A cry for help (Noob player's struggles)

[VK4114]

Hi all! I'm relatively new to wargaming, and I was looking for some tips on my current playthrough. I come from games that are a bit more streamlined, like the Total War series, Paradox games, and Grand Tactician's the Civil War. My only prior wargaming experience was Gary Grigsbys War Between the States, but that seems like child's play compared to WITE2. For some background, this is my 4th or so attempt at playing the Axis, and I fear it may be going the way of my last attempts, that is falling hopelessly behind historical capture dates and losing a sudden loss because I haven't taken enough VPs. I usually get discouraged and quit around the time the mud starts to kick in and start a new playthrough. I've been playing on easy, and I've been letting the AI manage the air save for naval interdiction along Odessa which I ordered myself.

My main issue seems to be that I'm not taking enough land, and usually get bogged down in the center around Smolensk, killing a lot of my momentum. Around turn 6 or 7, the Soviets just seem to be able to throw hordes of trash divisions to stop my offensives, and the advance usually grinds to a halt, even with a healthy dose of painstaking encirclements. I've recently discovered the tactic of forming mini spearheads with Mot and Panzer divs to threaten encirclements I have no intention of closing in order to get the AI to pull back and give my infantry some room to move, but other than that I cannot make worthwhile advances. I also find that I get stretched way too thin front-wise, which I guess is historically accurate, but I don't really know how to mitigate it in any meaningful way. Should I be making more use of the breakdown divisions into 3 smaller ones in order to cover more ground?

I've read the getting started portion of the manual, and watched about 70% of Strategy Gaming Dojo's tutorial, (though my zoomer brain has a hard time watching videos that take 55 minutes to go over the different map display options), but I feel like there's just something I'm missing as to why I can't formulate a decent offensive. Attached below shall be some screenshots showing my current playthrough

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[exalted]

Are you managing your supply and rail repair? Hum I can see your rail repair in the pictures they should be just behind the lines repairing double lines mostly.

Are you resting your units so they recover supply, fatigue and combat preparation points?

Are you exchanging out the worst axis commanders, some of them really suck. Especially in the north and south.

On easy the soviet should fold like a house of cards at the merest suggestion of being attacked so something is a bit off.

[jasonbroomer]

Well done for getting as far as you have done. This game is a big jump from some of the others you mention. This is a very rewarding game that really captures the historical flavour. I won't worry too much about capturing cities per the historical timetable. You are inflicting decent losses on the Soviets.

Have you tried some of the smaller scenarios eg Road to Leningrad? This will give you chance to tailor your tactics without the time commitment required by the GC. Some have a preference to crack on with the GC, but just learning about the OoB takes time and brain wavelength.

The mud period is dull and the first winter can be a miserable experience for the Axis, especially if you don't quite know what you are doing. This game has a steep learning curve! Hopefully you are beginning to get to grips with the interface and possibly deploying SUs effectively by now. Supply matters but one advantage of a modest advance is that your supply lines may not be too stretched. You do need to learn how to use your FBDs - the main rail repair teams that you have.

Strategically you appear to be spreading your forces too thin. Unimportant sectors can be left loosely manned. Who cares if the Soviets recapture a few hexes of scrub land? You want to be marshalling your forces into powerful strike forces from around turn 4, once the early pockets have been dealt with. When defending you need to cover the front as best you can, when attacking concentration is more effective. Once you have made a break through in a sector, your panzers can gallop through unopposed.

Soviets can be difficult to budge once they get dug in. CPP (combat preparation points) matter when assaulting dug in/difficult terrain. You need to prepare your shock troops leading the assault. I strongly advise that you learn how to build CPP quickly, assault armies can accelerate this potentially lengthy process.

Good luck

[VK4114]

Thanks for the motivation! I've been using my rail repair, though it's probably less than optimal. I'm trying to build through major cities like Kiev and Smolensk, though I have a habit of jerking my FBD's everywhere and not letting them focus on an army group like I probably should be doing. Supply overall is adequate, I only have a few understrength divisions.

I guess I've just been hoping the Soviet AI will have its frontline collapse, I've been encircling around 30 divisions on average per turn, (save for the first two where I had roughly 100 on each turn get destroyed), but they just seem to reorganize immediately.

[VK4114]

Are you managing your supply and rail repair? Hum I can see your rail repair in the pictures they should be just behind the lines repairing double lines mostly.

Are you resting your units so they recover supply, fatigue and combat preparation points?

Are you exchanging out the worst axis commanders, some of them really suck. Especially in the north and south.

On easy the soviet should fold like a house of cards at the merest suggestion of being attacked so something is a bit off.

I've been using my rail repair units, though it's probably suboptimal the way I've been using them. A lot of the ones you see on the screenshots are the ones the HQs automatically send out and not the 4 I can control. Supply overall is adequate, I only have a few understrength divisions.

I've swapped out most of my crap commanders, and I'm planning on replacing Halder as head of the OKH with Mannstein.

I haven't really been resting units since my line is so thin, the most I've done is pull back some understrength Panzer Divisions and let them refit.

The Soviets overall are pushovers when I attack, it's just they seem to replace all the routed and encircled units in the very next turn.

[exalted]

I've been using my rail repair units, though it's probably suboptimal the way I've been using them. A lot of the ones you see on the screenshots are the ones the HQs automatically send out and not the 4 I can control. Supply overall is adequate, I only have a few understrength divisions.

Tip for next time you start plan out your controllable rail repair route from the start and stick to it. Deep into the soviet is more important than repairing every rail, large rail yards may be worth detours.

Send all or most of all attachments including construction and rail repair units back to OKH directly turn 1. Then start assigning as you need them.

I've swapped out most of my crap commanders, and I'm planning on replacing Halder as head of the OKH with Mannstein.

Probably not worth it, most important stat for OKH is Admin. Focus on corps and possibly army commanders at your spearheads.

I haven't really been resting units since my line is so thin, the most I've done is pull back some understrength Panzer Divisions and let them refit.

Normally at least one division should not be moved each turn per corps just so it builds some combat power. Don't move units at all when there is no reason to do so.

You can hold the line in low intensity areas with broken down infantry units until first winter and possibly even a bit into 42. Especially in dense terrain say between smolensk and lenningrad usually work.

Panzer Divisions are mostly there to capture ground and attack infantry in open terrain, for the heavy work use your motorized divisions and best infantry divisions under brilliant commanders like Model with the right attached units.

The Soviets overall are pushovers when I attack, it's just they seem to replace all the routed and encircled units in the very next turn.

As said above your doing well on the killing soviets just continue doing so and they will run out of manpower eventually. Winning as Axis in 41 however isn't usually done.

[steven512]

seems you dont inflict enough damage to enemy.can you show the metrics of enemy losses since T1?
I cant see your pincer movement plan from your deployment.Maybe you should plan first where to launch the pincer attack,and then gather 2 large enough forces(until your supply capacity) for breakthrough .Other places you dont need many divisions to fill the line,since at this time soviet cannot launch any meaningful counterattack.