Tips for a struggling newcomer?

[clonedino]

I have read the manual and seen quite a bit of people suggest never attacking with armored units/motorized units but this doesn't seem to work to well. I am playing the GC on normal after having played the Road to Leningrad and Destruction of Southwestern Front scenarios a few times, didn't win any of them. First off, I am confused as to how to maintain the offensive past turn 1. It seems armored units can barely win any battles, even against the weakest of formations, while motorized units and infantry units can sometimes win battles with initial odds of 1:2 or lose battles with initial odds of 20:1 without the initial CV showing any change after the battle. While I have heard judging combat is an art, I am not even familiar with the most basic of principles, terrain doesn't seem to make a difference nor having ground support on. After a first turn that is fairly successful, nearly all divisions are out of CPP either through movement or attacking. The issue with continuing the offensive is there is usually a line of troops blocking my units. No big deal, send a motorized forward to break it apart, win sometimes and lose others, oh well. On the times I do win, ZOC absolutely limits my breakthrough to two or three hexes. I try breaking the three units in front of my planned advance, usually doesn't work, but when it does there are units immediately behind the line that I can never beat. I have tried splitting units into regiments to preserve CPP when they are reformed, works on turn 1 but again, if entire divisions can't win battles, regiments definitely can't. None of this would be a big deal, I would just try new tactics and see what works, but every AAR I see for the grand campaigns has the same general outline of advance and logic dictating attacking and advancing yet they are usually farther on turn 2 then I can get on turn 5. Really enjoying the game so far, although the results so far have been infuriating. I generally leave the AI air assist on as it seems to provide very little benefit to manage yourself, at least in the early stages of Barbarossa. I have also heard tips of never using all the movement points of an infantry division, not entirely certain of the logic here nor how it is even possible in the first 16 or so turns, nor do I understand how to have infantry be the breakthrough units as slow as they are. My goal is to shoot for major pockets on turn 1 then a series of minor pockets building up to larger pockets around Smolensk or so. Army Group South is a whole entire beast by itself, the OOB seems pretty trashed at the beginning, usually reorganize things to fit into the command points. Also unsure of how important support units are, not sure who/when to attack them to units. Any tips would be appreciated in these regards. Thanks!

[malyhin1517]

If your unit has become weak, then you need to check its supply and CPP. Panzer and motorized divisions are usually in assault armies, you just need to leave the unit in the rear and not move for 1-2 turns, preferably closer to the depot, then it will become strong again. The same goes for any weak unit. But if the unit is in a regular headquarters, then it will need 3-4 turns to restore the CPP. Pay special attention to the supply, do not move very far from the depot, especially in bad weather. Also, when using tank troops, keep in mind that they have penalties in the forest and in cities. Use infantry to attack the enemy in such hexes. If necessary, if there is no time to increase the CPP, use a prepared attack of several units from adjacent hexes. It is also possible to increase the strength of units by subordinating engineers or other support units to them. The game has many options for action and each player has his own tactics and strategy of the game. Learn AAR. Play with other players and see how they play. Good luck!

[Wiedrock]

First off, I am confused as to how to maintain the offensive past turn 1.
[...]
After a first turn that is fairly successful, nearly all divisions are out of CPP either through movement or attacking.

• There are special T1 rules in the GC, Soviets/their Airforce are mostly braindead once you do your first attacks, that's why there is such huge difference between T1 (braindead Soviets + you having full CPP) and the following turns.

---

It seems armored units can barely win any battles, even against the weakest of formations
[...]
[...]terrain doesn't seem to make a difference[...]

• As malyhin1517 mentioned, if you attack with a Panzerdivision into "bad" terrain (heavy woods, across river, city/urban/heavy urban ...), this will result in your CVs comming from AFVs going down by a lot. This isn't represented in neither the units CV, the pre-battle-tooltip nor the initial battle-report-CV. See my thread about this, I did some little painting of how/when CVs change and where these changes are/n't shown, this may help you. (click the blue arrow to the right of "wrote:" of the following quote)

  CV Modifiers V1.png

• or as malyhin1517 wrote, rest your units to gain CPP (CPP is a multiplier for attackCV, where 100CPP means doubling your attackCV(already included in your CounterCV-Values))

---

On the times I do win, ZOC absolutely limits my breakthrough to two or three hexes.
[...]
[...]nor do I understand how to have infantry be the breakthrough units as slow as they are.

• As long as Inf is your front line, you can use the MPs of your Inf to break the first line of defence and then rush your motorized/armored CUs through the breach, concerning the ZOC you need to have 3 free Hexes and then take the path through the middle one of the three free Hexes to save some MPs (as far as I have understood this).

---

I am not even familiar with the most basic of principles, terrain doesn't seem to make a difference nor having ground support on.
[...]
Also unsure of how important support units are, not sure who/when to attac[h] them to units. Any tips would be appreciated in these regards.

• There are 4 important rules you have to remember when it comes to SUs.
  1. A HQ can only sends out SUs to CUs max. 5 Hexes away. (RNG is also involved)
  2. Only HQs in the direct chain of command can send SUs to CUs engaged in combat.
  3. After Moving a HQ this HQ can only send SUs to "Deliberate Attacks" untill your next turn.
  4. Many SUs seem weak (Artillery) since they have low CV. But their job isn't to add CV to you, it's rather to remove CV from the enemy (post-combat-CV) by disrupting/damaging/destroying them.
  • 4.1 (same goes for GroundSupport Planes/Missions)

[jasonbroomer]

I wouldn't embark on the GC until you have a better understanding of the user interface and game mechanisms. Stick with the smaller scenarios until you feel more fluid, with the AI on 100 moral and then try 110 moral once you start to win. There is a huge learning curve in this game, but that's part of the fun!

The air war isn't crucial to understand, so you can side line this to the AI. Only Naval Patrol is really useful, to isolate ports. It is satisfying to master this area of the game, but other areas should be prioritised to learn. GS usually has a modest impact on battles. Learning to maximise the benefits of artillery and pioneers ( ie versus dug in troops) is more important.

Some of the issues with German armour have been fixed in patches. They are still a bit fragile and use them sparingly. These are principally mobile units, though they can be employed to make a real mess of Soviet formations if they have already been retreated in the current turn.

The Germans should be crushing the Soviets in battles over the first few turns. CCP is very important. Terrain is important as is fortification level. Soviets in the open should be brushed aside, probably. Attacking with regiments is something really only for the first turn or possibly the second. You need to know what you are doing (such as smashing through fortification zones, which when unmanned by divisions are nothing more than speed bumps).

Assault armies get accelerated CCP point recovery if certain conditions are met (I wrote an article on this in the war room, though designed for intermediate players). Take time to understand how CCP is recovered and the quickest ways to do it. I invest a lot of time on this during a game.

I presume you have your supply network sorted? Get those rail repair units working at 100% efficiency.

Leaders have a big impact on combat. They have various attributes, infantry and mech scores are the most important for combat. Assign someone like Model or Manstein to your key attacks. Thus thinking a turn or two ahead is helpful (virtually impossible for a novice to do in the complex GC though)

[MarkShot]

I wouldn't embark on the GC until you have a better understanding of the user interface and game mechanisms. Stick with the smaller scenarios until you feel more fluid, with the AI on 100 moral and then try 110 moral once you start to win. There is a huge learning curve in this game, but that's part of the fun!

Yes, I look at the scenarios as "intelligent design". They have been put out there in such a way to gradually teach the skills you are going to need to handle the vast GC. Of course, if you are a long-term WITx player, you can probably just jump into the GCs without to re-training.

Not only do the scenarios limit overwhelming the player, but it is easier to spot best practices and mistakes, because you spend more time focusing on less scope. I think the scenarios are more than bite-size games for PBEM play.

[Jango32]

If you are completely fine with learning through possible failures or not doing things optimally from the get-go, starting with the grand campaign straight away is perfectly viable.

[Commanderski]

I've always started with the GC even back with WITE 1. If things don't work out start over or stop and take a look at what you are doing. Part of the fun in this game is getting yourself out of difficult situations that you more than likely caused yourself...