Axis war diary

[Ketza]

Playing an old foe as Axis and I decided to share some of my opening moves for any future Axis players out there. I am certainly not an expert but in many of my Soviet games I see Axis players making some very costly early errors which often leads to early exits.

Any Axis players who have something to add or want to correct any of my glaring errors please feel free to do so!

I will start with what I call "pre game prep". Some of this stuff is not for everyone and as I stated above some of it may be wrong based on my understanding of how things work but it is stuff I do in my games.

I will start with the air screen. I circled in red the items I change. The most glaring items are fighter intercept, interdiction and changing the percent required to fly to 0.

[Ketza]

Continuing on with the air war prep. I change all squadrons to manual upgrade. It is quite feasible to not do this and do ok but I am starting to micro manage this aspect of the air war to have better control of the LW and try to get a better handle on experience of the squadrons.

[Ketza]

A note about experience of your fighter squadrons. Axis fighter squadron experience later in the war is crucial when your outnumbered 6-1 all over the place by the Soviet airforce. I was experimenting with the turn one Axis airfield attacks and I came to the conclusion that it was better to not bomb Soviet airfields at the start of the turn. You gain more experience with your German fighters if you crank up the interception to 150% and actually let the Soviet ground support fly. On average I found German fighters in each army groups area gained 100 or so kills and in some cases almost 5% more experience at a loss ratio of 70-1 or better.

To attempt this requires a great deal of planning as you do your initial attacks with your ground forces along the entire front before you overrun any Soviet airfields. You make as many ground attacks as you can before overruning the Soviet airfields in order to shoot down and damage as many flying Soviet planes as possible. Then before you make the overrun moves you bomb the Soviet airfields. The overrun will then kill off all the damaged airframes.

The end result I have found is increased German fighter experience and less Axis bombers being lost while bombing Soviet airfields. Gamey? Well perhaps but if you consider all of this should be occuring at the same time then I think not.

After combat we will revisit this squadron to see the impact of this change in approach.

[Ketza]

The next thing to look at is TOE. I do not mess with divisional TOE but I do knock back TOE for the unit types in red in this screenshot:

[Ketza]

Here is how to change the TOE. Filter the units you want to change then type in the new %.

[Ketza]

Your screen will look like this after. Some Axis players actually disband some units instead of just adjust TOE. Units on that list usually are the AA companies.

[stone10]

ORIGINAL: Ketza

The next thing to look at is TOE. I do not mess with divisional TOE but I do knock back TOE for the unit types in red in this screenshot:

According to Helpless, jpeg doesn't like red... can you please post a better screenshot?

[Ketza]

Now why would you do that adjusting? Its all about saving APS for generating rifle squads the queen of the battlefield!

Rifle squads generate CV and if you keep SUs TOE low APs are used for generating power for your divisions where its needed.

Well that is my understanding any way...

This screenshot shows a few areas circled in red that should be checked often. If you have a good flow of squads being produced and set refit to units that need them your divisions should remain somewhat healthy as long as the Soviets are not beating you to a pulp...

[Ketza]

Stone the unit categories I cut the TOE down to 50% are:

Art
AT
AA
Mort
RCKT
MG

[Ketza]

Before making initial combat moves take care of recon in front of each Army group. Try to identify all of the Soviet reserves so you can plan your pockets so you do not waste MPS "exploring" or bumping into surprises.

[Ketza]

Also recon all Soviet airfields until you get the recon to level 5.

[Ketza]

If your not sure where all the Soviet airfields are press F7 and they will highlight red. Make a note of where they are then fly recon until you see all the aircraft types on the fields.

[Ketza]

Turn one basic game goals and tips as Axis:

1) Your main goal is to pocket as many Soviet troops as possible. Against a good Soviet player you will never have the same opportunity like you do on turn one. Blowing everything away in front of you might save a little time moving forward turn 2 but those routed Soviet units will come back to haunt you and cost you time later.

2) You want to protect your rail lines from "leaking" Soviet border troops. Keep them fenced up and away from flipping hexes with important rails.

3) You want to use troops in the rear to move up to the line as much as possible to bust open holes so your border troops can advance further.

4) For the most part Panzer divisions are for manuever not for attacking. Of course at some point you have no choice but as a rule of thumb you need those MPs to flip hexes and create pockets.

5) Break Panzer and Motorized divisions down only in an emergency. They are prone to Soviet units "ganging up" on them breaking pockets.

6) Watch Soviet Calvary units. They have good MPs and are good at breaking pockets.

7) Use your security divisions turn one to attack as many times as possible to get the easy victories. That increased morale from the wins comes in handy later.

8) Do not forget to move your FBD units and repair rails! Every lost repaired hex hurts later.

9) You only have 30 APs so use them wisely. I typically use them for SU attachments. Pioneers and MG battalions go to Panzer divisions and Motorized divisions get Stug, Flam Panzers, flak and anti tank battalions.

10) Destroy as much of the Soviet airforce as you can.

[Ketza]

AGN goals turn one - In this particular game I want to push Leningrad with minimal force yet appear to project a larger commitment. Unlike previous versions there is no Riga gambit and the only real point I see to taking Riga early on is killing the NKVD division there. I think its more important to:

1) Get as much pocketed as possible securely

2) Capture the Baltic ports so the Soviet does not evacuate anything other then whats in Riga

3) Get a bridgehead over the Daugava to prevent as much as possible an early strong line along that river.

The boxes are points to capture. The circle is where I am trying to "herd" a large pocket. The black lines are likely paths for 4th Pz. I think this game I will try for another pocket near Kaunas.

[Ketza]

Starting off in AGN I like to clear these rails first so I can get L corps and the security boys in the action. I use 58th ID for this.

[Ketza]

58th cleans out the border. One hold was enough to save a Soviet fort unit. The deliberate attacks were made against Soviet divisions on the Border itself. These can be very tough on occasion and I highly suggest deliberate attacks on those. Notice all the shot down Soviet planes.

[terje439]

Why do you set "ground support" to 0? Is the gain not worth it or am I missing something vital here?


Terje

[Ketza]

Here is the 58ths results. Notice the routed units are within the planned pocket.

[Ketza]

ORIGINAL: terje439

Why do you set "ground support" to 0? Is the gain not worth it or am I missing something vital here?


Terje

You do not want it flying before you bomb airfields later in the turn. Turn one you do not need it anyway so leave it off. I usually keep it off turn 2 as well as you want your bombers flying fuel not adding extra support to attacks you are going to win anyway.

When you set the percent required to fly to 0 everything flys and you leave no planes on the deck. It ups fatigue but on turn one you want as many planes flying intercept and bombing Soviet airfields as you can get. You can rest them turn 2 or 3 by kicking it back up to 30%.

[Ketza]

The rest of the front to the coast will be cleared by the divisions you can now rail up: