|
Franciscus -> Thoughts and comments of a full Axis campaign vs "historic" Allied AI (2/20/2021 8:29:18 PM)
|
Hi
I finally played a full 1939 campaign as Axis, historical settings, historical plan, started with one of the first betas, ended with the latest.
Incredible fun !
I am not a min-max player and like to play "historically", and not to be gamey vs the AI. I like to have a fun and relaxing game.
The game first went pretty standard; Poland fell, then Denmark , Norway and France (with a good fight by the AI defending France. I accepted Vichy), then I turned East. And then my first good surprise by the AI, that successfully invaded and captured Narvik (that I had left ungarrisoned), that I was only able to take back in 1944.
I conquered Yugoslavia - a tough one - and decided to leave Greece alone. Then a little ahead of "schedule", I attacked Russia while making some moves on NA.
In Russia the AI defended well at first but then crumbled. By 1942 end I had captured Moscow and Stalingrad, in 1943 Leningrad fell, and in 1944 I was able to force Russia to finally surrender.
My manpower then was already stretched thin, specially because...
The AI made a "Torch" landing in the end of 1942, that was very tough to fight back, although I was able to eventually take back Algiers and Morocco but only by 1944. In Egypt I was able to capture Cairo and then Damascus, by 1944
And in 1943...
The AI invaded France. I deliberately invested essentially in land forces and close support bombers, and had only some weak garrison divisions in France, not expecting a big attack. My subs had by then been all destroyed.
And the AI came full force, with US, British and Canadian units, and almost managed to capture Paris. I had to get all my available units back to France, and although I was able to fight back, the AI still held to Le Havre, St Nazaire, Brest and Bordeaux by the game end, and bled me thin. I was especially well impressed by a very well managed retreat of the US forces from North Africa by the AI (via naval transports) to reinforce the France invasion in 1944 when the situation in Africa was hopeless for the AI
Bottom line:
VERY impressed by what you did with Allied AI. Very good moves.
I think it was the best experience of a game this scale I have ever had. I only wished that Russia had fight better. Somehow the onslaught of fresh Siberian units that I was expecting by 1942 was nothing special. Maybe just a tweak in Russia reinforcements ? Or maybe with higher experience and logistic settings the AI would be an even stronger opponent ?
By end game, I had no spare german manpower - it felt right, although I had plenty of everything else. Italy on the other hand had still lots of manpower.
Regards
|
|
|
|
