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Harrybanana -> RE: Decisively Beating the AI (6/9/2015 5:24:03 AM)
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Now that I am actually getting close to engaging the German Army in meaningful battle I will give you my top tips for winning the ground war against the AI in WitW. Some of these I have already stated but they are worth repeating. So in no particular order:
1. Make sure your Tactical Airforces are assigned Ground Support Air Directives for the appropriate Ground HQs. Okay, perhaps this one is really more for me than you.
2. Keep your Tactical Air Groups (especially the short ranged ones) close to the Front. Keep in mind that it is the number of sorties that your airgroups (particularly FBs flying as bombers) fly that is the important factor. Having an air group just in range of a particular hex means it will only fly one sortie per day. But if it is close to the Front it may fly 2 (or perhaps more?) sorties per day. The only possible exception to this is if you are logistically having trouble getting supplies to your units at the Front. In this case you don't want your air groups competing with your land units for supplies. This will probably not be a problem in Italy, but may be a problem in France and Germany later in the war. Transferring air groups to airbases near the Front is easy. Making sure those bases have all the support, fuel, ammo and supplies they require is not. Seminole has made some posts in this Forum on this very topic which I strongly suggest you read. However, a full understanding of all these intricacies is not necessary to defeat the AI. I know this because I have defeated the AI and I still don't fully understand supply.
3. Primarily use your Tactical Air HQs (and the air groups assigned to them) to perform Interdiction and Railway Interdiction in the enemy hexes in and behind the German line where you are planning to make your attack. It is far better to concentrate on a smaller area (2 to 4 hex radius) than it is to spread your Interdiction all over the map. Having said this, from time to time you will want to use your rocket equipped air groups to "Unit" Ground Attack enemy armour units and your LBs to "Unit" Ground Attack non-armour enemy units. But in these cases you will probably only need a smaller force, while most of your tactical air groups are still interdicting. As it is also important to wreck the enemy Railyards and Ports, I generally assign these Air Directives to Strategic/15th AF in the South and Bomber Command and 8th AF in the North.
4. As mentioned earlier, make sure all your units have their full complement of support units and that your Corps and Army HQs have as much artillery as possible.
5. Also as mentined earlier, study the map carefully during your Air Phase to find the enemy weakness. The AI almost always has a weak spot, your job is to find it.
6. Concentrate your armour units in just a few Corp HQs and set those HQs supply priority to "4". In other words, create armoured corps. You only have so much supply so setting every HQ to 4 is a mistake. In my experience Infantry do not seem to require as much supply as armour. By setting the armour to receive priority supply you are guaranteeing that they will have the most MPs as possible each turn. Having gassed up armour units is probably the most important factor for success in this game.
7. Get rid of all the poor leaders of your active units (the ones actually in battle) and replace them with better ones. When doing so you generally want to assign the ones with the best "mech" ratings to your armour Corps. But be aware that it is a leaders admin rating that affects the number of MPs a unit will have. So for armour units a good admin rating is as important as a good mech rating.
8. Pay very close attention to command control. This means obeying the following rules:
a) Keep your Corps HQs within 5 hexes of all units under their command and the Army HQ within 15 hexes of all Corps HQ. Note that if you have to move a Corps HQ during your turn in order that it can support the attack of one of it's units, then there is a decreased chance that the HQ will supply the support. For this reason I suggest you end your turn with your Corp HQs as far forward as possible. This way if next turn your units have to advance to engage the enemy you may still be within the 5 hex range.
b) Do not exceed your command capacity for any HQ. Note that breaking a division into component regiments or brigades will increase the command points that they use up.
c) Do not attack with the units of more than one army unless absolutely necessary (and even then ask yourself how you screwed up so bad that it was absolutely necessary and don't do it again). For this reason it is important that you not mix your armies all up. If your lines look like a quilt with flashes of colour all over the place you have done something wrong.
d) If you find yourself in a situation where you are at risk of contravening one of the above rules then use your Admin points to reassign units to different HQs in order to straighten things out. Or alternatively, even assigning a Corps HQ to a different Army. In one of my games I recall that the New Zealand motorized division had 3 different HQs on 3 successive turns.
9. Generally speaking (there are always exceptions) do not use your armour units to attack the first or even the 2nd enemy lines. Yes I know the armour units generally have the highest CVs, but it is still not their job to break the enemy lines, that is the job of the infantry. The job of the armour is to exploit the breakthroughs made by your infantry. Ideally your infantry will create a large enough hole that your armour won't have to attack at all. If not than your armour should be limited to attacking weakened units (generally ones that have already been retreated once or twice already) that are necessary to create or expand the breakthrough. If the enemy is weak enough your armour should only be making hasty attacks. You want to preserve their MPs for movement.
10. Use the units with the least MPs upon reaching the Front to attack first. For example, if you decide you want 10 CVs of strength to attack a particular hex and you have 4 infantry units all with 5 CV in range then attack with the 2 units that will have the least MPs left when reaching the hex to be attacked. This way if the unit is retreated the other 2 infantry may still have enough MPs to move into the hex from which the enemy retreated and attack it again.
11. Know what odds you need to cause an enemy unit to retreat and then figure out the best way to get those odds. My experience is that initial odds of 1.3:1 are usually enough to cause a fortified unit to retreat. However, if it is a vital attack you will probably want odds of 1.5:1 or better. On the other hand, in a pinch even attacks at 1:1 seem to stand a pretty good chance of success.
12. Be agressive. Don't worry over much about the AI counterattacking you, in my experience it rarely does. So break units down into brigades/regiments to hold certain areas of the Front so you can concentrate your strength elsewhere.
13. Stretch the Front line as much as possible. The longer the line the more likely that there is a weakness in it somewhere.
14. Do not neglect logistics. Repair railroads and build depots near the Front. Reduce the priority of or even disband depots that are not vital.
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