|
ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/24/2007 8:40:00 PM)
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: EUBanana
Thats a mindboggling amount of industry spent on aircraft there.
...do you think that was industry well spent? thats like, ~350 odd arms - an entire French army - or 150 barrages...
Partly there was a role-playing aspect to it. After the dismal failure of my 1915 grand offensive I was fiercely determined to avoid any more large-scale offensive infantry battles. Losing over a million young men in two weeks gave the Entente Governments something of a scare I can tell you. I figured that if I gave my generals more men they would just be tempted to throw them away on more pointless offensives.
But yes in retro respect I think they have been a better investment then the alternative. Something like 95% of the casualties inflicted in the game has been caused by artillery. I long ago maxed out my force pool of artillery and I have been keeping sufficient stockpiles of shells to keep them firing constantly so I simply could not have spent the investment on more artillery. I have been spending quite liberally on navy, consistently on the technology fields of artillery, aircrafts, and trenches and on ASW till I reached level one and I always maximised my investments on US diplomacy – arguably the best return of all investments in the game.
What has been paying for all this: Arms. I reached the conclusion that in such an artillery rich environment non-a quality infantry corps were all but useless – the artillery would just shoot them to bits. I’ve seem dug in German 24 strength point corps in level 3 trenches evaporated by massed artillery fire – The Central power defensive line in the Alps I had to cross being a good example. The Butchers Bill for a frontal attack would have been staggering while 60 strength point of Anglo-Italian-American artillery with air support just blew them and their fortifications away. I basically only ever launch attacks with 1 max 2 corps on opponents who have been hammered by deadly accurate artillery fire. I got the industry points for this by cannibalising non-A class corps to keep my A units in fighting trim. Don’t forget the investment in air power gives a triple bonus. It gives you air support bonus to your artillery and denies it to him, it gives you a favourable rate of attrition in air combat, and it removes the fog of war for you while clouding him with it: The ability to archive complete strategic surprise in my Italian Attack is an example of this.
I fully understand your point of alternative cost but I don’t think I would have gotten nearly as good a return on my investment by having a much bigger infantry army, which was the alternative on offer.
Also it has negated the need for armour or assault training: With this kind of air support and high tech artillery I’ll just blow his trenches away.
[image]local://upfiles/4201/32AB1F7EB76044D9A476A1B5194126A7.jpg[/image]
|
|
|
|
