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bryinmich -> RE: German Strategies (12/5/2006 7:53:08 AM)
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Long post, but here's my key to success as the Third Reich / Italian Empire doing the following:
Su '39: Attack Poland with Eastern German forces. Attack Eastern Poland with East Prussia forces! This will get the Soviet Union into the war right away but no worries. When you signed the Non-Aggression Pact you had no intention of keeping it anyways right? This is the SU weakest point so take advantage of it! Move the Czech armor units into Eastern Poland during strategic move after Poland has fallen. Now you have MOST of your Eastern Front armor along the Belorussian frontier! Only 3 zones to Moscow! :)
Western Front Su '39 through Su '40: Basically from here on in, I keep France / Britain at bay. Transfer the Austrian troops into Western Germany. Use Western Germany resources / builds for the Western Front. Attack Denmark turn 1 from Western Germany, move your naval units into the Skaggerak including all your transports and U-boats. Build Infantry only the first couple of turns and keep them in Western Germany. Then build a couple of armor units. All these forces you build in Western Germany pretty much stay on the Western Front until France falls. In about 3 turns, take Norway via the single infantry unit in Denmark across the Skaggerak / Kattegat. If you feel the need use a paratrooper / bomber transport as well. I took it no problem with the single infantry and naval bombardment. Take the Netherlands with your built up Western Germany force! You should have several panzer units as well as your single Fallschimjaeger unit. This is why I saved it instead of using it at Norway. Screen Eastern France with about 3 infantry units and several air units and one artillery. This was enough to deter the Western Allies from attacking Western Germany. Next turn attack Western France with everything you've built up in the west! You should take Paris that turn! :)
Now for the Russians...ugh. Keep a single corridor of concentrated attacks with the ultimate goal of Moscow / Gorky. I would not recommend spreading too much north and south, ignore Leningrad for sure! Maybe take Kiev / Kharkov to starve the SU of some factories, and this will help you with research once they're in your control and they're repaired. Hit the SU hard and fast! But you may see the SU AI counterattack on some weak flanks, but don't let that distract you keep pushing on towards Moscow / Gorky!
Once France has fallen ignore Great Britain for a while. Keep 3 inf in Western France, 2 in in Eastern France and Holland, 1 inf in Norway. Vichy and the Italians screen your southern flank and do a pretty decent job if you play your cards right for quite a few turns. I used my Libyan force to bounce back and forth at El Alamein to threaten Egypt. The AI will respond by building up Egypt. As soon as that happens that turn, pull back into Libya. I did this successfully for 3 turns! Kept the British off their strategy. Everything else goes east! Pound Moscow with the Luftwaffe. Hit the factories and airfields. Don't let them build up too much. The Balkans should be on your side by now, ignore Yugoslavia for now. Keep the Balkan forces and what you can draw off from Italy to screen your southern flank and use these forces to draw off troops from Moscow. Cheap to replace and fast to rebuild...if you don't lose too many that is! Keep the Italian Air Force safe as you can't replace Italian air...stupid IMHO. I kept them with the Luftwaffe and pounded Moscow. By Wi 42 I took Moscow! Tough fight but finally got it. (Honestly I only did reload as I made a HUGE strategic error once. I figured why redo all what I had done to that point? Try and not abuse reloads though, as it defeats the point of the game. Win fairly if possible. :)
The SU is not done once Moscow falls...they're bloodied yes, but not out of the war. You MUST take Gorky and Stalingrad quickly or you will be facing a counterattack with all probability. Shorter lines of supply aid the Russians at this point. Their factories are right on the front! Not good...your factories are MILES away. Keep your forces concentrated and hopefully you have a large Luftwaffe to keep those factories leveled!
Once those two cities fall...you need to press on as Siberian forces will start rolling in (I had Japanese AI, so they basically ignored the SU / China. :( DO NOT start sending forces west...your Western Germany factory should be able to keep up with the British. I had 1 Aircraft Carrier / 4 Battleships / 8 Lt. Naval and 8 U-Boats. I built an infantry unit every turn as well. That adds up pretty quick. Just be careful of your population. Keep your newly conquored Russian factories repaired and put all conquered on Supply / Research. I used it as needed. Short on supplies then build supplies. If supplies weren't a problem I threw it all into research. The Allies at this point are not doing much research as they're hard pressed to build up and don't have the luxury of research. Be sure to use your Balkan forces as MP units behind your front in conquored territories. DO NOT let partisans form this will get really bad for your units on the front with no supplies.
By Turn 14, with decent Japan AI in the Pacific taking all of SE Asia and most of the Central Pacific islands, and with ALL of Western Soviet Union under Axis control, the Allies threw in the towel. And just in time as the US / British are starting to become a major pain in the Mediterranean! Once I had the last Soviet army backed beyond the Central Ural zone, I deployed the Luftwaffe / Italian Air Force to Italy. If you played your cards right you should still hold the Central Med including Malta / Sicily. More than likely the Allies took Corsica / Sardinia and Northern Africa / Libya. Oh well...you won! Who cares. :)
If you continue playing after "victory" you will have a tough time...the only way you can really win against the now stronger Western Allies is if you COMPLETELY destroy any remaining Russian units west of the Urals. The terrain is pretty rough and this gives defenders HUGE defensive bonuses. Even though they might have 15 units in one zone...that's tough with your weakened Eastern Front troops! Best you can do is screen them and keep sending one or two infantry units east a turn to keep up with their remaining factory in Vladivostok. If you can spare an air unit or two this will help in defense. Research is key here by now as well.
I had the Italian Navy in pretty good shape as I was VERY conservative with them keeping them in port in Northern Italy most of the war up to this point. But with the bulk of the Luftwaffe at your disposal you can put a HUGE air force into the Central Med so the Italian Marina can get out there and do some work! Yugoslavia was a pain in my rear end by now...so I had to deal with them finally and Greece too. A slow steady buildup with your Western Germany / Italian factories helped. Yugoslavia did attack Hungary / Rumania / Austria just as I took the Central / Southern Ural factories! I about ****e my pants there...but in one turn using even militia forces surrounding these areas I had the Yugoslav's on the ropes. Just was a bit of a panic to see tan zones in my central area. lol
Across the Med was a considerable Allied force in Tunisia. About 20 units with about 5 of them air, mostly infantry. This is tough...as you are pretty spread thin in the West. From Norway to Greece...that's alot of coastline to worry about! This is where I used my built up Kriegsmarine and Italian Marina. Every German unit I built went to Murmansk once it fell to the Finns. With the force I mentioned above, I now brought them into the Northern waters of the Atlantic...striking at the weakest of Allied forces first. Pick off the pickets with overwhelming force! DO NOT LOSE ANY UNITS! Be that careful! I managed to catch a carrier escorted by 4 light naval units and a couple transports NW of Ireland even! That hurt the Royal Navy badly...as most of it was deployed to the Med. I pwnd the North Atlantic using this strategy. This in turn helped the Italian Navy out as units were rushed to the North Atlantic. Breathing room! I seesawed this back and forth...when Allied units rushed north...back to Murmansk I went! Then strike piecemeal Allied units in the Med with naval / air power. This is quite an effective tactic.
Ok what to do with Britain? Well I called it at this point. The Russians were dug into the Urals so deep and with the build up of Western forces...it's pretty much a stalemate. But Japan was doing well and I had almost 5000 victory points to the Allied 1800 at this point. So it was victory but with time against the Axis it is only a matter of time that the Western Allies would eventually start whittling away against Festung Europa. I did see an opportunity in the MIddle East though...if you can manage to break off a Kampfgruppe of 2 panzer units and about 3 to 4 infantry with a single artillery...you could roll through from Southern Russia into Persia / Iraq and head west from there into Egypt and across Africa. That might do the trick to get you some foothold to deal with NOrth Africa. If that were the case...and you could push the Allies out of Africa...Britain would be easy pickings after that! Just watch your southern flank...use your U-boats and the Italian Navy to screen from Morocco north to Britain. Move everything you can west along this line. You shouldn't have to fear anything from behind as Japan is keeping the Allies busy in SE Asia. If you're playing the Japanese too...you can easily attain this. Bide your time and if you knock Britain out it's all over for the rest.
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