PeteMitchell wrote: ↑Sun Apr 27, 2025 5:11 pm
Thanks, and in terms of grand strategies?
My only play with BE 2.4 itself was quite some time back and I mainly tried to get a good comparison with the 2.3 I was familiar with. So I played on normal difficulty (General) instead of trying to make it more challenging.
1) I somewhat reinforced the
Afrika Korps while they stopped the initial push from the British in Afrika. Then Tobruk was captured, with reinforced Italian navy support (if prestige allows, playing on Rommel can change that). Later I slowly pushed beyond the Suez and prepared for Tunisia defense (if Tunis falls, Italy surrender is practically unstoppable).
2)
Formed wolf packs in the Atlantic and waged that maritime trade war with naval bomber support. Every prestige point gained was a nice bonus, but priority was to not lose submarine units because I needed them later on for Sealion. Thus I rather destroyed fewer enemies and played it slower and safer. Repairing subs is also not cheap, so when the opposition increased, I just ceased Atlantic naval operations and preserved forces.
3)
Main focus was the Soviet Union, so no early SeaLion. Initially ignored Leningrad and focused on taking Moscow while also advancing the South to Rostov. Kept the 3.7cm Pak 36 units back from roughly turn 2 onwards and stationed them in the German upgrade cities, so that they could be directly upgraded to 5cm Pak when available and moved to the front. I'm not sure when and how many strats I converted to fighters using the special upgrade options in Wien? I generally like that exchange, but don't remember how and when I did it in that 2.4 game.
4) Had a proper defensive line (with those 5cm Pak) ready to receive the enemy counterattack in the first winter while accounting for the 3 winter turns of strength losses.
Then towards Stalingrad and Baku.
I don't remember if I sieged Leningrad eventually or if I stormed it directly, probably the latter in those days.
5)
SeaLion after SU was practically defeated (fewer than 3 Soviet main victory hexes, which stops SU reinforcements from appearing). Make sure to not allow partisans to seize a victory hex in the rear, or the previously stopped reinforcements will be deployed at once, which is worse than them trickling in normally.
Timing is usually most important.
@McGuba: Hm, thinking about it, early focus on Moscow is much easier due to Leningrad and Kiev/South enemy units being so passive. What if triggers are introduced that would punish that "hindsight".
Eg if not enough units push towards Leningrad, then Leningrad activates even in 41.
If not enough units are West, South or East of Kiev, those units activate instead of letting themselves be encircled.
If not enough units stay West of the Brest to Minsk cauldron, those units try to break out towards Berlin or so?
That would diminish the players ability to play with hindsight and focus everything on Moscow.
