So close and yet...

[Flaviusx]

My 3rd try as Axis and the first game as them I've gotten this far. I don't think I'm going to win it, but I'm learning a lot each time. This is on normal/normal. All decisions enabled, etc.

AGN just took Leningrad at the beginning of October. I sent PG3 to assist about a month ago.

My biggest mistake here was Riga. I let that linger way too long and 18 Army was stuck dealing with it until I finally sent the siege train over there. Memo for future games: Riga should be the second place to send the siege train after Brest Litovsk. The south can wait.

[Flaviusx]

I've been stuck in the center since mid July, trading blows with the huge mass of Soviet reinforcements that appears here. Minsk fell on turn 3 to a coup de main (no garrison.) But after that I wasted a month on refits and moving up the FSB and it became a total grind.

The Soviets are much weakened here now, but I'm down to a single PG which has no gas. No oil in the center at all in the last month, probably because my truck general hates me and that reduces the stockpiling ability. Lesson learned for future games. Also, PG3 stayed up north longer than is ideal.

[Flaviusx]

In the south I got a good start and captured Odessa and Kiev in August. Then it took me a month to refit and rest the whole AG.

I just took Kharkov this turn. And now I realize that getting to Rostov is going to be difficult because I decided to construct the rail line from Kiev to Kursk. Wrong direction. Should've designated the Kirovograd line.

Hitler wants me to take both Rostov and Moscow. That's a tall order.

On the plus side, the Red army has taken quite a pounding and is now smaller than the Axis forces.

[elmo3]

Haven't played the Axis side yet. Does the alternate rail line in a theater never get converted?

[Flaviusx]

Weirdly, despite my decision, the right rail line does get converted after I decide to move the FSB to Kirovograd. So it's all good. (If rail construction follows FSBs, then why the decision trees on rail direction?)

But I'm still probably not going to make it to Moscow or Rostov in time. The Red Army is now down to below 1 million. There's something like 367 divisions in the dead pool. (And 16 Armies.) So I'm not very worried about a winter counteroffensive.

Mud descends across the whole front by late October.

[zakblood]

here's a tip on a replay, don't assault or attack cities, just surround them and move on, if you wish to take it, use the siege gun and only have 1 army do it, for me a all infantry army one works best, as the tanks ones aren't much cop in city fights, tbh i don't now use my tanks against infantry much at all if i can, as they are much better against other tanks and take too many looses against infantry to be worth the effort.

good luck

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: zakblood

here's a tip on a replay, don't assault or attack cities, just surround them and move on, if you wish to take it, use the siege gun and only have 1 army do it, for me a all infantry army one works best, as the tanks ones aren't much cop in city fights, tbh i don't now use my tanks against infantry much at all if i can, as they are much better against other tanks and take too many looses against infantry to be worth the effort.

good luck

Yeah, I got that, my big mistake was allocating the siege engines to the wrong places at the wrong time. I went south with it before necessary and without siege guns Riga is almost impossible to capture against the AI which will immediately drop a garrison on it (and nearly every other major city more or less. It spams these in a way a human player can't. I only got Minsk and Kiev for free in this game. Every other location that could get a major garrison got one.)

[zakblood]

i've got to Moscow a few times but by then the bear wakes up and pushes me back and i'm defending all the time until game ends

[Flaviusx]

Another lesson learned: I need to manage postures and refits better.

In the center 4th and 9th armies should probably be set to sustained offensive once Minsk falls. They're going to be holding ground against massive Soviet counterattacks. Don't wait until they burn out from blitzkrieg mode and waste time refitting. And 2nd army when it arrives should also stay in sustained offensive mode.

In the south I see little choice but to leave 6th and 17th armies on blitzkrieg mode until you take Kiev. Then refit them and switch to sustained offensive. But 11th and the two Romanian armies probably should switch to sustained offensive at an early stage and not ever bother with refits.

Up north 16th and 18th armies should switch to sustained offensive once the Baltic states are cleared and try to avoid having to ever refit. Time is of the essence.

The panzer groups should stay in blitzkrieg mode the entire time, although their attached infantry divisions will get fatigued. The trick here is when to refit them. PG1 down south can take a breather after Kiev falls. PG2+3 might want to refit when you move up the FSB to Minsk, they won't have fuel anyways. PG1 similarly might refit during the first pause when you relocate to Duraburg. Or alternately after moving the FSB to Pskov. Basically refitting panzer groups should coincide with FSB relocations since the mobile elements won't have gas.

By late summer all infantry armies should be on and remain in sustained offensive mode. If you ever find yourself relying on them to press forward, pile on the arty, tac air and the commanders, don't burn them out on blitzkrieg mode. They can keep things moving along when the panzer groups get immobilized by FSB relocations.

This is all against the AI so may need revising against human opponents.

[Kronolog]

In my game with the same difficulty settings I took both Riga and Brest-Litovsk without using siege artillery. I surrounded B-L on the first turn, and it fell the next once I attacked it from all sides. Riga was more expensive: the first attack failed and I lost several thousand infantry, but it brought down the fortifications from 200 to 20, which made it easy to take the next turn. Infantry replacements are bountiful for the Germans, time less so.

[Flaviusx]

I'm having problems getting to Riga that quickly with infantry. Maybe I'm worrying too much about pocketing stuff. Also, I only send 18th army in this direction, 16th is heading towards Duraburg in support of 4 PG.

The upshot of this is that I can't take Riga by coup de main against the AI. By the time I get there it has a garrison and other units and requires a deliberate siege.

[Kronolog]

I took Riga with the 18th army after it had cleared Courland of Soviets, so it wasn't until late July or early August, and by then the Soviets had a garrison and some other units in the town. If you play the artillery support card on an army, enemy units adjacent to that Army's divisions will lose fortification points, lessening the need for siege artillery.

[Flaviusx]

I had the arty on the 18th. Not good enough. Took several whacks at the place and was getting nowhere. It was generating casualties and fatigue. The contents were simply too strong.

Basically I'd rather send the siege guns there just to be safe and clear it out in one good whack. It would've saved me the better part of a month. It might not be necessary every time. But nor do you need the siege guns anywhere else at that stage save maybe Odessa, and Odessa can wait.

[willgamer]

ORIGINAL: Kronolog
If you play the artillery support card on an army, enemy units adjacent to that Army's divisions will lose fortification points, lessening the need for siege artillery.

Unless I misunderstood Cameron's answer to my bug report, that's not the case-

Hi Willgamer,

Theatre artillery isn't meant to affect cities.

There is collateral damage to the city whenever combat occurs with artillery but it's only a side effect.

If you want to reduce entrenchment levels of a city you've got to use the big guns - siege artillery.

Cheers,
Cameron

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O'K got it now (slowly re-read 4.11 and 412).

I have always associated the word siege with fortification, as in "the fort was under siege by a battery of 6 guns...".

So I had trouble understanding that in this game you siege a garrison, but reduce a fortification, both by way of the structure point mechanic but with different tools (units).

Perhaps your "too long" manual could add just a few more words?

[battlevonwar]

Interesting observations... I noted that the size of the Garrison in a City and the size of the siege army(all sides is a heck of a bonus) is what matters. Riga like Odessa limits the frontage and if it's packed it's just impossible to take. Now if the AI leaves just 1 Garrison, surrounding it with Air/Arty I have taken it out in 1 turn with losses but acceptable. Same with Brest/Minsk. Now if the AI packs a city you will need Siege Artillery or Pay the Piper.

I hadn't thought of some of the postures switches though it had occurred to me, in particular if you're deciding your own objectives. Fuel just gets eaten at a rate that no way the Axis side can keep up with.

P.S. A bad relationship with your truck and rail Generals is worse than a bad relationship with your Army Group Generals... So far as I can tell.. They just make life impossible for you!

[Flaviusx]

I had good to superb relationships with my AG generals (50%+) which gave me all sorts of benefits and was nice...but it came directly at the expense of the truck dude. And it caught up to me eventually.

In retrospect I should've struck more of a balance here.

[Flaviusx]

This one's for Budd, who wants to see casualties. I've basically abandoned the game as of Oct 20 but it offers an interesting perspective on just how much you have to kill in order to clinch a win (which I fell short of here.)

[Flaviusx]

Total strength figures.

[Flaviusx]

And finally losses by side.

[Flaviusx]

You have to kill a lot of Soviets, lol. And more quickly than I did.