EtO august 2013

[DRommel]

Turn 13: winter

Build up at the borders of Holland and Belgium/Luxemburg.
When the time is ripe they will start their run.

[DRommel]

Turn 14: Spring
An attack on a Royal navy unit turned out terribly bad.
We lost our 3 Ju88, some Do17 and some fighters.
Cruisers are still real planes eaters in this game.

Decrease neutrality for axis minors.
Imo I need the minors more than I need Italy.
Certainly if we want to defeat the Russians in a reasonable time.

[DRommel]

Turn 14: Spring
France is retreating fast and tries to contain the breakthrough.
But there are still a lot of troops in the Maginotline.
So our planes stay the same.

[DRommel]

Turn 14: Spring
Build-up forces for the upcoming attack on Sweden.

[DRommel]

Turn 15: spring
The French retreated behind the Meuse. Our troops follow very close. The panzers are now on the frontline and will try to break through the lines and destroy or cut of some French units.

[DRommel]

Turn 15: spring
Again terrible losses for our Luftwaffe, an attack group got surprised by a large force of allied fighters who were hiding for such an opportunity.

[DRommel]

Turn 15: spring
Rear guards on the Russian border.
Build up on the Yugoslavia border. Here our troops consist of my 3 gebirgsjäger div, for fast movement through the mountains and light fast mobile units for the plains and Belgrade.

[Josh]

You lost ...uh 25 Subs?!? How come?

[DRommel]

Well I keep sending them to the Atlantic to try to intercept some of the production coming out of Canada.
But they get hunted down even before reaching the Atlantic. In the past turns they were attacked of the coast of Norway by search planes and the Royal navy. Not much I can do about that exept hiding and hoping to reach great the waters.

[DRommel]

Turn 16: april ‘40
Lowered again the Axis minors’ neutrality.
I try also besides fighters to increase my tactical air support.

[DRommel]

Turn 16: april ‘40
Oef did not see that coming. But I had to expect it. A counter attack of those good French tanks from multiple sides almost wiped out a light Panzer div.
Our plane to trap French units around Muhous has worked but not so good as hooped.

[Josh]

A good French counterattack...that must be de Gaullle then. The later French president sure caused havoc in the German lines, only it was too little too late.

[DRommel]

Turn 17: may ‘40
Destroyed or drove the French tank units back.
The way too Dijon is cleared.

[DRommel]

Turn 17: may ‘40
Now I have to decide which way my panzers go next.
1) Do they go north of the river Seine and try to cut of some of the troops who now are defending on the river Meuse. But here will be the most troops and thus the greatest resistance.
2) Do they go south of the river Seine and try to take Paris in a hurry an so forcing Vichy, witch wipes out all Allied forces in France. But the catch here is , will Vichy be established. If not then the panzers could be in trouble.
3) Or are we strong enough to do both.

[DRommel]

Turn 18 May ‘40
A big air battle occurred above France.
We both lost the same number of Fighters but looking at the cost and quality the Allied did a better job.
Additionally Germany lost some stuka’s to. Thus it was a defeat for the Luftwaffe.
Hawker 8+(-27)=19, Spitfire 7+(-12)=5, MS 406 5+(-8)=3 gives a total of 27 against Bf 109 24+(-51)= 27 and 5 stuka’s.
The result is I have to shift more production to fighters also flak for more protection of forward units.
I keep also producing militia. They take up garrison duties in many places to free up other more needed Inf subunits.
Reduced Axis minors’ neutrality again, hopefully this will soon pay off.

[DRommel]

Turn 18 May ‘40
Despite air cover from my air group a panzer got hit by an airstrike and seriously damaging it. But then those forwards units are mostly on the edge of my air cover. This is one of the reasons I send some light flak along with my forwards units and try to give them a little bit of air cover.

I decided to go for both options, north and south, this because the 2 army is pushing rapidly the defenders of the Meuse aside, maybe even can surround some of them. And my 1 army does the same at Mulhouse. This frees up my Panzer’s support inf. Together with my strong SS units, who now come to the front line, I think it’s possible to take Reims and still put pressure on the south towards Paris.

[DRommel]

Turn 19: juni ‘40
Another big air battle above France this time initiated by the Allies and again the Luftwaffe lost in quality.
On the other hand a concentric attack on one of my forwards units got repelled.
But I am convinced that my troops are strong enough to do both attacks towards Paris and Reims.

[DRommel]

Turn 19: juni ‘40
My losses in fighters are getting very high. Don’t know how long this can go on for me.
Also the Allies are losing heavily but they can effort it in the long run.

[Josh]

I don't know how you are using your fighters but I have this feeling that fighters are more efficient on a "recon mission" thereby engaging enemy interceptors, then when they engage enemy interceptors when accompanying bombers. I don't know why this is but they seem to have more losses when your fighters accompany your bombers. So what I sometimes do is first do a recon mission with my fighters to lure enemy fighters out, then send in my bombers with my remaining fighters.

[DRommel]

Yep that’s the way it is done in this game of AT. You send in a few times a single absolute fighter on a recon mission. There is a 50/50 change he comes back and at the same time he lures the enemy’s fighters to intercept. Doing this a couple of times and the intercepting fighters are out of action points and the air attack that matters can go without intercept. Downside there is no dogfight and so no enemy planes downed. Next turn the other side will do the same and the all air forces will grow on both sides until…..
Also in this particularly scenario there a restriction on intercept, when the intercepting fighters are close to the limit of their range, then there is a change they do not intercept at all