Random take 2 (Full Version)

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henri51 -> Random take 2 (4/17/2011 11:34:30 PM)

Still learning the game (although I have played AT before), I tried another random game with an xlarge map. This game gave some interesting opportunities for strategy and tactics, perhaps siilar to a WaW game. I chose the one-city startup, although for some reason I am always slower to build up than the AI - maybe it cheats...I have some new ideas for growing faster that I may post elsewhere, but I didn't use them for this game, where I just created a few armored cars with a few infantry and sent them scooting towards cities and resources until the met the enemy.

This map shows only a small part of the map where I began. Although I have only one city to start, there are a few cities that are of my nation, and others can only be used to produce political points and resources. Unfortunately a few of my cities are to the East across the water, and I will have to build ships to get units there. This is the situation after I met the enemy, namely the British in the West and the Japanese in the South-Center.

You can get an idea of where the enemy are by checking out the strategy map, or by using the edit button to look at the map before you press the start button. The British are in the West, The French are in the SW,the Japanese are in the S,and the Russians are in the SE. Roads connect most of the map, but there is an area without roads between me and the British, which is too bad, because I would hope that the three enemies in the South will fight each other while I take on the British. This seems unfeasible, because if I am far from a road when I am attacked from the South, I could be up the creek without a paddle...

In the next message I will describe a strategy for this map.

[image]local://upfiles/31075/A5D4C9565A6042EF9837422079B6E922.jpg[/image]



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/18/2011 12:14:46 AM)

I have indicated the cities I controlled at this point, as well as the lines of attack that came later from the British and Japanese. The power curves here and before indicated that the Japanese were by far the most powerful, and the British among the least powerful. So I decided that my initial opponent would be the Japanese and that I could probably neglect the British for the time being, which turned out to be a bit optimistic. Given the balance of power, I estimated that the Japanese were skirmishing with the French and Russians, and the British were skirmishing with the Japanese, and that the Japanese were the most successful.

But first I had to decide on my priorities. Clearly the two highest priorities were to spread out and grab as many cities and resources as possible, and capture my national cities on the land to the East. This means that I had to build some ships, and although I forgot about that for a while, it also means that I need a port over there if I don't want my units to starve.

As the map shows, I did grab an initial city in the NW, then sent armored car units scooting for the others. I also sent a transport with infantry to grab Odessa tothe SE, because it was the only city in the area that sould serve as a port. Unfortunately I forgot that supplies need Seacap to cross the water, and it wasn't long before I realized that I had to build more transports to increase my seacap so that my units could be supplied.fortunately I had not met any enemy units there yet, because units that are out of supplies can die really fast.

Another item of importance is that I had only a couple of raw (mineral) hexes in my starting area, although I had a lot of oil. This meant that I should create engineers as soon as I could to increase my mines to level 2, which quadruples their production from 20 to 80.Doing this requires a lot of production points (PPs), minerals and engineering points, and everything is in short supplies, since I have to produce trains to increase my landcap, staff for my HQs, trains, trucks and horses to move around my units, and infantry, artillery, machineguns, and aircraft. All mechanical units require minerals to build and fuel to run, and although fuel was not a problem at this time, I was very short of minerals.

OK so the strategy is to hold the Japanese at the neck and keep them from spreading out in my territory, and keep one or two weak units to the West to keep an eye on the British, and to protect the towns and mine at the top of the mine. The towns can only produce resources or PPs,but the mine has a fourth of my early mineral production, so I didn't want to lose it to a meandering British unit.I captured the oil hex where the British unit is on the map, but made no attempt to hold it since it was not critical at this point and my infantry unit could defend better from the town.

While I was running around in the East capturing cities and resources, the Japanese came at me full force at the neck of land to the South.I began to produce units as fast as I could, and created a HQ on the town there to support the defence, and redirected the production from a couple of cities to this new HQ, called AG South. I tried to give my units combined arms, and supported them with artillery and eventually aircraft, whereas the Japanese units were infantry-only except for a few air units.

In ATG defenders are much tougher than in AT, and attacking enemy units with odds of less than 3/1 without softening them up first with air power and artillery is asking for heavy casualties. Apparently the Japanese did not know this, and kept attacking with Banzai suicide attacks that gave them something like 10/1 casualties in my favor.

Just when I thought I was dong pretty good, things got complicated when the British showed up in force to the West, and when I collided with the Japanese to the East near the coast, where they were apparently coming up from the narrow neck of land there. As if that were not enough, the Japanese were also appearing in the far East. The land there is not an island, it is connected to the center by a neck of land further South.

Now I was fighting on four fronts, three of them against the Japanese. Unless the French and the Russians, who so far had not made an appearence, could hassle the Japanese from behind, I could be in trouble. I had to shift production to the other fronts and even remove a few units from the main Japanese front to meet the new threats. One of my engineering units I had sent to the mine in the East of the main front was surrounded, the British were trying to envelop my units in the West, where I had to give up a city that gave me only PPs but that the British could use to produce anything.

Although I had not bothered much with fuel since I seemed to have plenty, I was going to find to my dismay that when you are attacking with planes and armor and moving ships around, your 15,000 surplus of fuel can disappear in a single turn, and your kickass mechanized units are left high and dry.

Henri



Tac2i -> RE: Random take 2 (4/18/2011 12:55:08 AM)

Good reporting. Enjoy reading.



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/18/2011 2:59:50 AM)

Here is the situation a bit later. Just when the battle with the Japanese reached its height and I started to launch my counterattack, the British showed up in force in the West, and as seen in the figure, threatened to envelop my meager surveillance force there.My forces against the Japanese had a lot of infantry, 3 artillery units of 3 or 4 artillery, a small number of tanks and 3 air forces consisting of 4 fighters, 4 divebombers, and a couple of level bombers from the airbase a few hexes to the N of the HQ.I had built an airplane factory next to the airbase (which I built for nothing since the factory can be used as an airbase).

On the other hand, I noticed that the French in the SW were gaining in strength, which should be good news if the Japanese have to divert forces to deal with them.Note that city on the narrow neck right in the middle bottom of the map. It turns out that there are Japanese units holding that city. Not knowing that, at this point in the game I decided to send a weak unit by mail to occupy that city, which could then serve as a port for that area of the map.When the unit disembarked in the adjacent hex, it immediately detected the enemy stack, as well as some Russian units coming up from the South that were cutting the supply line of these units. Since my own unit would be unsupplied if I left it there, I loaded it back intothe cargo which I then sent a bit to the SE just off the bottom of the map to the neck of land there so that it could cut off the supplies to the Japanese units to the NE, and attempt to link a supply line to my units to the NE.

[image]local://upfiles/31075/1C8B9E43F58C448EB9FA019E9604876B.jpg[/image]



Rosseau -> RE: Random take 2 (4/18/2011 3:29:48 AM)

If someone generates interesting maps like this, is it possible to upload them to the Scenario Bank as a save game?



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/18/2011 1:28:08 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: rosseau

If someone generates interesting maps like this, is it possible to upload them to the Scenario Bank as a save game?

Possibly, but I don't see how the map without the units could be obtained. However if you want an early saved game to play the scenario as it is, I can email you or anyone who wants it a saved game. If Vic wants it in the scenario bank, I can send it there too.

Henri



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/18/2011 2:25:40 PM)

Here is the strategic map showing the whole game area.My cities, that is the ones that I can use to produce units, are circled in white, but at this point in the game most of them had not been captured yet. My capital and single starting city was Vienna in the top right corner.

As I described earlier, the British are to the West, the French in the SW, the Japanese in the South-center and the Russians to the SE.

This is the type of map generated with the "dry" setting. After you create the map, before you start the scenario, you can press the edit button to see the map and to see where the various nationalities are so that you can choose the location that you like the best.One could also edit the map at this point since one is in the editor, but I have not done that.

Note that I will have to build ships to capture my cities to the East of Vienna, but there is no point in building a huge fleet, since most areas of the map are not reachable by sea from my coast.So large naval battles are unlikely, which may be a good thing since the AI cannot build aircraft carriers.Note that my Eastern cities are reachable by land, but I would have to detour far to the South through enemy territory to reach them, which is highly unlikely to be successful; I need those production centers and I need them FAST! One or two cargo ships can carry a small unit over there early on to capture the cities and resources in the area.

Note also that my units in the East will need a port, whcih means that I will either have to send over some engineers to build one, which will require a lot of precious PPs, materials and engineering points, or capture a port city. I chose to go after Odessa which fortunately was not occupied, although it was a bit far from my area of operations, which resulted in my units to be out of supplies for a while until they could come down the map.

Henri

[image]local://upfiles/31075/2C4FC1B950A84E328472FA270F700C31.jpg[/image]



mgaffn1 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/18/2011 6:06:41 PM)

great after action report, henri51.


you also win the award for best title of an AAR: "Screwed, blued, glued & tatooed."



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/18/2011 6:54:18 PM)

Disaster...Dang![:@]

Just when I break through the Japanese line, the British tsunami rolls over my meager force up above. Based on the strategic map and losses curves, the Japanese have decided to concentrate their forces against the French to the SW, and I have won the battle of attrition in the center.

If I don't act fast, the British will make it all the way to Vienna!

Checking on the situation further East, I am doing pretty well: I control Kaduy the city on the narrow neck where the Japanese and and Russians were duking it out and Where the Russians generously cut off the supplies to the Japanese in the city so that I could assault them and take it for myself. I intend to fight a holding action here, hoping that the Russians don't think of an amphibious operation behind me supported by engineers to build a port.I also pretty much control the land to the East which is also only accessible by a narrow neck of land that I control, the few Japanese there are isolated and I will also carry out a holding action there along with a reconnaissance in force into the Russian area, the main objective being to keep them busy until I can solve the British problem.

In the same vein, I will move most of my forces around Lagoda North to hit the British flank, stop their advance, and try to get behind their lines to cut off their supplies.The dotted line just below Lagoda shows where I intend to hold the line against the Japanese, hoping that the French will keep their attention in the south.

I have already moved half of my air force to Darwin from where they can strike the British, and I may bring the other half too. I will generate as many small infantry units as I can to attempt to create a line against the British, who seem bent on washing around my units. I don<t want to give up the two British cities that I control there (circled), because I will lose the PPs they are producing and give the British two more cities to produce their units and to shorten their supply lines.I have drawn a dotted line which is my farthest line of retreat, although I hope not to have to retreat that far.I will produce as many infantry as I can in the NE to try to fill in a line.

The deep forest bereft of roads between the British territory and mine is to my disadvantage right now, because if I had a road from my forces to the British rear,I could slip up some motorized forces behind them before they could react.At least I hope the dense terrain is slowing down British supplies to the front.

If I don't succeed in stabilizing that front, I could be in deep trouble...[:(]

Henri

[image]local://upfiles/31075/33D91460F1A64CEE914B6C4E5317C825.jpg[/image]



Josh -> RE: Random take 2 (4/18/2011 7:32:21 PM)

"...Not knowing that, at this point in the game I decided to send a weak unit by mail to occupy that city..."

Dang, now that's a cunning plan, send them by mail, they won't be expecting *that*! [;)]

Great map by the way, ATG does a good job creating random maps. I don't know how Vic did achieve that, but it certainly adds to the gameplay.
Pesky Brits, always a nuisance [:D] I'm afraid you're in for a rough time there, they look massive. Good luck. 



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/18/2011 11:33:28 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Josh

"...Not knowing that, at this point in the game I decided to send a weak unit by mail to occupy that city..."

Dang, now that's a cunning plan, send them by mail, they won't be expecting *that*! [;)] 


LOL [:D] I guess they will get there faster by rail.[:'(]

Henri



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/19/2011 3:05:08 PM)

The map shows my forces beginning their defensive actions against the British.Arrows show the main avenues of attack I hope to take once I get enough units in the area.

I began to create and move as many units as possible to the British front, and the whole of my air force to Darwin, from where they could hopefully attack the advancing British without being overrun.On my next move with artillery and combined arms I obliterated the British recon unit near Asbach that had advanced far ahead of the rest. I attacked a few weak units, but many of my units were green and not yet trained, so I did take casualties, sometimes heavy.In addition, most of my armor and some of my combined arms infantry could not move because the air attacks, moving some truck-mounted engineers, and a few ships in the far East sucked up all my fuel.

I could move only one engineer unit to an oil well, where he upgraded it increasing its production by a factor of 4, but the others, being mounted in trucks, could not move. So I had to use my Southern HQ to create some more that would appear at his location, where I had an urgent need to fix a bridge and a broken rail.

Indeed I had not pulled out all my troops from the battle with the Japanese since their units were so battered that only one or two had any stuffings left.So I kept advancing and captured an oil well and moved a unit next to Abukuma on my right flank, but it turned out to be well-defended. And the railway nearby was cut (possibly by bombing or maybe it was never finished), and needed to be fixed. In addition, some of the units on my left flank, advancing across the river after blasting weak units in the area, were low on supplies because a bridge was blown.And my two strongest units could not advance because one had tanks without fuel and the other had trucks.

In the far East, I landed an infantry unit from a ship on the neck of land where the Russians were giving a serious pounding to my unit there. The units to the NE were wiping out the remnants of the out-of-supplies Japanese units there, and getting ready to contest the neck of land, the main idea being to reduce the pressure on the narrow passage where I had two units sitting on the city of Kaduy blocking access to the peninsula that could give access to the left flank of my army fighting the Japanese further West.





[image]local://upfiles/31075/1E8FB56CC5B94CBCB4ED17D67F504841.jpg[/image]



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/19/2011 7:38:39 PM)

Here I realized that I had made a serious strategic mistake [:@]

I had originally planned to move most of AGS North to fight the British, and I did move about half and all of the air force. But the Japanese were so beaten up that I decided to exploit a bit and kept moving forward. This was a mistake. Why?

Consider the situation: I have about 20 cities, including my own 11 that can produce units (the rest are producing PPs). The strategy map shows that the Japanese are sinking fast and that the French are rising fast; the latter have captured some Japanese cities and have captured the Two British cities on the island SW of the British area.

As a result, the more I batter the Japanese, the easier Imake it for the French to conquer their territory. And if the Japanese collapse, the French can take over most of their territory while I am busy with the British, and I will have helped creating a French Frankenstein monster![X(]

Clearly my strategy now must be to pull back from the Japanese front, leave a force sufficient to hold them back, and move the rest of AGS to the North to fight the British as I originally intended.This should free some Japanese units to go counter the French ambitions to the W and SW. in any case, the blown bridge and broken railroad are keeping supplies from reaching South of the river and prevents any expansion there on my part until engineers can repair the bridge. And since this works both ways, this should help prevent any ambitious moves by the Japanese into my territory.

Further East, I will continue my holding actions and hope that the Russians will not try to use amphibious operations or paratroopers to crack open the position there.

Looking further ahead, when I push back the British, I may have another supply problem: there is ro road into the British territory, and the only port I have any chance of taking, Nobukama to the West of Lagoda, is in the hands of the Japanese. and well defended. So I may have to use engineers to build a railwayinto the British territory, but first I have to stop the British from overrunning me![:'(]

Henri

[image]local://upfiles/31075/4216329C697A49F1960DC80D229C78D0.jpg[/image]



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/21/2011 4:20:31 PM)

OH oh, the wind has shifted and it looks like my goose is cooked![:(]

Indeed, the Russians have broken through in the far East by obliterating my strong stack if infantry with a stack of 15 aircraft, and I have no units in the area to stop them now. I could create some new units there since I have a HQ, but their initial strength would be low and producing enough to mount a credible defence against the free-running Russians would require stopping production for the Western Front, which I can't afford.

In addition, it is highly probable that the Russians will do the same on the next move and obliterate my units on the neck of land blocking their access to the North with the resources there and access to the flank of my units holding back the Japanese. [X(]

The red lines show the probable progress of the AI against land I control, and there is little I can do against it: I asimply don't have the capability of fighting a five-front war.[:@]

So it looks like the writing is on the wall for this adventure...[:(] I have written a message in the main forum explaining why I think that the advantages given to the AI (cheats) are too great for large maps like this.

[image]local://upfiles/31075/BB7B62049B614AA9BE5850047FB468C7.jpg[/image]



Tac2i -> RE: Random take 2 (4/21/2011 5:57:38 PM)

Thanks for taking the time to report on your game. Look forward to your next with the fixes put in place with the first patch.



phatkarp -> RE: Random take 2 (4/21/2011 7:56:35 PM)

I would pull back your southern armies and swing back the southern flank of your northern army to form a new line behind that swamp/river.  During the pullback, I would be organizing a new defensive army to man that line and give your retreating armies a breather once they cross the river.  You will be beaten up, for sure, but not beaten. 

Keep fighting! 



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/21/2011 8:42:59 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Webizen

Thanks for taking the time to report on your game. Look forward to your next with the fixes put in place with the first patch.


I would certainly help holding on for a while. My main worry is not there however, since I am winning or at least holding on against the Japanese and British. My biggest worry is the Russians in the Far East, where I have essentially nothing and where two of my national cities and quite a few resources are located. I can't afford to send massive reinforcements there, and after the Russians have taken the Eastern area, they can go after my capital by sea to the West, opening still another front.

Of course I could always hope that the AI nations will go after each others' throats and leave me aside for a while, but given the huge imbalance in resources that will only get worse when I lose many of my cities and resources, I find it hard to see how I could survive.

To anyone interested in wondering if they can do better I have a bunch of saved games at almost every move i the game that I would be happy to send.

My biggest regret is not saving the scenario before I started (I didn't know how at the time) so that I could try out the French location, which in retrospect looks "safer" than mine. The French strategy could be to build up a strong army while capturing the two isolated British cities in the island to their North, then to hit the Japanese in the flank by surprise while they are hopefully engaged by the Germans, and overrun them before they can react[:'(]

Henri



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/23/2011 1:48:01 AM)

After consideration, I decided to continue the game a bit more, because I see a (small) window of opportunity.

Assuming that fortresses are very tough and can resist repeated air and ground assaults when they cannot be surrounded, I might be able to hold three of the 4 bottlenecks I need to hold the enemy back. But first the situation...

I am actually winning against the British (I think), and although there are some awesome looking stacks of artillery and infantry guns, since I now have a factory each of guns, tanks and aircraft, I should be able to keep advancing; his left wing is very weak, and his center is wavering. Perhaps (and perhaps not) his situation is on the verge of collapse. Yes he has a number of factories, but they cannot produce infantry.

The Japanese are putting on a bit of pressure, but so far their forces are rather weak probably because he is being hassled by the powerful French on his left, and maybe the Russians on his right.

The question is whether I can get engineers to the critical spots fast enough with enough engineering points (400 are required for a fortress) in time to build a fortress on the necks of land. Clearly this will be impossible where he is breaking through in the Odessa region, and all I can do there is to put speed bumps in the way to hopefully slow him enough to give me time to build the other two to the East and to the North thus protecting my 2 national cities to the North and some resources. I have used strategic movement to move an engineer units to the blockade at Kaduy, where I have units on the city behind which I will build the fortress. Unfortunately this engineer unit is far from having the required engineering points, and it will take at least four or five moves to get them.

Fortunately my engineering unit near Hohenfels had trucks, and could drive quickly down to the neck of land near Thikvin. Another was brought there by ship from Melle, and I hope to move him to build a fortress blocking the way to Paderborn. Unfortunately all of those units have little or no engineering points, so the critical element is time.

The good news is that I now seem to have plenty of fuel, and I can use all of my planes on every move, as well as my few armored units that should now grow since I build the tank factory.

Henri



Lipa -> RE: Random take 2 (4/23/2011 1:05:49 PM)

Great AAR!!! Thanks for posting!



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/23/2011 7:19:51 PM)

So the fight continues. The picture below shows the situation in the far East, where the Russians have broken through. I intend to build fortresses at the points indicated where there is a bottleneck, and one fortress has just been built. It is unclear if I will have time to build the two others and garrison them before the Russians get there, but I have sacrificed some units as speed bumps, and have delayed the advance of the Russian armored units coming up the road.

The Russians are hitting me with air forces of over 40 planes [X(] (sheesh! it's all I can do to get enough oil together to attack with 4!), so it is unclear if the fortresses could hold even if built.

Since the battle on the British front has turned into a battle of attrition, I have begun to divert a few units by sea to the Eastern Front, but it may be too late.I am using my two cities in the Eastern area to build units to garrison the fortresses and to delay the Russians.

I have so many units on the British front that I am having trouble keeping up the supplies. The good news is that I have captured a British city and a resource hex in the North and moved up my air forces closer to the front using airports previously built by engineers and the cities close to the front.Before the engineers left they had time to build an aircraft factory, a tank factory and a gun factory.

Another good news is that so far my fuel is holding out despite using aircraft, tanks and ships. This is due to upgrading to level two most of the captured resource hexes. Since then I have had to give a few of them back and no doubt I will have to give a few more.

My only chance is to beat the Russians and to capture their cities putting them out of the game. I have *almost* accomplished a breakthrough in the North, but they just keep coming. With the freebies given to the AI, an AI player with just a few cities can compete with a human controlling 20 cities! Early on I considered the British and Russians as negligible forces, but now they are the ones chewing me up...[:o]

Henri

[image]local://upfiles/31075/B97F34FCCE5F46D186480B896309C153.jpg[/image]



Josh -> RE: Random take 2 (4/24/2011 8:27:27 AM)

Well the only thing you can do against an AI with countless planes is making several small stacks of AA. The AI tends to stay away from those.



Ande -> RE: Random take 2 (4/24/2011 4:59:38 PM)

I noticed that AA IV has a range of 3. It is not like they are something thats easy to get to but they basicaly lock down area from enemy airoperations as good as fighters does and isn't running the risk of being shot down. Oh, one can dream...



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/24/2011 7:26:30 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Ande

I noticed that AA IV has a range of 3. It is not like they are something thats easy to get to but they basicaly lock down area from enemy airoperations as good as fighters does and isn't running the risk of being shot down. Oh, one can dream...



AAAK!...I don't even have AA level 2![:(]



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/25/2011 4:41:38 PM)

Breakthrough!

At last, the British position seems to be collapsing . My right wing has broken through, I ha cptured a city, my units are nearing the next British city, and I have captured two of their resource hexes. I am having a problem with supplies, since a critical river crossing has had its bridge destroyed. I have transferred an engineering unit there to fix the bridge next move.

My engineering units had all been sent East and South to build fortesses. I have now successfully build fortesses at the three points I wanted to, but it remains to be seen whether or not these fortresses can stop a determined attack by the Russians.Not I have to get my engineers out of there before they are trapped. I will need them to build a road to the British area.

The French are beginning to appear along the Japanese units on the southern front. I have not launched any attacks there despite every Japanese unit being out of supplies, but I suppose and hope that the Japanese are keeping the French busyk in other areas to the Soputh and éwest, which seems probably from the casualty figures on the strategy page.The French now have a number of victory points equal to mine, but the British and Russians are giving a good acount of themselves with a much smaller number, thanks to AI cheats.

There is a double whammy favoring the AI in these games: the AI gets a lot of free supplies, free factories, free resources, free upgrades and other advantages, that allows them to stand up to a human player with 5 times as many cities and resources. The human player only gets a few PPs for each enemy city captured, which is not worth very much considering the effort required to win them.

Henri

[image]local://upfiles/31075/940A927CD9244ACFBA5D7F50C36716A8.jpg[/image]



blastpop -> RE: Random take 2 (4/25/2011 4:52:14 PM)

Henri-

I am enjoying your AAR thoroughly- Still deciding whether to purchase this game- tho you are certainly making it hard not to... [:)]

If you can get the Brits under control- you can then transfer extra troops to fight the Russians- Reminds me of a WWI or WWII situation transferring troops around.

Keep the AAR going, mate!



Jeffrey H. -> RE: Random take 2 (4/25/2011 7:45:04 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Josh

Well the only thing you can do against an AI with countless planes is making several small stacks of AA. The AI tends to stay away from those.


I'm finding that AAA is very effective in ATG. And much more cost effective than Fighters. The AI has a tendency to use them sprinkled into units and as stand alone units.

Also, ATGs in ATG, (Ha ! pun not intended) are effective against AFV's, much more so it seems than in AT WWII.



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/27/2011 1:53:50 AM)

Here is the situation in the Far East. Thanks to my "speed bumps", three fortresses have been built at 3 choke points, but unfortunately it was too late to build one at the fourth. It now remains to bwe seen how tough such fortresses are.

The Russians are sieging my city in the SE, and the unit there cannot be supplied, so its survival does not look good. At the present time the Russians do not have any ports, and capturing this one might give them ideas about an amphibious invasion to circumvent my fortresses. My ships are shuttling backand forth bringin new units to the SE, and bringing back the engineers to the main area where there is a severe lack of airbases.

Anyway nothing can last forever, and the idea is to delay the Russians enough so that I can finish off the British, which is coming along well but will still take some time.

On the British front, which I will show next time, I seem to have broken through in the center because the British to my surprise seem to be concentrating their forces in the forest to the South. In the meantime I have captured a city and a tank factory. The problem in this area is that there are no railroads connected to the British area, our areas are separated by heavy forest, I have no airbases that can reach the British rear, and I am having trouble keeping my units in supply due to the distance and terrain. Two engineering units have been brought back to build roads, fix broken track, and one of them is within one hex of joining the railroad leading to the British area.I don't even have an airbase close enough to drop where it will hurt the British.

To reduce the supply problems before they get critical, I have created a new HQ (1st Army) under Supreme HQ regrouping the 3 army groups on the British front. Some of the cities and all factories will now be sending their production to this HQ.

The bad news is on the Southern front, where there are nopw almost as many French units facing my meager force there as there are Japanese. The French have now surpassed me in victory points and are dominating in every field. In any case so far I have all the raw and oil I want, and my air and armor are not depleting my resources too much. But I must keep an eye on these resources.

Henri

[image]local://upfiles/31075/C7D1119CBDBB40AF9C18FD42CAE237EF.jpg[/image]



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/27/2011 4:16:51 PM)

Things are heating up on the Japanese Front; there are now as many French units on the front as there are Japanese, and the latter are all out of supplies. The French are now the most powerful nation and taking land away from the Japanese at a frightening rate. And the French units who are threatening me between the Japanese units are equipped with tanks, artillery and air.

Just when I am breaking through the British lines, I must now divert some of my production to the Japanese front, where my paltry defence force there is no match for the French armor.I must also reinforce the Far East, where I am fighting essentially a delaying action, but the tank units that have just arrived there can hopefully keep the Russians busy for a while. The Russians have shown what they can do by annihilating my defence of the Russian city in only two moves with artillery, air power and armor. Their next target will probably be Odessa, which would give them two ports and two production cities in that area. The last time I tried to cut off their supply lines by landing a unit on the narrow neck of land met with disaster when my unit was annihilated in one move.Stacks of 45 aircraft frighten me, and I don't know how many flak units I would need to neutralize that, but it is probably more than I can afford.

The good news is that my engineers have now connected the rail line on the British front to the British rail line, and built two airbases so I could move my aircraft nearer to the front. On the next move I may be able to drop some paratroopers behind the British lines, which until now I could not reach.

Were it not for the frustrating thing that after every attack the retreating British always have a single remaining element blocking my advance, my tanks could have advanced right into the center of the British homeland. As it is, it is a one-hex advance every move. If this continues, it would take me over 10 moves to conquer the British, which could be more than I can afford.

Henri

[image]local://upfiles/31075/4989622D1AD740128BA73D8DBEAC75CD.jpg[/image]



sIg3b -> RE: Random take 2 (4/27/2011 6:01:26 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: henri51

Were it not for the frustrating thing that after every attack the retreating British always have a single remaining element blocking my advance, my tanks could have advanced right into the center of the British homeland. As it is, it is a one-hex advance every move. If this continues, it would take me over 10 moves to conquer the British, which could be more than I can afford.

Henri


Is this the same for the AI? so you can also reduce them to 1 hex advances where you are defending?



henri51 -> RE: Random take 2 (4/28/2011 12:17:03 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Tesuji


quote:

ORIGINAL: henri51

Were it not for the frustrating thing that after every attack the retreating British always have a single remaining element blocking my advance, my tanks could have advanced right into the center of the British homeland. As it is, it is a one-hex advance every move. If this continues, it would take me over 10 moves to conquer the British, which could be more than I can afford.

Henri


Is this the same for the AI? so you can also reduce them to 1 hex advances where you are defending?


I think so, but I did not pay attention. Given the AI's tendancy to attck without significant forces, they usually take more casualties than they give. In the other extreme case (like on the Eastern Front), the AI attacks with so much air power that it is impossible to tell, because I cannot see the AI moves but only the results. (This is because I always use the History button to watch ONLY gthe battles, so I might ba able to tell by watching all the moves that I am allowed to.

But definitely you can usually delay the AI by putting weaker units in the way, This is what I did with my "speed bump" strategy described earlier in this AAR.

Henri



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