AAR #2 - Western Allies v. the AI

[Hanal]

In this AAR, I will play the Western Allies v. the AI using the scenario which begins in 1941, on the eve of Germany's invasion of Russia...I will be using advance Supply, challenging difficulty level, and keep fog of war off....I will start this game on Wednesday but had time to let the AI play out it's first turn...


First I started up a game controlling Germany so I can show you the at start map for this '41 scenario before the AI does its' thing...Germany is poised for their Russian Campaign and the DAK is set in North Africa...

[Hanal]

Here is a combat animation screen of the battle Kiev....Germany occuppied the Baltic States, Velikiye Luki, Odessa, Eastern Poland, and Kiev...U boats disrupted WA transports and the DAK was reinforced.....

[Hanal]

Summer '41

Russia establishes their defensive line.....

WA reinforced North Africa and destroyed Italian transports lurking in the Med....since Japan did not attack the WA this turn, I simply shuttled some units around and launched some attacks agianst the German U Boats...

[Hanal]

Fall '41

Germany occupies Belorussia while Russia continues to bide their time.....Italian Navy attacks the RN in Med to little effect....

Japan declares war on the Western Allies by launching an attack on Pearl Harbor...several USA fleets suffer damage and a few are destroyed....

The WA defeats the Germany at Tobruk (pic) and enter southern Persia.....supplies and troops are sent to Mandalay, Wake, and Midway......

[Hanal]

Winter 42

Europe at start of WA turn.....Germany occuppied Kursk and Kalinin, only to lose them during the Soviet Winter counteroffensive...Kharkov and Velikiye Luki also were liberated...

[Hanal]

Winter '42 WA turn

I decide to gamble and invade Greece, reinforcing it with as much as I can....Playing the WA, I have usually adopted a "Germany first" policy....while this has netted me many Marginal victories, I have had only a couple of Decisive victories, mainly due to the fact that I usually conquer Germany, but fail to occupy Japan...Minor victories are the equivilent of taking your pet goat to the Prom!

[Hanal]

Winter 42

Meanwhile, over in the Pacific, Japan has been making their usial strides, occuppying Borneo and Sumatra and sending their navy to clear the waters around Australia...A Japanese carrier fleet sent an air strike agianst the US navy which was used to defend Midway's waters....2 Heavy Fleets were damaged.....

[Hanal]

Simple Supply v. Advance Supply.....In my previous AAR, I used Simple Supply rules, which basically means that all the supplies are in a pool which will be used when a unit, anywhere on the map, needs them for movement....However, with Advance Supply rules, you need to make certain you have supplies physically present in the areas where you have military units, if you want to move and attack effectively.....If you can read the red line in the pic below, it states that my attempt to move a fleet is an "Illegal move, no supplies available."...my supply depot in Hawaii needs to be restocked!

[Hanal]

Winter '42 Force Pool....

[Hanal]

Here is a fairly new screen that has been devised for the game....it provides a running tally of damaged and destroyed units throughout the game....You can clearly see how lousy I am doing keeping my WA Navy afloat!

[Hanal]

Spring '42

Germany recaptured Velikiye Luki but failed to take Leningrad or Kharkov....

Russia recaptured Smolensk and heavily reinforced Leningrad after it survived the first German attack....

Japan invaded New Guinea and continued to harrass the WA fleets around Midway and Wake....

My WA turn will be dealayed until tomorrow.....

[pzgndr]

Here is a combat animation screen of the battle Kiev...

Thanks for showing this feature. What exactly was the motivation for including this eye-candy in with a game of this global scale? Unless I'm missing something, there's absolutely no useful information presented. Most everything about the game design makes some sense except this. I don't plan to not purchase the game because of this, but by the same token I don't see why any mature gamers would want/need a combat animation screen. Yuk!

On a more positive note, thanks again for an AAR showing the AI in action. Looks good.

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: pzgndr

Here is a combat animation screen of the battle Kiev...

Thanks for showing this feature. What exactly was the motivation for including this eye-candy in with a game of this global scale? Unless I'm missing something, there's absolutely no useful information presented. Most everything about the game design makes some sense except this. I don't plan to not purchase the game because of this, but by the same token I don't see why any mature gamers would want/need a combat animation screen. Yuk!

On a more positive note, thanks again for an AAR showing the AI in action. Looks good.

This feature can be turned off so you never have to see it. Seems like a small thing to not buy such a great game. [X(]

[Becket]

I didn't think I'd like it, but I've found that I like watching (often in horror) how the combat plays out. You can watch to see which units your forces target, and the damage they take. In small, risky combats, it's a lot of fun. I had fun yesterday watching as the battle for Greece played out - a real nail-biter whether I would have enough undamaged troops left to win out.

[pzgndr]

I didn't think I'd like it, but I've found that I like watching (often in horror) how the combat plays out. You can watch to see which units your forces target, and the damage they take.

OK. Do these little icons attack from their appropriate directions so you get a real sense of the battle, like tanks coming in from the north and air support coming from the west? And do these targeted attacks indicate any sense of relative unit strengths or weaknesses with regard to research levels? That could be useful. My initial impression is that this looks like unnecessary animation for entertainment. If there is useful information to be had, then I'll likely reconsider how much time I spend watching these combats.

Seems like a small thing to not buy such a great game.

That's not what I said. I do intend to buy this game. I just don't care for gratuitous eye-candy geared toward children. [;)]

[Hanal]

I am inclined to agree that once the novelty of the screens wears off, the feature will be turned off and forgotten...I would like to see some combat resolutions included on the screen which would make it more functional and perhaps maintain some interest in keeping it around....however, if a young gamer is attracted to said "eye candy" and this is the lure that creates a future grog, then I am all for it....[:D]

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: pzgndr

Seems like a small thing to not buy such a great game.

That's not what I said. I do intend to buy this game. I just don't care for gratuitous eye-candy geared toward children. [;)]

Sorry, I miss read your double negative. I only watch them now because of testing and probably won't later just to speed up the game. The after combat report will give you all the results and matchings if you want them.

[Becket]

ORIGINAL: pzgndr

I didn't think I'd like it, but I've found that I like watching (often in horror) how the combat plays out. You can watch to see which units your forces target, and the damage they take.

OK. Do these little icons attack from their appropriate directions so you get a real sense of the battle, like tanks coming in from the north and air support coming from the west? And do these targeted attacks indicate any sense of relative unit strengths or weaknesses with regard to research levels? That could be useful. My initial impression is that this looks like unnecessary animation for entertainment. If there is useful information to be had, then I'll likely reconsider how much time I spend watching these combats.

They do not (and are not intended to) show any of the things you list. They just show you how the combat is getting resolved on an unit-by-unit basis over time (that is the intent). The same information is available on the combat report, but that's a dry after the fact report. Think of the battle screen like rolling the dice for each unit in Europe Engulfed or other board games. You can skip the drama and go right to the results if you want.

[Becket]

ORIGINAL: pzgndr
I just don't care for gratuitous eye-candy geared toward children. [;)]

It would be silly not to make the game look as good graphically as it can look. Combat Mission is my favorite wargame of all time, but I have high hopes that CMX2 will have state of the art graphics.

[Hanal]

Spring '42 Western Allies


The WA move into Albania and Tunisia and continue to build up Wake, Midway, Hawaii, and Mandalay....distribute supplies from the USA to the Med and Pacific....