have to click on the "bomb strategic" right-most of the 4 targeting options at the top of the air unit card? Then they hit Lille production?

If planes have to fly around Belgium I only see 2 hexes that are within 8 range of Lille for your German interceptors to base. Is that enough interceptors to escort your bombers? I assume each bombing mission uses up 1 interceptor mission so that would be 4 bombing (and intercepting) missions available to hit Lille per turn? Or do planes fly over Belgium?

How would France putting their fighters out of range of your escorts matter? The air battle takes place over the hex being bombed (Lille) so it shouldn't matter where the French interceptors are based? Or am I missing an understanding of some game mechanic?

I guess you also bomb Metz?

Oops, double post.

ORIGINAL: jjdenver

Hi,

I haven't played the game since near launch but a buddy wants to have a game. I'll be Axis.

Can I ask: using current patch 1.10, what are "valid" axis strategies to follow?

IMHO there are 2 valid Axis Grand Strategies after the conquest of France. Either Attack Russia in 41, or Conquer the UK in 41. Of these, the Russian strategy is the safest and most popular. But even if you choose this grand strategy there are still numerous decisions you have to make including:
1. To conquer Norway and the Netherlands or not? Most players now don't for the reasons I explained in your other post
2. To conquer Vichy France and French North Africa or not? I generally do to keep the Allies as far away from Italy as possible. But I know a lot of players don't as it is a lot of ports to garrison and it gives the Allies the French Fleet. Both are valid IMHO.
3. To conquer Yugoslavia or not?
4. To conquer Greece or not? I generally don't, but many players do.
5. To conquer Malta?
6. How large a force to commit to Africa? In my AAR with Magic Missile (who is a very good player) he essentially abandoned Africa completely and used all his saved resources to build an incredibly strong force for Barbarossa. This is a viable strategy.
7. How many U-Boats to build?

Overall is it worth it to try to take Egypt? To take Malta? (and if so how is it done - in particular Malta) To take Greece? Should Yugo be attacked before the "coup" in March 41? If the coup happens do they actually join allies or just "tilt" allied?

Egypt is a very tough nut to crack. I usually don't even try. There are two exceptions. One is if I can capture a port in Syria or Palestine. This is possible if the British don't conquer Vichy Syria or otherwise don't properly garrison. The other exception is if I am performing Sealion.

What is a safe basic strategy to follow for Italian research and production?

Research: Assault (I think it is a waste to research both Assault and anti-tank), Heavy Armour (though in some games I have disbanded my Italian armour and mech and built lots of Mountain troops), Interceptors (in the beginning, but I often disband my fighter at some point), Close Support and Warships (it is expensive to upgrade but can give the British a few surprises).

Production: Usually build another armour, several mountain corps and lots of small corps (for garrisons). Of course, you also have to build some landing ships to keep the British honest and some supply trucks.

What is a safe basic strategy to follow for German research and production?

Research: Assault, Breakthrough (until achieve 41 tech), Heavy Armour. Interceptor, Close Support and Attack subs

Production: It is very important that as soon as Poland is conquered you put all your infantry into garrison mode and use the production to build at least 2 (and preferably 3) Armour, 2 to 4 Mechanized and 1 Fighter for the Battle of France. Depending on how many armour/mech you build you may want to also build another para and a TAC bomber. Also build some supply trucks. Enough that you can use up 20 to 30 per turn in France. After France is conquered what you build will depend on your grand strategy. If Sealion you will need to build Landing Ships and perhaps more air units. If Barbarossa, you will want to have at least 8 or 9 armour and 5 or so Mechanized and 20+ Infantry to be used in Russia alone. Some players build even more armour/mech than this. Save enough production that most of your units (except garrisons) will upgrade as soon as you get a tech advance.

Should the KM be used up as raiders or saved for something else? Should subs be built?

I used to send the KM out raiding. But my recent experience is that it takes a lot of damage quickly. Other players seem to have better luck. I suggest using it opportunistically if, for example, you believe most of the RN is in the Med. In any event, do not raid with the KM until the France is conquered (and the French Fleet is removed).

Does Denmark have to be attacked or does it fall automatically to Germany by some event? Same for Norway?

Answered.

I seem to remember that when I originally played I felt that the "anti-tank" inf and the "heavy armor" tanks "escort" fighters were better technologies to research and use. Is it still slanted this way?

Heavy armour definitely. The other two I don't think so. The Axis can't afford to research too many techs. Since most Axis units start with the Assault Tech you obviously have to research this and therefore can't afford the Anti-tank tech. Generally speaking I don't think the Axis need the range of the escorts as in most cases it is easy enough for them to get their fighters within 6 hexes of where they need to be. Besides, the Germans start with 40 interceptor tech.

It is different for the Allies.

I also seem to recall that Russia should build lots of cav and never upgrade its' initial weak armies since those were never very good and just a waste of manpower and production and they should be simply disbanded as the struggle with Germany progressed. Is this still the case?

Russia's small corps have been upgraded a bit and will now convert to "small" armies (which can be combined into large armies). So I build lots of them, not cavalry. As soon as they are built they are put into garrison mode and not upgraded. The vast majority of them will be destroyed. Those that aren't I will either disband for production, use as garrisons or combine into large armies. I also build 3 armour prior to Barbarossa.

Any other advice for Axis welcome - ty!

Have Fun!

ORIGINAL: jjdenver

Thanks for the answers!

ORIGINAL: stjeand
Lets see if I can answer some of these...
Egypt...if you can take it great...chances slim. If you are playing an average player it is highly unlikely you will take Egypt. Basically the UK has to completely mess up for you to take it or you need a ton of luck. Supply is just to hard to get. IF you can take a port there..ANY port then due to the way port supply works you can take Egypt but it will require a very large German assist...which may or may not effect your invasion of the USSR.

Can you explain briefly why any port will work? Do you just mean that the port will be fewer hexes away from your troops if you take a port there and don't have to trace from Tobruk?

Correct. If you can capture one port in the Levant you can probably land enough troops there to capture more. The only reason the Axis cannot conquer Egypt is because of supply and the narrow battlefield at the Quattara Depression. Capturing the ports in the levant fixes both of those problems.

Denmark must fall...you can do it with a single large corps if you know how...basically it moves you split it...you bomb the Capital with your two stukas and you attack and move in the split infantry division...play around with it. I use the corp sitting in Berlin.

So is the idea to occupy copenhagen so that UK can't just sail a unit into port during their following turn without using any LC? Or is it something different? And the port in north Denmark you don't have to worry about because if UK lands there you can just drive them off the beaches? Part of my question is I guess I don't know when the hexes in a conquered country convert to control of the conqueror - I mean if you take Copenhagen does that "convert" the rest of the country before the UK gets their turn?[/quote]

Neither the UK nor the French begin the game with any landing ships. So if you conquer Denmark in one turn (by capturing Copenhagen) then they don't have the ability to invade any of the other ports in Denmark.

Escort Fighter vs Intceptor...Debatable. Range vs damage. Once the heavy bombers arrive your fighters just get shot down anyways...

Can you explain this more? Why would heavy bombers shoot down interceptors? You mean U.S. heavy bombers shoot down the Luftwaffe interceptors? Or something else? Are you saying at some point you should just disband the German interceptors or not put any on west front? If you do that then are you building lots of flak points? Or something else?[/quote]

Yes, I believe he means that the heavy bombers with their fighter escorts will shoot down lots of German fighters. The Allied bombers and fighters will lose a lot too (especially if the bombed city does have flak) but they can afford the losses easier.

I would not build Cav...just infantry. I would not disband much if anything...
The repaired units are actually better than the full strength ones because when you repair them they get better experience. But there is a cost to that.
Repair mech and armor. I don't repair the damaged infantry but may start...cavalry...well they are up in the air. They are the only units that can move more than 5 in the USSR arsenal until 1943 now so maybe they are worth a little more...but anti-tank infantry will win since they can now be automatically converted to half armies and merged in the future...though not many will be alive to see that time.

The starting mech and armor for USSR seems to have low experience, is it worth keeping them or better to disband and build them with higher experience later? iirc the base USSR experience goes up at some point but I don't recall when (for newly built units). Are you saying you fight 1941 with the starting corp strength units? Then somehow you upgrade those to armies? Is there a button to do this once the war starts?[/quote]

I disband the 3 full strength Russian mechanized but not the others. Russian starting experience has bee reduced to 30, so there is not as big a difference between the disbanded units and the units you can build. Russian experience goes up as it engages in battles. Essentially you do fight 41 with the on map corps. But you will receive reserve corps as well (these are shown as "forming" in your build queue). Russian copra will convert to small armies randomly, you have no control over it.

Thanks for all the great answers on this thread - my overall understanding is greatly helped by these.

A few more questions lingering for me:

Harry mentioned to build a para. I have never been able to successfully use a para. Either organization is too low or they are intercepted and turned back with half casualties. How are these typically used? Specifically in France but also generally?

Harry mentioned that Germans can usually get interceptors within 6 hexes of targets. Is that a typo and it should be 8 hexes? I think their range is 8 - but maybe there is some "escort" rule that only allows them to operate at range 6?

There has been some discussion of allied bombers shooting down the Luftwaffe. Is it generally understood that at some point (43? 44? 45?) Germany pulls fighters back from the western front and just focuses in the east? Or disbands fighters?

How are the western air forces based in Britain typically used? Do the allies usually build strategic bomber specialized units and conduct strategic bombing? Or this doesn't work too well?

Are supply trucks used a lot by Germany? They seem expensive so I've actually never used them a single time. From what I've read on this thread I am making a mistake here. How many does Germany usually build? How many do they typically use per turn? On what units? And in what situations?

I don't really have a full understanding of how to use units most efficiently from an oil point of view. Is it simply keep them on a rail line, use rail instead of regular move? Or is there more to it?

Assault vs Anti-Tank for infantry. Everyone seems to agree that assault is best, but I can't shake the thought that converting everything to anti-tank for Germany is better. The basic reason is that even though AT gives guns not small arms (and guns are halved in attack), AT also gives defense boost which will cause units to take less damage in both attack and defense. Is this invalid somehow?

I don't see a lot of support for researching naval attack with Germany or Italy - is it just not very effective to convert 2 or 3 bombers to naval attack then along with some interceptors try to dominate the sea around Italy in 42/43/44 when allies are trying to take out Italy? Better to keep close air support type of planes in Italy? Or is Italy usually just defended without air support?

Mech vs Armor for the Wermacht - Armor seem more oil efficient (better defense, stronger, etc but use same oil as mech). Why build mech at all? Just for assaults on cities when infantry hasn't come up to the area yet?

About building Russian small corps - if you build them then immediately put them on no upgrade and garrison - this is what you are using to defend in 41? It seems like this will cost a lot of manpower and iirc the Soviets are actually short of manpower in warplan (i.e. they run low easily). And freshly built corps with no upgrade put into garrison mode will be something like 2-2 units - is this even enough to slow down the Germans? Maybe I'm not understanding overall how the Soviets defend - can you explain more?

I guess by 42 or 43 it makes sense for axis to build fixed AA guns and start putting them in western cities? Or not?

ORIGINAL: jjdenver

Thanks for all the great answers on this thread - my overall understanding is greatly helped by these.

A few more questions lingering for me:

Harry mentioned to build a para. I have never been able to successfully use a para. Either organization is too low or they are intercepted and turned back with half casualties. How are these typically used? Specifically in France but also generally?

Don't place your German para when it first becomes available. Don't place it until the turn before you think you might first need it (usually the last April 40 turn). This way it won't lose effectiveness on the snow turns. If you place your para on a rail line and within 5 hexes of an HQ they will gain effectiveness pretty quickly. But when they get up to 90 or so use 2 supply trucks to bump effectiveness by 4%. In order to use paras you need to have air supremacy. This is why you have to build the extra fighter as Germany. Before using your para try and soak off the enemies fighters with air strikes. Once your airstrikes are not intercepted by enemy fighters than your para generally won't be either. The exception is if the enemy has a fighter out of range of where you are bombing, but within range of where you want your para to land. If this is the case be sure to save your best fighter (ie it has at least 1 OP) and that it is range of where you want to para drop. then go ahead and drop and hope your fighter out duels the enemy fighter.

Harry mentioned that Germans can usually get interceptors within 6 hexes of targets. Is that a typo and it should be 8 hexes? I think their range is 8 - but maybe there is some "escort" rule that only allows them to operate at range 6?

Interceptors only have a range of 6. You can check this by clicking on the units to check its stats.

There has been some discussion of allied bombers shooting down the Luftwaffe. Is it generally understood that at some point (43? 44? 45?) Germany pulls fighters back from the western front and just focuses in the east? Or disbands fighters?

This really depends on what is happening in the game. In particular: How many strategic bombers do the Allies have? Are the Axis "winning" or "losing"? Can they afford the air losses? I have only played 1 games where the Allies even built a large strategic air force. Most allied players (well Axis players too for that matter) just build lots of armour and mechanized. But if the Allies do build lots of strategic bombers, I will usually build lots of AA and fighters to counter. But I don't use the fighters every turn. Let the effectiveness of the Allies bombers be worn down and use your fighters only when they are at top effectiveness.

How are the western air forces based in Britain typically used? Do the allies usually build strategic bomber specialized units and conduct strategic bombing? Or this doesn't work too well?

IMHO strategic bombing isn't worth the cost. The bombers can do significant damage to German production, but it will cost the Allies a lot of production themselves. Not only the cost to build the bombers, but the cost to continually upgrade and repair them. The Allies will spend more on production than the Axis will lose. Some say that this is OK because the Allies have a lot more production. But I say that if they spend that production on armour instead of bombers, they will cause the Axis more production damage then they will lose.

Are supply trucks used a lot by Germany? They seem expensive so I've actually never used them a single time. From what I've read on this thread I am making a mistake here. How many does Germany usually build? How many do they typically use per turn? On what units? And in what situations?

The effectiveness of supply trucks has been significantly reduced because now armour/mech and air require double what they used to and they only increase effectiveness by 4% instead of 6%. I used to use an average of 50 supply trucks per turn on the Axis in Russia during the summer months. This was enough for 12 armour/mech and 7 air units every turn. But now I only build and use an average of about 20-25 per turn. Enough for just 3 units. So yes you should build supply trucks. You definitely need to use them on your paras (as stated above) any units that you think might be out of supply on your next turn and any units that are making crucial attacks and need the extra boost.

I don't really have a full understanding of how to use units most efficiently from an oil point of view. Is it simply keep them on a rail line, use rail instead of regular move? Or is there more to it?

Well you certainly want to rail your armour and mech units east prior to Barbarossa. You also want to really restrict the movement of your fleets (other than subs) as they are big oil guzzlers. Between the Fall of France and Barbarossa your German oil supply should rise to close to 100%. If it doesn't you are doing something wrong. You should even have enough to trade/give some oil to Italy. I personally have never come close to running out of oil as the Axis.

Assault vs Anti-Tank for infantry. Everyone seems to agree that assault is best, but I can't shake the thought that converting everything to anti-tank for Germany is better. The basic reason is that even though AT gives guns not small arms (and guns are halved in attack), AT also gives defense boost which will cause units to take less damage in both attack and defense. Is this invalid somehow?

Never tried it. But the cost to convert all your starting units from assault to anti-tank will be excessive.

I don't see a lot of support for researching naval attack with Germany or Italy - is it just not very effective to convert 2 or 3 bombers to naval attack then along with some interceptors try to dominate the sea around Italy in 42/43/44 when allies are trying to take out Italy? Better to keep close air support type of planes in Italy? Or is Italy usually just defended without air support?

I tried this one game, but I wasn't too happy with the results. But now I can't remember why.

Mech vs Armor for the Wermacht - Armor seem more oil efficient (better defense, stronger, etc but use same oil as mech). Why build mech at all? Just for assaults on cities when infantry hasn't come up to the area yet?

Mech are cheaper (you can build 4 for the price of 3 armour), build quicker (very important to have as many mobile units as possible for France), have the same movement, are more expendable and don't cost double the Landing ship point for invasions like armour do. So yes, armour are more valuable and you should build more of them, but Mechanized have their uses too.

About building Russian small corps - if you build them then immediately put them on no upgrade and garrison - this is what you are using to defend in 41? It seems like this will cost a lot of manpower and iirc the Soviets are actually short of manpower in warplan (i.e. they run low easily). And freshly built corps with no upgrade put into garrison mode will be something like 2-2 units - is this even enough to slow down the Germans? Maybe I'm not understanding overall how the Soviets defend - can you explain more?

The Russians are not short of Manpower before Barbarossa. They may run short later which is why having a few cheap corps to disband for manpower is worth it. I have found them very effective. See my AAR with Hadros for my initial deployment.

I guess by 42 or 43 it makes sense for axis to build fixed AA guns and start putting them in western cities? Or not?

Depends on if the Allies are building bombers or not.

Assault vs Anti-Tank for infantry. Everyone seems to agree that assault is best, but I can't shake the thought that converting everything to anti-tank for Germany is better. The basic reason is that even though AT gives guns not small arms (and guns are halved in attack), AT also gives defense boost which will cause units to take less damage in both attack and defense. Is this invalid somehow?

Well I do not agree assault is " better " it depends on the task. I actually even thing that 41 tech AT is actually objectively better since it as same stats +1 in one. With Soviets and Italy I research both about equal from start. With Germany also but with but much less points in TA at start. But I try to catch up the AT tech late 43, early 44 (if I last until then) and build some for defense (Those in France in ports are AT from start in anticipation of upgrading). Of course, there is a price to pay in other tech allocation.

don't cost double the Landing ship point for invasions like armour do

I did not know that![X(] Good to know! Thanks!