neuromancer
Posts: 627
Joined: 5/30/2002
From: Canada
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So then, I had promised a list of the lessons I have learned.
Disclaimer:
Few if any of these are entirely my own invention, most are suggestions from other helpful members of the forum, possibly modified by me.
These may not necessarily work for you as it is somewhat dependent on your play style. I also make no claim that these are the optimal strategies (in fact I am fairly sure others can think of better ones), these are just what I found to work for me and have helped me improve my game.
Also these are based on the early game scenarios. 1942+ is a different situation and some of these tactics will not apply, or might even be really detrimental.
With that said, I think other new players struggling to learn the game - and thinking that they suck as well - may find some of this helpful. I do assume a certain level of understanding of the basics of the game.
So...
0. Learn the Basics
Look at the one page guides, they give a suitable introduction. Then muck around for a bit to just get a gist of the game. Also play the introductory scenarios. There actually is a guided introduction to playing the first scenario Velikie Luki in the manual (I discovered this only by accident, which is why I mention it). It is sections 4.19 to 4.23 in the manual.
Right, assuming you understand the basics, we now have a list of what I have learned.
1. Keep the manual handy
When I ran into a concept I didn't understand, or thought I was missing the gist of, I went into the manual. The PDF is handy because it is searchable! Reading the tome of a manual is not practical unless you are one of those who would read their school texts front to back, so just look things up as you need them.
2. Learn the air war system
I recommend turning off the Air AI, I don't generally like it as it seems to get too many planes destroyed. The air war is actually not that complicated and mostly only involves updating your recon from turn to turn.
Also, after Day 1, I can't recommend doing anything fancy, it seems to just result in getting planes shot down for little benefit. But perhaps I'm missing something.
3. Day 1 airfield attacks
Your primary goal on the first turn is to destroy as many enemy fighters as you can. In a fight between a VVS fighter and a Bf-109, my money is on the 109, but recon planes and bombers are not so fortunate. So, first air planning phase, set up bombing runs against all the fighter bases in escorted range (show up as green hexes on the target area box). I have found that bombing all the bases in an area is not unreasonable, just make sure you stay inside escort range. Perhaps put some drop tanks on a specific fighter group if you want to extend your escort range a bit, but for the love of Messerschmidt, don't leave them on after the first turn, nor use them everywhere; it tends to have a really ugly impact on your ops losses on your fighters.
Count all the air fields (with planes on them) in an attack area and set the number of raids to that many, only add 1 if there are fields with a lot of aircraft on them (+1 for every 2 fields with around a 100+ planes is my suggestion). More than 1 attack on most fields doesn't seem to get any more kills, but does cost you planes to ops losses. Set the priority on these attacks to Very High.
Next, go after the further out fields, but only ones that aren't too far out (say, no more than 15 hexes), and only ones with a decent number of planes on them. These attacks are set to a priority of High. The general goal is to bomb as many fighters on the ground as you can, and kill more than come up to fight. In the end you should be able to do a lot of damage to their fighter force this way, with low losses to your own. Bombers are more incidental targets as they will get shot to pieces by your 109s when they come up to support the ground forces.
These attacks are only done on Day 1. Make sure the ground attacks are set to only Day 1, and are only targeting air fields. Set your cruise altitude to 15K, you lose a lot less planes to Flak that way.
Don't bother messing with the bomb load outs, I've found the computer seems to be fine on auto.
There has been a recommendation of not bothering to do the air field attacks in the first place, and just let them come to you and blow them up with auto intercept. The advantage of this tactic is that it kills more enemy pilots. On the other hand, I find that you get a lot more of your own fighters shot down for only a small increase in enemy destroyed, but YMMV.
4. Recon
Set your doctrine to a cruise altitude of 15K, and go for 2 *maybe* 3 times a week. I've found 2 is good without costing too many planes. You want them within escort range if possible, although ops losses will kill most of your recon planes. Keep them as close to the front as you can (especially the tiny little short legged Hs 126s and Fi 156s). The more miles a plane flies in a week, the more chance of an ops loss. Set them to Interdiction (VH) and Units (N or H). If they poke around air fields and cities they will attract an unhealthy amount of flak, and flying around too many units can result in the same thing, especially the low level recon planes.
You can fly recon on the first turn, and there is something to be said for checking out behind the well known front line, but it will cost you planes. If you do, set them to Normal priority so that most of the VVS fighters are already out of the fight by the time they fly.
Only fly recon where you need to. Checking out too far back may be nice, but costs you planes. Checking out an area where nothing is happening is mostly just a waste of planes. Use it to recon the enemy where you plan to advance, or expect an advance (as the case may be).
Air Phase of each turn, assess your recon: Is each recon AD necessary? Is it covering the right area? Is it flying too far from home? Move the target hex around as necessary, and alter the size of the area as necessary. Also, the computer sometimes picks a stupid air base to stage from, so keep an eye on that and change if necessary. Any run that is unnecessary or too high risk should be disabled for the turn.
5. Ground Support
First and most important point; use it as sparingly as possible. I tend to leave it off unless I expect the enemy to also be using air support, or I expect an attack to be particularly difficult. Leaving it on all the time will just cost you a pile of planes to ops losses and flak.
You probably can just set Ground Support to any available unit for each Army Group and call it a day, I've found that assigning specific air groups to specific armies seems to just complicate things unnecessarily.
6. Don't get too fancy
This is applicable to both the air war and the ground war.
I've found that most of the other air war functions are of VERY questionable utility. Naval Patrol is good for isolating a port, but that's it. Ground attack after the first turn just seems to be a great way to get planes shot down in large numbers. Strategic bombing can damage enemy factories, so may be of some value. Air Sweeps seem to not be worth the effort compared to just automatic interception.
For the most part you don't need to assign specific air groups to specific tasks, just let the computer divide it up according to available units and priority. However, there are times you may wish to force certain units to do something, or NOT do something.
Also trying to be *too* clever on the ground is probably just going to spend time you don't have, and waste manpower and equipment. Time is not your friend, being 'clever' often takes time to maneuver around that you just don't have.
7. Ground Phase, Turn 1
The great break out. Split divisions into regiments when facing ants (small units with a CV of less than 1), each regiment can attack one ant. This is mostly to conserve CPP. 10 to 1 attacks are cheap MP wise, but every attack costs a unit half its CPP, no matter how inconsequential the combat. Most ants will simply surrender when attacked by even a regiment. Also remember, all those little fortified units? After being isolated for a turn, they surrender without needing to even fight, you just move a unit next to them and they pack it in, so you don't really need to squash all the ants either. I think SEC units still need to be stepped on though.
Against units that actually have a real CV, smack them with a full infantry division, perhaps with a deliberate attack (just to make sure they don't turn out to be dug in a little better than expected). Most of those will rout. If they aren't in the way though (i.e. not exerting a ZOC in a hex you want to advance through) then you may wish to simply isolate them for easier clean up later. I have taken to isolating the tough guys and forcing them to surrender on turn 2, can usually just use some regiments to keep them in place, few of them try to break out if they have no real chance, and then you can clean them up without taking too many losses of your own next turn. Just depends if you want those units to be someplace else sooner rather than later.
Your main goal in the first turn is to open up the lines so your motorized forces can high tail it towards objectives and isolate large pockets of the enemy. This includes infantry units that are temporarily assigned trucks. You want to avoid having your motorized units fight if you can because it costs them MP, and reduces their CPP - on the next turn the reduction in CPP also reduces their MP which may put a turn 2 or 3 objective out of reach.
Move and attack with the furthest back units first, this way they will clear the path and scout so the units closer to the front can advance further.
8. Motorized Infantry and Panzers
These are the key to victory, but are in short supply, and panzer divisions are surprisingly fragile (this is not actually ahistorical, the problem was that the early to mid war panzers didn't have the greatest of armour due to concentrating mostly on speed, plus the German panzer production was never that great so it was rare for a unit to have its full roster of panzers without even facing the enemy, and panzers lost in combat were not easy to replace).
The infantry is to open holes for the motorized units to exploit through. This is the essence of Blitzkrieg (not actually a word the Germans invented), take a bunch of territory behind the enemy lines; capture supply depots, take vulnerable strategic objectives, cut enemy supply lines, and generally make a mess in the enemy rear area. In the early game you want to go haring off against distant objectives, especially in the North and Center, and to cut off enemy units. After the Soviet lines firm up you want to use them to cause trouble behind the lines and cause the Soviets to pull their line back, plus isolate some units for cheap mop up.
Be mindful that the Soviets will likely try to isolate your units when they can. So either make sure they can't be putting up a shell of units to discourage such adventures (just dividing your motorized units into regiments can work for this), or make sure that you have plenty of support in range to rout or isolate any unit that tries to get clever and sneak behind your forward units.
As above, further back units should move first to scout and clear the way so the units closer to the front can advance further. Avoid fighting if possible, but do it if necessary (it often is). Pick your battles. CPP is a very important commodity for your motorized units, it affects their combat strength and thus their ability to punch through when necessary, and it affects their MP and thus their ability to race into the enemy rear. You will need to rest your motorized corps between operations so they can replenish CPP - but... you will often find you need them to keep pushing even at low CPP and strength to get an objective. It is a juggling act of knowing when to use them, and when not to use them.
Use the motorized corps like a scalpel, you should have a specific job for them when they are pushing through; isolate these units, capture this objective, link up with that force, deliver this pizza (okay, probably not that one), you get the idea. Just having them smashing into the line randomly is a waste of the units; that is what your infantry is for.
By the same token, if they are trying for an objective that is too well defended, it is probably best to hand it off to the leg infantry. Getting into a slugging match is just going to grind down these precious units and waste their time when they could be more useful elsewhere. Withdraw, let the regular infantry do it.
9. Infantry
The leg infantry armies are the blunt object you use to smash into the Soviet line. Use them whenever you can, you need to keep the pressure up, you won't gain a lot of ground this way, it is to keep grinding down the Soviets for as long as you can. Move and attack as you can, rest when they need to, if you actually have some spare units (in that unlikely event...) rotate units off to rest even if they are in relatively good shape. Keep an eye on their strength (below 65% gets reported as Under Strength) and their fatigue.
Don't throw your infantry away though. Slamming their heads against too strong of a position is a waste, just gets a lot of your men killed - you want the ratio between their losses and yours to be as high as possible, that way you still have capable units while they have junk. If facing too strong a position, encircle the position and take it once the defenders have gotten hungry. Or build up CPP and support units (210+ mm artillery, pioneers, StuG, etc.) and then hit the enemy like a very large hammer. Preferably, both.
10. Support Infantry for the Motorized Corps
Assign a corps or two (around 6 infantry divisions) to each Panzer Group to support them. These infantry should rest at the same time as the rest of the group (if possible...), and build up CPP so that they can smash open the enemy line for the motorized corps to exploit through. They should be assigned to the Panzer Group so that they benefit from the same level of CPP recovery as the motorized and panzer divisions. Some infantry already are assigned to the panzer groups, you'll want to get a few more for each, and put them in their own corps as they won't be able to keep up with the motorized corps.
If your motorized corps are really going far, it may be appropriate to temporarily motorize a unit of infantry to back them up. These leg infantry can squat on an objective while the motorized corps goes off to do something more important.
11. Keep Advancing
Until the weather goes bad, you will need to keep advancing. You in fact need to be rather audacious in this if you want to get some of the more difficult to get objectives (such as in the North). You will need to take risks to get where you need to go. This is difficult, and contrary to the idea of resting to recover strength and CPP, but absolutely necessary. How to balance this need to advance without becoming too over-extended (which can lead to disaster, just ask Rommel) is the hard part.
12. Unit Modes Overlay (shift-r)
A recent discovery for me, turn this on give a quick overview of things. Will highlight isolated units in red, units due to withdraw in Orange, units set to Refit in blue, units set to Reserve in purple, and probably other things. Only shows when no specific unit is selected.
13. To Isolate or Not to Isolate
Isolating units requires that on one turn you cut them off from friendly territory, but don't attack them. You have to keep them isolated through the enemy turn (this is to represent that both sides are supposed to be acting at the same time, not standing around waiting for the other guy to finish what they are doing, plus it takes time to run through available supplies, and make sure that there are no gaps large enough for the enemy to slip through). Then on the next turn after you isolated them you can attack them and make them surrender. Thousands of troops, and a lot of guns and even AFVs bagged at probably low cost to you (probably, even isolated they can put up a fight if they still have enough supply on hand - historically this happened several times).
Obviously though, this takes time. Can you afford it? And don't forget that mechanized/ motorized/ tanks, and - in particular cavalry and airborne units - can still move around and cause trouble unless fully contained. They may not be strong enough to attack, but they can capture cities and supply depots, over-run air fields, tear up rail lines, chase away HQs, and generally be a pain the rear (pun intended).
Utterly destroying a unit doesn't actually accomplish much, the Soviets will just reform it with new guys, it's not like they declare that a division is gone and its ID can never be used again. The important thing is to take out those guys and gear. Routing a unit doesn't get all of them, but it gets a lot of them, and the Soviets can't just rebuild an entire unit overnight (well... they *can*, but the unit will be more like a mob than a combat formation). If you can spare the time and units to pocket a unit (or several units), then go ahead, there is satisfaction in it, and it is generally cost effective manpower wise. But if your primary goal at this time is to advance, or secure an objective, or support a panzer group advance, then you may not have the time to waste on this. Kick them out of the way (rout them) and keep going.
That said, if you run into some tough guys, but their neighbors aren't quite so butch, then kick the other units away and isolate the tough guys. They won't be so tough in a turn or two and you can remove hem with ease.
14. Redistribute the Support Units
These are supposed to be the historical assignments, but I have no idea what Wehrmacht Command was thinking in some cases. Some corps have piles of artillery and other support units, while others have absolutely none.
After combat on the first turn, start moving units around between corps. I find it easiest to go through the corps and units and kick excess units up to either the army or army group level. On turn two go back through them and move them down so they are spread out more evenly. Leave the heaviest artillery (240+ mm) separate for now.
Most infantry corps I go with a 2 or 3 artillery battalions of various sizes, a pioneer, an AA unit (preferably Mixed, not Light, the Mixed units have 88s), and a construction unit.
The Motorized Corps and the Infantry Corps assigned to the Panzer Groups I make sure they have 3 artillery including some 210 howitzers (note, the naming for the artillery is counter intuitive, look at their elements to find out what is actually there), plus the pioneer, AA, and construction units.
Panzers and Motorized divisions often have an AA company assigned from the start, but if one doesn't, give it one.
The Army HQs also get an AA unit (put the Light units here as the Army HQ is further behind the lines), and a few construction units. The Army Group gets the left over Light AA and the majority of the construction units not assigned to corps. You assign the construction units and AA from your AG to cities and depots as necessary.
The reason to have AA spread around is not just to defend against enemy air attack, but to shoot down enemy recon and transports when they fly nearby.
The other assorted units - StuGs, Panzerjagers, Recon bicycles, Flamm Panzers, Werfers, and the really heavy artillery (240+ mm) - are then assigned more specifically. Makes sure the motorized corps and PG infantry corps have the most toys; a StuG or Panzerjager for sure, plus a unit of Werfers. In addition to the PG corps, spread the Werfers out among the infantry corps where a corps may not have a full compliment of artillery, or looks like it could use a little extra support. Flamm Panzers are good for a unit in a Panzergruppe. Spread around left over StuGs as desired.
The really heavy artillery I assign to corps that are going to be putting a hard target under siege (Odessa or Leningrad for example), until then maybe push them all the way up to the OKH level and then assign as necessary.
It may be a good idea to leave a StuG battalion or two (note the difference in size between a StuG battalion and a StuG battery) for such siege operations as well.
You'll probably find you have excess pioneers, again, assign them as necessary to corps - or even individual divisions - that are facing heavily entrenched enemies.
The Rumanians have a whole lot of MG units, assign to corps and individual divisions to give the Rumanian units a bit more punch; they need it.
15. Don't fly over Tallinn
This deserves special mention. There is an absurd number of AA batteries assigned to Tallinn, flying over the city is going to get a bunch of your planes shot down. It isn't worth it.
There may be other cities like this, but I haven't found them, Moscow perhaps?
Okay, think that covers my page of notes, with some more information and recent additions added.
These are just my thoughts, do with them as you will.
Edit: Cleaned it up a bit, and added a section on Support Units.
< Message edited by neuromancer -- 5/24/2021 12:28:53 AM >
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