I made a tactical error and left Kursk ungarrison for one turn. This in itself isn't that big of a deal because the chance of partisan spawning in Kursk on that turn is pretty low. However, I left Kursk ungarrison with a partisan adjacent to it (C335). Rundstedt, his corps, the XV Panzergreadier and an Italian corps were brought into this sector to help correct this error.
More and more allied transport arrived off the coast of France (C336). The winter weather prevents them from landing but; it was decided to attack them. German u-boats and axis air hit them as hard as they could. Allied air is starting to have an impact on German u-boats. Two flotillas were badly damaged last turn and a couple of others were moderately damage.
Oil is no longer a real issue given all the oil that the axis captured in 1944. The major problem now is manpower, which was 9 for the Germans (1%) and 9 for the Italians (1%), supply and now partisans. Concerning partisans I garrison every city (unless I make a mistake and forget), which reduces their potential threat.
No screen caps this turn as things really haven't changed too much from last turn. The Kursk defenders were reduced to 2-steps and more invasion transports arrive off the coast France. Axis air and German u-boats continue to pound away. The weather for central Europe was mud/rain so no invasion was possible anyway. German placed a tank corps in the build queue.
The 3 u-boat flotillas that were part of the Norway Command have been transferred to the French command. This will put 11 u-boat flotillas off the coast of France defending against invasion transports. Also, there are two in the build queue, which can be deployed in 3 turns.
Oil ended at 146 and started over 200. Manpower which is still above 0 is the biggest issue now.
The western allies appear to be throwing every transport against the axis in France that they can (C337). Of course, even if the beaches were undefended they wouldn't be able to land due to bad weather (i.e., mud/rain).
The axis are withing sight of Omsk; however the severe winter will hit at the end of this turn, since it hasn't already. That means that winter wouldn't be over until after the game ends.
The Kursk uprising was crushed and the control of Kursk was regained by the axis (C339).
German tech for armor reached the max this turn (C340). Air hit the max a while back.
Also, Model was deployed a few turns back to the infantry corps in Moscow and Heinric a few turns earlier than that to a corps in southern Russia.
German manpower at the end of the turn was at 1 point. That is, not 1% but 1 manpower point.
I'm afraid that Omsk is out of reach for the axis given that this is the first turn of severe weather in Russia (C341). The good news is that with all the oil fields that the axis have captured oil is no longer a concern. The axis are getting over 100 oil points per turn and ended this turn with 93. By saving repairs for low manpower, high priority units such as u-boats, fighters and the occasional mechanized unit I've been able to keep manpower above 0 for both the Germans and Italians.
The western allies are making one last push (C342) and keep losing transports and air steps. The axis fighters in France are starting to become depleted but they're doing their job.
Casualties (C343) are high for every nation except the USA.
Fair weather on the western front so I had to make sure I had all the possible landing beaches covered (C345). Axis air and German u-boats combined to sink 4 more allied invasion transport. I've brought in bombers to France to help out and repaired several fighters. I did use a lot of oil and finished at 34. The axis are getting 109 per turn now. The priority now is prevent any allied landings in Western Europe. One thing the AI is doing very poorly is that it's stacking up it's transports and no distributing all along the coast. If they did this I'd be hard press to stop them from landing. And, if the AI built and used it's air properly then I'd be in a real battle for the game. All sub and air assets of the Norway command have been transferred to France. I almost lost my first u-boat, with it begin reduced to 1-step. A second was reduced to 2-steps. Allied strategic bombers are knocking off 7-steps per turn. So, against an experienced human player who'd have more air units, including strategic bombers, my u-boat force would have long been gone. Also, so would have the axis fighters as they would dominate there too.
In Russia, it's really hard pushing against Omsk because of the weather, supply and the fact that no infantry corps are being repaired (C345). It's just plain hard to push with depleted infantry corps even against a mortally wounded Russia.
Only one more allied transport sunk this turn (C346) because I took this turn to repair the axis air units in France. Axis fighters are having a devastating effect on allied air. It's a good thing I'm getting 109 oil points per turn because I'm using that and more. Axis oil ended at 13. German and Italian manpower are both still above 0.
In the Russia, the slow march towards Omsk continues (C347).
Is there an end in sight to this cursard war? Doesn't that madman in Berlin realize that a generation of Germans, Italians, Russians and Brits have been lost? Will he not stop? If not, will no one stop him.
Fair weather in the west and the axis again made sure they had all the potential landing beaches covered (C348). The focus in France was to repair fighters and move and hide u-boats along the coast. Even with this limited activity in the west the axis used all their oil, which ended at 1. Again, they're getting 109 per turn.
In Russia, the axis push slowly towards Omsk (C349) but that pushing is quickly stalling because of the weather (severe winter), supply, unrepairable infantry corps and low manpower levels.
Russian partisans are popping up by the bushel each turn and are a nusiance. However; they aren't more than a nuisance because I've garrisoned all cities in Russia (and Poland) and have allocated significant forces to dealing with them (C350). Partisans can definitely get out of hand and become a major problem if you let them. Dealing with them does take resources away from the main fonts; but that's just part of the cost of being the axis. As you can see in C350 partisans are everywhere in Russia but are out of supply, easily contained and are being dealt with.
German u-boats combined with axis air cleared out all transports in view (C351) and off the coast of France. There will be no allied landings in Europe.
I'm so ... so close to Omsk and knocking Russia out (C352); but that's not to be. I'll have to just be satisfy with an ultimate victory against the AI. I do consider this a disappointing result against the AI. But, I did play this game the way I would have played against a human opponent.
By the way, I did run out of oil completely this turn but both German and Italian manpower is still above 0.
Rommel is highlighted (C353) this turn for some reason.
C351. France
C352. Omsk
C353. Field Marshall Rommel, Commander of Army Group South
Strategy meeting for the final defeat of the Soviet Union and the escalation of the war against Great Britain and the USA.
12:44
Colonel von Stauffenberg was getting nervous. He had crushed the fuse over 20-minutes ago and he still hadn’t been called out this meeting with The Fuhrer in his concrete bunker at, “The Wolf’s Lair”. The only good news was that it was a cool spring day and the temperatures inside the bunker were in the high 60’s (F). Stauffenberg had been told that the acid would take anywhere from 15 to 30-minutes to burn through the wire that would release the firing pin. The cooler the temperature the longer it took. Oh well, in any military operation there’s risk and this, in his view, was a military operation that was the most important one in his life. He had made his choice a long time ago and he was willing to risk himself for the greater good of Germany and the world.
12:46
Since stepping into the meeting Stauffenberg’s boss, General Friedrich Fromm Commander of The Reserve Army, kept staring at him. Did he suspect something? Would he spoil the operation? If he didn’t act in 5 or 10 more minutes then it wouldn’t matter. Maybe it was best that Stauffenberg was still in the room. If he had left then General Fromm might become suspicious raise the alarm. General Fromm had been indirectly approached by Stauffenberg and General Friedrich Olbricht, Chief of the Armed Forces Replacement Office, about this plan for regime change and; hopefully, ending this war. Fromm, as always, had indirectly given his support by saying that, “He always comes down on the right side and as long as The Fuhrer was alive they knew what side that was.” Fromm had been implicitly promised the position of Supreme Commander of the Germany Military, which would be a position that was second only the Chancellor of Germany, Dr. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. However; Stauffenberg stopped his sentence at the “Chancellor of Germany” and left out that last bit about Dr. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler.
12:47
Fromm is watching Stauffenberg as an enlisted aide enters and whispers something to him and Stauffenberg immediately leaves the meeting. Fromm wonders what could be so important to pull Stauffenberg out of a meeting with The Fuhrer, Field Marshall Kietel and himself! How dare the man. He would need to take this up with him when they both get back to Berlin. As Fromm is thinking something that he quite can’t put his finger on begins to nag at him. Something just wasn’t right about Stauffenberg’s departure. What was it? What’s bothering him? Was it the brisk way that Stauffenberg left the room? Wait … he left without his brief case! Then all became clear to Fromm as he shouted, “Bomb …
12:48
But it was too late! There was a flash and in the milliseconds between the flash and the end, Fromm’s confusion returned. Hadn’t he told Stauffenberg that he always came down on the right side? And, hadn’t Stauffenberg implicitly promised him the position of Supreme Commander if he did come down on the right side? But, what confused Fromm now was, how could he come down on the right side if he was still in the room? No! Wait! He had to get out! He was going to be the new Supreme Commander! And then it was over for Fromm and everyone else in the room. Unlike Fromm, who’s last few milliseconds had seemed like hours, the rest of the people in the room never knew what hit them. They heard Fromm start to shout something, saw a flash and then it was over. The Mad Man” in Berlin was gone.
12:49
That was close! Stauffenberg thought to himself. He had no more left the bunker and went to the command hut next to bunker to “take his important phone call” than when the explosion occurred. On the other end of the phone was General Friedrich Olbricht to whom von Stauffenberg very calmly uttered six words before hanging up. “The Fuhrer is dead. Execute Valkyrie.”
17:27 (5:27 pm) Radio Berlin
“THIS IS A NEWS FLASH. The Fuhrer is dead. He was killed in his command bunker in eastern Prussia in an apparent coup attempt by State Security. Also, killed were many high ranking military and political officials including Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, General Alfred Jodl, General Friedrich Fromm, General Walter Warlimont, Lieutenant-General Hermann Fegelein, Rear Admiral Hans-Erich Voss, Major-General, Rear Admiral Karl-Jesco von Puttkamer, General Walther Buhle, General Karl Bodenschatz, Lieutenant-General Adolf Heusinger and Colonel Heinz Brandt.”
Now, here is Dr. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, Acting Chancellor of Germany.”
Dr. Goerdeler went on to detail how State Security has assassinated The Fuhrer in an attempt to seize control of Germany. They, State Security, wanted to conduct a more aggressive war against the western allies after the fall of Russia and to use wonder weapons against them with destructive power beyond one’s imagination. In this, his first radio address as The Chancellor of Germany, he went on to describe how Germany was saved because of the quick action by General Friedrich Olbricht and Colonel von Stauffenberg. The coup had been suppressed, many of those responsible have already been arrested and for the others arrests orders had been issued. May 2, 1945 Radio Berlin 18:30 (6:30 pm)
Dr. Goerdeler goes on Radio Berlin for the first time as official Chancellor of Germany to announce his new cabinet and that peace negotiations with Great Britain and the USA are underway.
His new cabinet included:
President of Germany (Regent) (Reichsverweser) : Colonel General Ludwig Beck
Chancellor: Dr. Goerdeler (himself)
Minister of War: General Friedrich Olbricht
State Secretary to the Minister of War: Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces: Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Dr. Goerdeler also announced that the State Security party was now outlawed and any members had an amnesty period of 72 hours to renounce their membership. However, there would be no amnesty for any party member, or anyone else, who had committed crimes against humanity. Whether directly or indirectly any such persons would be arrested and tried for such crimes.
Also, Dr. Goerdeler detailed that talks with Great Britain and the USA were underway for the conclusion of the war.
Turn 105. May 12, 1945. End of the Allied AI Turn and the Game.
Below is a set of screen caps (C355 - C362), which capture the situation at the end of the allied AI turn. I will say that I had expected to totally defeat Russia and did not expect the game to go past mid 1944. The end game script in the post above I'd been planning to use as a way to stop the gaem after totally defeating Russia. This never came and I played until the end.
Looking over the caps below a three things strike me. First, is the size of the USA air force still in the USA. If the AI had moved that force to Great Britain, used the western allied navies properly and hadn't been so stupid with the countless allied transport that were wasted then the allied AI would have made a real game out of it. But with that said the game, which was a push over from a victory point of view, wasn't a push over for totally defeating the AI.
Second is the size of the British force in North Africa (C362). Why the AI only sent the two Australian corps into Libya unsupported by this force is a mystery to me.
Third, the forces count shows 6 Russian tank corps but I only counted two on the map. I guess the other four were in the build queue.
While the game is over I still have some posts to make concerning this tutorial.
This document is 294 pages, but is composed mostly of screen caps. 362 of them. The document as it is now is just a raw capture of all the posts from this AAR and is in definite need of some serious grammatical editing. With that said, I would like to capture assessment and critiques of my play from other players. Whether positive or negative, all constructive criticism/comments are welcomed and will be included. To help this, the goal for this AAR was,
AAR Goal wrote:The goal for this AAR is to present a tutorial of a game for a “nominal” Axis strategy employed against the allied AI. The settings that I used are the same that I would use for a PBEM or hotseat game (C1). I do not expect this game to be challenging and I will only use the strategies or tactics that I would use against an experienced opponent. My objectives for playing this game are: (1) introduce new players to the game and grow our pool of players, (2) help new or less experienced players to better learn the game, strategy and tactics, (3) provide a forum for the more experienced players to comment on the strategies and tactics that I employ to help make me and the rest of us better players and (4) provide a forum to discuss the stupid things that the AI does and suggestions at the tactical (or even strategic) level of what could be done to improve it. With respect to this fourth objective, I can say with very high certainty that no changes or improvements will be made to the GS AI; however, my hope is that we might provide useful suggestions that could be incorporated in the AI for Commander: The Great War (CTGW) and the AI for future Commander series games.
This was interesting but the AI is not a great challenge. It would be nice if two people did this, working through the game, with comments from both sides on the various turns. But they set through it to make a fairly normal/average game, so us newbies have some idea of tactics. Though, following the various AARs does do that. Well done though!
Blathergut wrote:This was interesting but the AI is not a great challenge. ... Well done though!
Thank you!
Blathergut wrote:It would be nice if two people did this, working through the game, with comments from both sides on the various turns. But they set through it to make a fairly normal/average game, so us newbies have some idea of tactics.
Good idea. That game; however, would probably be best played by a single player in hotseat. However; I'm not up to such an endeavor at this point. I started the Axis vs AI AAR, and associated tutorial, on June 26 and finished exactly two weeks later on July 10. I generated over 360 screen caps and a draft word document capturing these caps and comments that's almost 300 pages! To do all of this in the space of two weeks, considering this is only a hobby and not my day job, one might say that I sort got obsessed with this AAR. It was definitely fun and enjoyable but I skipped a lot of sleep over that period.
In general, doing an AAR adds significantly to the time and effort required to play the game. Also, it makes public all your moves and decision including the good ones as well as the bad ones. But this for me forces me to slow down and really think about my moves and strategies. Also, because of comments from people following my AARs they make me a better player. Other player's AARs are definitely enjoyable to follow and comment on and I really appreciate it when they put one together. For those of you who've yet to do an AAR but think they'd like to I highly encourage you to. They make us all better players.
Side question about Norway, since you like conquering Norway and using its bases. Most players often use 2 infantry corps to conquer Norway.
So you can just build 2 more corps for 70 PPs (and leave that 2 in Norway), or you can ship 2 corps back (16 PPs), build 2 garrisons (30 PPs) and ship them to norway (16 PPs).
On one side we have 8 PPs delta and on another - huge boost to Norway defence against allied invasion.
Plaid wrote:Side question about Norway, since you like conquering Norway and using its bases. Most players often use 2 infantry corps to conquer Norway.
So you can just build 2 more corps for 70 PPs (and leave that 2 in Norway), or you can ship 2 corps back (16 PPs), build 2 garrisons (30 PPs) and ship them to norway (16 PPs).
On one side we have 8 PPs delta and on another - huge boost to Norway defence against allied invasion.
even though this game is very much alive why cant anyone(devoplers) do a AI patch for people like me who most of the time dont always have the luxury of playing against other people online. I think its sad, i really do, you have such a fine game and the AI is playing hippity hop to the barber shop. Now i can not expect the AI to have Human results or(think) like one. But there has to be something you can do to fix this small problem ,right? But i'm sure this game other then(fan based) is dead. Now i have talked to a few at Lordz thats making the Great War Commander. They have menchioned a few times about there AI doing a Action Reaction method for the AI. So it will decided how to act on your movements and if possible try to open new fronts. Of course i have heard this all to many times before, so no crossed fingers this time. either way its a great game, if you play agaist someone else, IF you get the chance. I mean AI just stinks, you can envade the UK and while your doing that britans is sending all its ships to protect convoys.hahahahaha makes me sick.
I have come to see these past few years that, game company's dont seem to give a good effort. Its like you have problems and faults with the game and you say" yea this good"ship it out!!. Maybe they dont TRY to make a good game because they know the fan based community will make the game become what it was meant to anyhow, and that works pretty much for any game.
