Matrix Games Forums

Hiya all,

I'm Germany and can very nearly take Moscow.... I've come close several times, pushing a corridor to Moscow and having a 78% chance of taking it. Shame it never happens!

Has anyone else ever taken it or have you got any tips?

Ta

I usually try to encircle Moscow before attempting to take it. You're going to lose heavily in the attack, even if you succeed - so I try to push as far to the East as possible before making the attempt (and do as much damage to the Red Army).

I'd also recommend bringing a lot of aircover with you to thin out the artillery on the ground before going in.

Yes, the Soviets can be beaten. I've got an AAR up on the AAR board where I take the SU and score an automatic victory. Also, Joel has taken almost every territory of the SU from Paul in another AAR on the board. In the gold game, Bartheart has hammered me to the point where I, playing Soviets, cannot really effectively fight back anymore, though it's late in the game and he hasn't taken much of my territory (yet).

Aaargh... Italy was invaded before I could have another season's fighting in Russia. How do you keep the allies out of Africa. Damn!

If you can figure that out... let me know![:D]

You really can't - so most of the time, I don't even try (after taking Cairo). North Africa is a pretty big distraction from the Eastern Front, so I usually leave a corporals guard to keep the Allies honest, then reinforce my positions in Italy, just to be on the safe side.

If you're serious about Africa, you'll have to close down the Med: Take Spain & Gibraltar (stock Gibraltar with artillery & planes), take Malta and put planes on it, and take Cairo and stock artillery there. Keep a reaction force ready to repulse the Allies.

They'll eventually break through, but not without pain.

Of course, this will be a huge drain on units needed for the East Front. [:D] If you're able to pull this off, then you're probably already close to auto victory.

I was thinking that France -> Spain -> England would be an interesting alternative to the Russia first stratagy. In that case boxing as much of the WA fleet in the Med would be vital.

I think this is an extreemly risky stratagy but would be fun to try.

I'm going to start another game in a mo, this time taking Spain and Gibraltar before Russia. Hopefully I can close the med off for a while while dealing with those pesky Russians.

Two Strategies:

In the 3 games I have managed to fail at (rofl) we DID succesfully take Moscow on the last one:

Reason: Tanks. Lots of them. Lots of Evasion, a little extra ground attack:
How we did it: First we B-Lined for the Caucases. Cripple their resources and distracted a lot of troops from Moscow. With Japan attacking the back side of Russia, more troops were diverted away.

In the end: Russia sends a very sizeable army (18 units) to drive us out of the caucases. The caucasses contain only 1 tank directly, the rest of the tanks were waiting near the boarders of the caucasses. The 18 unit army stopped in Stalingrad before, in theory, retaking the caucasses. Our army struck them, over 10 tanks 4 bombers, and a number of infantry. This crippled the 18 unit army and sent them back to Moscow. With those forces out of the way we simply rolled the tanks and some more infantry to the moscow boarder and smashed them. First attack "failed" to capture it but destroyed about half their army with no losses on our side (frankly, when you have 14 tanks attacking 20 units and your evasion is 2 higher than everyone elses you start to see some things like that). Our next attack took the city, despite their attempts to reinforce it with militia and other random units.

As for africa:

In our previous game we used a very different strategy: bombers. Lots of em. We took and held Gibralter and used Spain as a bomber "port". Any transport that got anywhere near Gibralter was smashed to oblivion, as were any WA fleets that entered through the suaz. We eventually sent an army and captured the Canal and pushed all the way to India with a single tank. This, of course, got messed up greatly when Russia entered the war. Without the tank power to fend off the russians they crushed us from the other side.

Still, the allies never even got close to taking africa... frankly, they spent most of their time rebuilding their transports. We were averaging about 3-4 destroyed per turn... plus our battleships which were causing the royal navy a great deal of trouble (sank 2 carriers and a couple light destroyers). Lack of ground units caused our eventual loss though.

So, I am not an expert but both feats can be achieved... too bad I cant do them both in a single game!

-Joe

ORIGINAL: dulsin2

I was thinking that France -> Spain -> England would be an interesting alternative to the Russia first stratagy. In that case boxing as much of the WA fleet in the Med would be vital.

I think this is an extreemly risky stratagy but would be fun to try.

this is what I have done in a german game, but it forces you to attack russia in spring 42 (you dont have enough troops before)... and it is nearly impossible to kill the Soviets with a 4 turns delay.
But it was only my second game, so perhaps I can do better.

A question for the betas, have they managed to invade Washington against a normal WA AI?

ORIGINAL: Pocus

ORIGINAL: dulsin2

I was thinking that France -> Spain -> England would be an interesting alternative to the Russia first stratagy. In that case boxing as much of the WA fleet in the Med would be vital.

I think this is an extreemly risky stratagy but would be fun to try.

this is what I have done in a german game, but it forces you to attack russia in spring 42 (you dont have enough troops before)... and it is nearly impossible to kill the Soviets with a 4 turns delay.
But it was only my second game, so perhaps I can do better.

A question for the betas, have they managed to invade Washington against a normal WA AI?

Not yet, mainly because my last game ended in auto-victory before I could think about it. [:)] That's really the problem - you'd need to turn the victory conditions off, because realistically by the time you're ready to hit the US, you're more than likely going to have close to 70 production points.

I've never tried an England ---> US ----> Russia strategy, but I think it would be suicide.

I've just tried the France-Spain-England path and failed

How many transports do you need to invade England by the way, I had 9 but could still only send 2 tanks across which seems a bit naff

Read the manual's discussion of transport capacity (I've posted this recently, can't recall which thread though).

An armor unit needs 10 amphibious capacity to invade. Thus, two need 20. Your German transports start with an amphib capacity of 3. 3 x 9 = 27 = only two armor units. However, you could have invaded with five infantry units, which only need 5 amphib capacity. Of course, you also need sufficient transport capacity along the whole line, too.

Finally, remember to airdrop your paratrooper on the target first (you didn't use him on Norway, did you?), as that will reduce op fire from any artillery in the area left after prep bombing.

you only need 2 transports to invade England (give 6 amph capacity)... because you invade Scotland, and add a paratrooper on it. Previously you send some bombers to clear the arty that can be there, and you should be able to take it. Then, as you control the province, and have 2 transports, you can strat transfert 12 units. Next turn, you are in London.

you only need 2 transports to invade England (give 6 amph capacity)... because you invade Scotland, and add a paratrooper on it. Previously you send some bombers to clear the arty that can be there, and you should be able to take it. Then, as you control the province, and have 2 transports, you can strat transfert 12 units. Next turn, you are in London.

man those english sound weak! no wonder we had to come save their tails!

Yep, Moscow can be taken.... I managed to keep the allies out of the med and north africa and with a big push in 43 managed to take Moscow, although only because the AI made a bit of a cock-up and came out to meet one of my armies in Smolensk.

Oh yeah and before I forget, Aletoledo that's a pretty pointless and inflammatory post, and on behalf of all of us here in the uk - [edited]. This is my pointless and inflammatory reply.

Cheers.

ORIGINAL: aletoledo

you only need 2 transports to invade England (give 6 amph capacity)... because you invade Scotland, and add a paratrooper on it. Previously you send some bombers to clear the arty that can be there, and you should be able to take it. Then, as you control the province, and have 2 transports, you can strat transfert 12 units. Next turn, you are in London.

man those english sound weak! no wonder we had to come save their tails!

its true that in the game, if the German want to, England fall (against he AI, not against a player). But its also true that the game will continue, with the WA in your back while you attempt to kill the bear who got some more turns to strengthen. All in all, its a Pyrrhic victory IMO to take out England.

ORIGINAL: jonny211

I've just tried the France-Spain-England path and failed

How many transports do you need to invade England by the way, I had 9 but could still only send 2 tanks across which seems a bit naff

If you're going to go the england first route, then you need imo, to get speed for fighters up to 2. This is crucial for you to be able to start whittling down the WA forces using air units. Next, you should land in scotland first. Using a tank unit after using half or more of your airpower to attack the units in scotland will leave it ready to be invaded quite easily. Then after you capture scotland, you can reinforce it and have quite the tank/infantry stack to hit england in the next turn or so.

The only problems I've had with this strategy (vs the AI) is getting my units back to the russian front to prepare to invade before russia declares war on you. Getting that initial +1 advantage for hitting russia first really can help destroy/dmg some units.