Matrix Games Forums

This is the second time i try to play WIR with germany.The first one i tried it with the max help option turn on 'cause i was very new to this game.I managed an easy win for the end of 42.This time i tried a play without any help and...........
I tried to follow the history lesson so that i used the pocket-tactic at kiev,kursk and karkov.The results were great.I destroyed a grat number of Joseph's armies and took many important cities in the don basin.Until october my air superiority was total.In the first month of war i used almost all my bombers to destroy at the ground the soviet bombers.At the same time i was training many many other squadrons at Rome and at the OKW.The average skill was set to 80/85.At the first october rains the Reicht's border line was running from Rostow to 60 miles far from Leningrad.Kursk,karkov,viasma,Vielky-luki(or whatever is it called!),novgorod etc had fallen to the knees of german army.I stopped fighting when the helmets of my soldiers started to become wet for the long russian rains.The reds didn't seem to be in the mood of counterattacking.For 2 weeks nothing happened,exept for a siege made to sebastopolis and some finnish attacks at in the north of leningrad.My pilots were still training a lot,while some of them kept bombing the russian airfields but the results weren't that good. Then the snow arrived and my panzer armies started to advance again.But the reds' front was so short that they could defend it quite good.I could not advance fast anymore.Every time i tried an attack the stalin's armies tried to cut my supply lines closing my panzer armies in a pocket,so i had evry time to come back and reopen the way.Then remembering the glizzard wether comming i decided to stop my advance and create a good defensive line 40/60 miles back from the front.My key defensive points were rostow,kursk,viasma,vilky-luki-novgorod and the baltic beaches.The Crimea was mine,exept for sebastopoli which did not wanted to fall even if the siege was taken by a panzer korp of the 11th kesserling army with many bombers helping it. The cold arrived very fast at the beginning of december and the readiness of my troops went down at the same fast way.But i thought that the distance from the front could let me try a plastic defense,so that i would have benn able to go back an counterattack every time i had needed it.While i got desperate when i saw the first reinforced soviet armies swollowing my frozen korps and pushing me back and back.My panzer groups had to leave almost all their tanks and howitzers beyond the avancing red line triyn' to escape from the comunist monster commin'.From nowhere came out an enormous quantity of soviet bombers and fighters that shot down my air superiority and annyhilated my entrenchered men.Those who were able to hold the ground had to go back because their comrades on sides were pushed back and they risk to fall in a poket.The panzer group which was defending Vyasma were completely destroyed with another infantruy korp of the 2nd pz army in a big poket.No way to supply them by air.No way to open that damned circle.I tried to make a counterpoket but i had to leave this idea for the little number of fighting units at disposition.I left them.I left Vyasma,which in my summer plans should have been the bridge head from where to lounch the final attack for Moscow in the next spring.Kursk was lost and with it Karkow,rostow,stalino,vielki-luki and novgorod.The crimea had to be evacuated very fast not to lose 4 groups of army.The blizzard now went away and the snow came back.......but i do not have any chance to fight back and take the lost victories of 41.........
Hoepner in real history saw the houses of leningrad and took even a bus station at the border of the city.I stopped 80 miles earlier.The luftwaffe is on her knees and the allies in africa shattered Rommel's army.......

TERRIBLE!!!!!!The feeling i got were the same as in real history but the should have happened in 42 and 43.....Is there anyone out there who could manage the resurrection of soviet army in winter 41/42?????????????Any of u guys????

Regards <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

Originally posted by Gen.Hoepner:
This is the second time i try to play WIR with germany.The first one i tried it with the max help option turn on 'cause i was very new to this game.I managed an easy win for the end of 42.This time i tried a play without any help and...........
I tried to follow the history lesson so that i used the pocket-tactic at kiev,kursk and karkov.The results were great.I destroyed a grat number of Joseph's armies and took many important cities in the don basin.Until october my air superiority was total.In the first month of war i used almost all my bombers to destroy at the ground the soviet bombers.At the same time i was training many many other squadrons at Rome and at the OKW.The average skill was set to 80/85.At the first october rains the Reicht's border line was running from Rostow to 60 miles far from Leningrad.Kursk,karkov,viasma,Vielky-luki(or whatever is it called!),novgorod etc had fallen to the knees of german army.I stopped fighting when the helmets of my soldiers started to become wet for the long russian rains.The reds didn't seem to be in the mood of counterattacking.For 2 weeks nothing happened,exept for a siege made to sebastopolis and some finnish attacks at in the north of leningrad.My pilots were still training a lot,while some of them kept bombing the russian airfields but the results weren't that good. Then the snow arrived and my panzer armies started to advance again.But the reds' front was so short that they could defend it quite good.I could not advance fast anymore.Every time i tried an attack the stalin's armies tried to cut my supply lines closing my panzer armies in a pocket,so i had evry time to come back and reopen the way.Then remembering the glizzard wether comming i decided to stop my advance and create a good defensive line 40/60 miles back from the front.My key defensive points were rostow,kursk,viasma,vilky-luki-novgorod and the baltic beaches.The Crimea was mine,exept for sebastopoli which did not wanted to fall even if the siege was taken by a panzer korp of the 11th kesserling army with many bombers helping it. The cold arrived very fast at the beginning of december and the readiness of my troops went down at the same fast way.But i thought that the distance from the front could let me try a plastic defense,so that i would have benn able to go back an counterattack every time i had needed it.While i got desperate when i saw the first reinforced soviet armies swollowing my frozen korps and pushing me back and back.My panzer groups had to leave almost all their tanks and howitzers beyond the avancing red line triyn' to escape from the comunist monster commin'.From nowhere came out an enormous quantity of soviet bombers and fighters that shot down my air superiority and annyhilated my entrenchered men.Those who were able to hold the ground had to go back because their comrades on sides were pushed back and they risk to fall in a poket.The panzer group which was defending Vyasma were completely destroyed with another infantruy korp of the 2nd pz army in a big poket.No way to supply them by air.No way to open that damned circle.I tried to make a counterpoket but i had to leave this idea for the little number of fighting units at disposition.I left them.I left Vyasma,which in my summer plans should have been the bridge head from where to lounch the final attack for Moscow in the next spring.Kursk was lost and with it Karkow,rostow,stalino,vielki-luki and novgorod.The crimea had to be evacuated very fast not to lose 4 groups of army.The blizzard now went away and the snow came back.......but i do not have any chance to fight back and take the lost victories of 41.........
Hoepner in real history saw the houses of leningrad and took even a bus station at the border of the city.I stopped 80 miles earlier.The luftwaffe is on her knees and the allies in africa shattered Rommel's army.......

TERRIBLE!!!!!!The feeling i got were the same as in real history but the should have happened in 42 and 43.....Is there anyone out there who could manage the resurrection of soviet army in winter 41/42?????????????Any of u guys????

Regards <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

---

Wow, Hoepner, I don't know what to say. Tough luck? Usually, I hardly suffer from a 41-42 winter offensive at all, since i've mauled the Russian AI so bad during the previous month. But the key to riding it out I would say is STOP in time and dig in deep - unless you think you can take Moscow of course. And do not set replacement level too high, the new guys will just die of cold and exposure. Save some to rebuild your forces come spring.

Notice also that even when one of your units repulses a strong enemy attack, it looses entrenchment as a result, so it can be a good idea to move back a hex and expose the next well entrenched unit in the line. If the AI simply goes through your line, he can mostly be cut off easily, since he doesn't guard his flanks very well.

Originally posted by Gen.Hoepner:
This is the second time i try to play WIR with germany.The first one i tried it with the max help option turn on 'cause i was very new to this game.I managed an easy win for the end of 42.This time i tried a play without any help and...........
I tried to follow the history lesson so that i used the pocket-tactic at kiev,kursk and karkov.The results were great.I destroyed a grat number of Joseph's armies and took many important cities in the don basin.Until october my air superiority was total.In the first month of war i used almost all my bombers to destroy at the ground the soviet bombers.At the same time i was training many many other squadrons at Rome and at the OKW.The average skill was set to 80/85.At the first october rains the Reicht's border line was running from Rostow to 60 miles far from Leningrad.Kursk,karkov,viasma,Vielky-luki(or whatever is it called!),novgorod etc had fallen to the knees of german army.I stopped fighting when the helmets of my soldiers started to become wet for the long russian rains.The reds didn't seem to be in the mood of counterattacking.For 2 weeks nothing happened,exept for a siege made to sebastopolis and some finnish attacks at in the north of leningrad.My pilots were still training a lot,while some of them kept bombing the russian airfields but the results weren't that good. Then the snow arrived and my panzer armies started to advance again.But the reds' front was so short that they could defend it quite good.I could not advance fast anymore.Every time i tried an attack the stalin's armies tried to cut my supply lines closing my panzer armies in a pocket,so i had evry time to come back and reopen the way.Then remembering the glizzard wether comming i decided to stop my advance and create a good defensive line 40/60 miles back from the front.My key defensive points were rostow,kursk,viasma,vilky-luki-novgorod and the baltic beaches.The Crimea was mine,exept for sebastopoli which did not wanted to fall even if the siege was taken by a panzer korp of the 11th kesserling army with many bombers helping it. The cold arrived very fast at the beginning of december and the readiness of my troops went down at the same fast way.But i thought that the distance from the front could let me try a plastic defense,so that i would have benn able to go back an counterattack every time i had needed it.While i got desperate when i saw the first reinforced soviet armies swollowing my frozen korps and pushing me back and back.My panzer groups had to leave almost all their tanks and howitzers beyond the avancing red line triyn' to escape from the comunist monster commin'.From nowhere came out an enormous quantity of soviet bombers and fighters that shot down my air superiority and annyhilated my entrenchered men.Those who were able to hold the ground had to go back because their comrades on sides were pushed back and they risk to fall in a poket.The panzer group which was defending Vyasma were completely destroyed with another infantruy korp of the 2nd pz army in a big poket.No way to supply them by air.No way to open that damned circle.I tried to make a counterpoket but i had to leave this idea for the little number of fighting units at disposition.I left them.I left Vyasma,which in my summer plans should have been the bridge head from where to lounch the final attack for Moscow in the next spring.Kursk was lost and with it Karkow,rostow,stalino,vielki-luki and novgorod.The crimea had to be evacuated very fast not to lose 4 groups of army.The blizzard now went away and the snow came back.......but i do not have any chance to fight back and take the lost victories of 41.........
Hoepner in real history saw the houses of leningrad and took even a bus station at the border of the city.I stopped 80 miles earlier.The luftwaffe is on her knees and the allies in africa shattered Rommel's army.......

TERRIBLE!!!!!!The feeling i got were the same as in real history but the should have happened in 42 and 43.....Is there anyone out there who could manage the resurrection of soviet army in winter 41/42?????????????Any of u guys????

Regards <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

---

Well, if you didn't manage to hurt the soviets enough, it can result as a strong soviet winter offensive in '41/42. This offensive can cause very heavy losses to axis.. Usually for me (playing against AI) this winter offensive doesn't occur, because the soviets are badly weakened before the blizzards, and i've entrenched the entire line by then.. But when i play the soviets agaist AI, i get moderately heavy losses during the summer '41. But when the bad weather arrives, I'm usually in a good position (Odessa-Kiev-Smolensk-Riga -line, or close to it..) to start preparing for strong winter offensive . Usually this offensive cripples the axis (atleast the inf losses are devastating) and leads to capture of Berlin in '42 or '43 <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

Guys, I really thought to have destroyed most of soviet forces during summer of 41,but i gotta say that probably i undervalued,as Hitler did,the resurces of big mother russia!Anyway,i started again tryin' to change the strategy:I devided my panzer korps in two big groups,one under the direction of kesserling in the noerth army group and one in the south,trying to take as soon as i could Leningrad and kiev and then stop there waiting for the infantry armies advancing in the center crushing smolensk Minsk etc... I'm now in August and the circle of fire around Leningrad is almost completed.The finnish forces have done their good work and my planes concentrated on the strong airfields of the russian baltic front.Kiev has fallen,but was harder than what i thought........I'll let u know.....

Hoepner, do you play WIR 3.1 or 3.101?
I have recently played a '41 game against the Soviet AI using 3.1 and, for the first time ever, managed to win in 1941, exactly at the first Blizzard turn. With 3.101 it should be even easier.
I believe speed is more important than inflicting damage. Just keep pushing, don't hold your spearheads to destroy encircled Soviet armies (as long as they don't threaten your rail lines).

I'm playing ver 3.0,the one i found in the Mega campaign CD rom.Is there any patch to upgrade this to new versions?
Thanks

Originally posted by Gen.Hoepner:
I'm playing ver 3.0,the one i found in the Mega campaign CD rom.Is there any patch to upgrade this to new versions?
Thanks

---

Didn't know it was included on there. If you go to the Matrix products you should be able to find the link for WIR and go to it. They have the latest download there. It is not a patch, but it is fairly small and a reasonable download in size.

Yes,i saw it,but it's only 2 and something megas,while in the cd it's more than 5:what's that?where's the trap???

Originally posted by Gen.Hoepner:
Yes,i saw it,but it's only 2 and something megas,while in the cd it's more than 5:what's that?where's the trap???

---

The large one is a version with a windows-based installer. You don't need it. Get the "DOS" version (without the junk), or get it here:

http://wir.levillage.org/wir_v3.101.zip

Gen Hoepner

Look at the Gotterdammerung posts. I've 2 would-be nasty people banging on my door during blizzard and the axis have/will survive with only moderate losses that will not cause many problems in '42.
Yes the games being played swapped from Ver3.0 to 3.101 but this was before the blizzard.
Solution? Your front should consist of only 3,4 or 5 inf divs in each corps(and nothing else)at 50 to 70 readiness. using flexible defence. (keep the line solid and retreat if required to do so)Your time will come again in 1942.

Nick

Well Lokio,i thanks u for the suggestion(i'll go now and read the topic u told me),but the point is that damned readiness!!!!How can u manage to boost it in December??Now i0ve started a new match in which the strategy is to take Leningrad the faster as i could,even if some other cities will remain in the hands of reds......u know what?The blizzard came and Leningrd was still there!!!!But this time i'm in a good dig-in position,so i should be able to stop them....let's hope

Originally posted by Gen.Hoepner:
Well Lokio,i thanks u for the suggestion(i'll go now and read the topic u told me),but the point is that damned readiness!!!!How can u manage to boost it in December??Now i0ve started a new match in which the strategy is to take Leningrad the faster as i could,even if some other cities will remain in the hands of reds......u know what?The blizzard came and Leningrd was still there!!!!But this time i'm in a good dig-in position,so i should be able to stop them....let's hope

---

Gen H

Readiness is a problem. The entire front should be under 4 or 5 HQ's (at the end of your turn, the ones the Luftwaffe is in.) The rest(hq's) to be used to keep rediness at the right level, be creative, rail units to and fro to arrive at right readiness. Special supply units, then transfer them or rail them to have corps with even readiness. Varjager can confirm that my line is now very srong after 12 turns of blizzard attrition.
It is not easy so you must experiment to find what works best for you. Sorry but i can do no better than this.
Remember that no-one wins untill one side has 5 victory points. You can fall back to just outside berlin but if in the end you take 5 VP's of soviet cities you win.

Loki

So,the question is:is readines influenced by the distance from the HQ?I thought so,that's why i'm tryin' to keep my hqs very close to the front,but the threat is always the same:if the front crashes they can destroy my airfields with all the planes in it!Anyway i love this game cause it's hard to get through it,even vs tha AI!!

Originally posted by Gen.Hoepner:
So,the question is:is readines influenced by the distance from the HQ?I thought so,that's why i'm tryin' to keep my hqs very close to the front,but the threat is always the same:if the front crashes they can destroy my airfields with all the planes in it!Anyway i love this game cause it's hard to get through it,even vs tha AI!!

---

Unit readiness is based on the beginning readiness plus an increase based on the supply level of the hex. So to maximize readiness you want units on rail lines, or as close as possible. That makes seizing rail lines important in all phases. Special supply is also adjusted based on supply level, with almost no affect at SL 1 but a lot at SL 6. Also, special supply can only be used when within something like 5 hexes so an HQ just needs to be within the 5 hex range of the units needing special supply. Closer does not help in this case.

for me it depends on my enemy, in offensive my line falls apart with great gaps between corps/armies so every 3/4 turns i have to reorganize. but i defensive i am superb , in winter 41/42 i counter attack often doing 1to 2 hexes progres ech turn along the entire front. but sometimes i drain myself resulting in the capture of moskow. in 1943 <img src="confused.gif" border="0">